Inertia and its forms
When it comes down to it, many of the issues people face when transitioning careers can be summed up as career change fears, the key word being…
F-E-A-R
Well, that’s what’s at the bottom of the well! All your demons, that you’ve been running from!
As you move towards what you truly want, expressing your soul, these demons awaken, start to stir and show their face!
One of the biggest challenges in transitioning careers is confronting the limits you have about yourself or life.
It inevitably means you must grow beyond who you currently believe yourself to be. You have to upgrade your view of self, to do something new. And I don’t just mean your skills.
This is a point that many people neglect when they try to create more meaningful work for themselves.
Their dissatisfaction with the current work/role often indicates that they’ve outgrown that work, or it never was a fit with who they truly are or are becoming.
They are in the process of embracing the person they truly are to step into their next mission.
Work that reflects your True Self
If you aspire to have a purpose-driven career that truly expresses all you can be and do, then know that this is a profound journey that never ends!
In a sense, it is a spiritual path, of listening to the deepest part of you, aligning your career with your soul’s purpose, and do the work you came to do.
When people set out on the journey of creating a career with meaning, they often meet with internal resistance, in the form of career change fears. These are all sorts of limitations which stop them in their tracks. They don’t get very far because of this lack of awareness and clearing of obstacles.
I like to use a sailing analogy to describe the process which helps clients discover and move towards the work they long to do.
One of the pillars of the framework I use with clients is to work with any Inertia (oftentimes unconscious) the client may have to moving towards what they want.
Transitioning careers is a little like taking a boat from one island (your current work) to another (the work you long to do). Sometimes you don’t even have the new island in sight before you have to muster the courage to explore beyond your safe haven.
The key thing is unless you put your sails up and pull up the anchor you won’t get very far!
Recognising that the process is as much internal as external is an important insight. Since, unless you work through any blocks to moving to the new lands you dream of, you’ll literally be stuck in port, wistfully looking to the horizon!
Career Change Fears
I’ve found that career change fears can take different forms, here’s a list of some of them:
Fear of failure – this is one of the most common ones. It takes the form of worrying about what might happen if we fail. We believe that we only get one shot at it and that we will be ruined if what we want to do, doesn’t work out. Would we be able to handle it? I believe we are far more resilient than that. From my own experience, some of my worst nightmares have been the greatest gifts, but moving through them requires growth.
Fear of success – if you ask most people, they’d probably say that they don’t have any fear of success. But success can be as destabilizing as failure. Are you ready to rock the boat, take on new responsibilities, reinvent your relationships, and step into new roles and unfamiliar environments?
Impostor syndrome – if you succeed, you may have the fear of being exposed as a fraud. This is often related to issues of self-image and self-work. Perhaps deep down you feel you don’t truly deserve your achievements, so this part will try to keep you ‘safe’.
Fear of judgement and criticism – Achieving more success can lead to being more visible which can open you to scrutiny or criticism. The fear of being judged harshly may outweigh the benefits of success.
Most of these fears have to do with who we believe ourselves to be, and threats to that false sense of identity. To do work aligned to our soul, we need to see ourselves as that and operate from that level of Self.
The Unknown and Releasing Control
Fear of the unknown is something that often keeps people spinning around in their heads looking for certainty without taking any action. It’s related to control. They want everything figured out before they’ll take a step.
I have bad news for you! The process of doing your greatest, most fulfilling work, simply doesn’t work like that!
Since you’re discovering a new identity, the old one will have to cut some slack.
Making any significant career transition requires a certain level of comfort with the unknown. To create a career with meaning, you’ll have to be willing to release some control. If you do, you’re in for an amazing ride.
However, for the mind to let go, it often needs something else that it can relinquish this control to.
Beyond Rational Intelligence
We have a greater intelligence that is far more than what we think! I remember times in my life, when my body was literally screaming out at me, “Stop thinking like this”!
Many people ignore what their bodies and emotions are telling them. With the loss of the ability to pay attention to the body and emotions, they become hyper-rational. They start to lose touch with their authentic needs and desires, and so begin to operate in a rather robotic way, which sucks the ‘life and soul’ out of them!
Learning to include these other intelligences can be a way out of the perpetual loop of rational thinking, which is somehow unable to present a new pathway. We can learn to Navigate (the 3rd pillar in my framework) using our intuitive knowing to guide our path, making decisions from a deeper and truer Self.
Self-knowledge, a sense of Direction
Another block that a lot of people face is not so much a career change fear but the fact that they don’t really know themselves. They lack self-knowledge. Without this clarity, they struggle to find work that reflects their true self because they lack clarity about what truly matters to them.
They are often conditioned by people around them or the values of their environment, conforming to external expectations that they’ve gathered.
Gaining a little clarity about what’s important to them from the depth of their being can give them the courage and conviction to take action and move in the right direction, even in the face of uncertainty.
In my framework, this aspect builds a heading made up of what matters to the client about their work and would make them happy. I call this the compass Direction.
Recovering Energy Drain
Often when working with clients, I have found that the very work situation that they are trying to move away from is keeping them stuck. The way they engage with it drains their energy so much that they are not in a state to even begin creating something else.
So, they are trapped. They can’t leave their work, and they’re unable to summon the energy to make a change.
How is your current work draining you?
What is your part in that?
What is needed is a way to recover this energy drain, bringing the person into better shape to make a transition. You might ask, how can you deal with such an intractable situation? Since, perhaps for financial reasons, they cannot just quit. They need to shift how they are relating to their current work, and recover some of the energy drain. Ironically, when they start to change that relationship, they’re able to create work they love.
They might say that their work is making them depressed, however, it’s not their work, but their thinking about their work which is making them depressed.
There is a difference, and seeing it, helps them start to shift. Most of their misery comes from their thinking about their work, and hence how they feel, how they show up, and the opportunities that present themselves.
How are you thinking about your work?
What is the effect of that thinking on you?
Procrastination is just a symptom
I want to say a word about Procrastination. It’s something that many people struggle with, especially in the process of changing careers. They often don’t recognise it as a career change fear.
Note that procrastination in career transitions is just a symptom of something deeper. Unless you get to the bottom of what’s causing it, you’ll find it hard to get moving. No matter how hard you try to motivate yourself with pep talks and cajoling.
In addition to it being one of the fears mentioned so far, it could be that there is a misalignment with the why, what or how of what you’re trying to get yourself to do.
To exemplify, perhaps your work lacks meaning to your soul and your deeper intrinsic desires and motivation. Or maybe, the way you’re trying to achieve something is forced, or you simply don’t enjoy the process, or you’re not using the latent gifts of who you truly are or are becoming.
Put simply, in some way or other your ‘doing’ is not aligned with your ‘being’.
Conscious and Unconscious Blocks
Career change fears or blocks can be conscious or unconscious and can be expressed within our being in different aspects of our experience:
- In the form of habitual thoughts and beliefs, in our minds.
- Through tensions, and illnesses, in our bodies.
- In our reactions to the world, through our emotions and emotional landscape.
- Through habitual actions, such as distraction, addictions etc., in our behaviour.
Although each aspect is intimately connected to the others, what is also useful to know is that we are not the content! We are not the thoughts, the sensations, the emotions, or the behaviours we observe. We are the consciousness that holds and contains these expressions and as such we have the power to change them.
To work with and move through our career change fears, we can start with the content in each of these levels of our experience. We can witness, accept and lovingly allow them to transform into more useful thoughts, sensations, emotions and actions.
Working with our Blocks
Body
Release tensions, breathe better, change your posture, and get the energy moving. The body is the ground/soil in which your thoughts and emotions grow. If you doubt this, observe your thinking when you have a splitting headache or are in some other kind of physical pain.
There are a multitude of ways, too numerous to mention, that you can use to work on the level of the body, from exercise, and yoga to physical therapies. The key is to begin to pay attention and listen.
Emotions
Our emotions also have a message for us. They’re are not something to be swept under the carpet, or driven unconscious into the body. Many of us, need to learn to feel our feelings and to accept them. As we do this, we contact our true essence and its wisdom. By releasing the stuck unconscious emotions, we begin to interact with the world with a different vibe.
We might do some of this work with professional help. What’s important is that we start to bring vulnerability and honesty into our relationships. We’ve been stuck in our heads for far too long.
Thoughts
What we think and what we feel are intimately connected. Each thought has a direct impact on our body and emotions. Repeated thoughts create beliefs and beliefs generate thoughts. We can bring awareness to our mental life, and through seeing what we’re thinking, choose more life-affirming thoughts. Tools such as Meditation and Mindfulness help us break the cycle of unconscious thinking.
Actions
We cannot separate our behaviour from the 3 levels of our experience above. However, we can work outside in by bringing our attention to our behaviour, stepping beyond our comfort zone, trying new things, and forming new healthier habits which bring us into deeper connection with ourselves and increase our vitality. Undoubtedly, our bodies, emotions and thoughts will have to change in the process.
This is just a brief overview. In this pillar of Inertia, I help clients find their unique path to release their limitations.
Self – the Sage Perspective
There is a wise and compassionate part of you, which has the answers — the Self— the enlightened version of you. To this aspect, everything that happens in your life is perfect and an opportunity for you to realise your highest potential.
We often look at circumstances, feelings and thoughts as ‘bad’, but equally they are opportunities for embracing our deeper more enlightened identity.
It can be useful to reflect on our difficulties, e.g. illness, physical pain/discomfort, conflictive situations and emotional pain.
What are they telling you?
How are you not listening?
What are they telling me about the work I’m here to do?
A way to step into and inhabit this Self is to first accept whatever is occurring in our experience. This opens a space to our Self and its wisdom.
You could ask the powerful question:
What is the gift or opportunity in this?
This is the sage perspective. If you were certain that this part of you exists, how would make room for it in your life?
The Journey Ahead
Transitioning to work that truly aligns with your soul is not just about finding the right job or career path—it’s about becoming that person.
It’s a journey of growth, discovery, and transformation which involves releasing the limitations that have kept you from it until now. Along the way, you’ll uncover the you that you’ve forgotten, ignored, or never even realized was there and learn to trust yourself and the deeper intelligence that’s always been guiding you.
In my framework for career transitions, one of the key pillars is working with Inertia. As you begin to address the blocks—whether physical, emotional, mental, or behavioural—you’ll notice shifts, not just in your career but in every area of your life. This is the beauty of approaching career transition with a holistic lens. You’re not just changing what you do; you’re evolving into the truest version of yourself.
This path isn’t always linear, but you can address career change fears. Every small shift or step brings you closer to work that fulfils and empowers you.
It does help to have a structured way to make progress and/or a guide. If you’re truly looking to embark on the journey of aligning your career with your soul purpose, I’d be honoured to accompany you on the ride.
You don’t need all the answers to begin—you just need the courage to take the first step!
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
