Feeling Lost in Your Career? Here are Common Reasons Why
If you’re feeling a little lost in your career, I have two pieces of good news for you.
1) You aren’t alone!
2) You can fix this! With help, you can find your direction, take the steps you need to get there, and make a change that will bring you more fulfillment and joy in your career. It’s 100% possible!
Why Am I Feeling Lost in My Career?
Remember how we just said you aren’t alone in feeling lost? I think I should elaborate on that a bit and give you some reasons why you aren’t alone. Feeling lost in your career happens – a lot – and here are some of the reasons why.
Age 30 Transition
The Age 30 Transition is a real psychology thing – occurring between ages 28 and 40 – where our brains start reevaluating our choices and our priorities shift.
It makes sense too. Up until that point in life you’ve been hustling, learning, and acheiving, without a whole lot of time for reflection. But then around the Age 30 Transition you’re settling into your adult life and realizing that what you have spent years working for may not actually be what you want.
A little scary, huh? But it’s okay.
Mid-Career Crisis
The Age 30 Transition is closely related to a Mid-Career Crisis or Mid-Life Crisis but there are a couple of differences. One, this can happen at any time.
Essentially the Mid-Career Crisis is this. You made a choice at age 18 on what to study, where to start your career at 22 and now you’re thinking – huh, do I actually want to do this for another 30 years?
Laid Off
You may be feeling lost in your career because you were laid off from your job, and that’s a very common scenario.
We all know that 2020 was an incredibly hard year and 2021 is still not sunshine and rainbows. As a result, you may be resetting now because of circumstances outside of your control.
There are things you can control though – starting with spending time determining what you want next for your career so your next job will be the right fit for your goals.
Why You Need to Stop and Ask for Directions
Stopping and asking for help finding your career direction has to be the next step before going full steam ahead.
You might be thinking you need a change and need to get moving. But starting the car without directions is just going to lead you somewhere. You don’t want to go just somewhere, you want to go where you actually want to be.
Look around. You already are somewhere, and maybe in many ways that somewhere is great. You have people you love, food on the table, and maybe even an objectively great career from the outside looking in.
thanks for the words of encouragement we forget what is around us thanks
Hi Melody,
We appreciate your feedback and will definitely be addressing this in our upcoming articles.
Thank you for this article and the hope it is giving me and many others who are in this boat.
Kindly can you address the issue of going back to employment after maybe 3 years? If one is called for an interview and asked about the employment gap, how can one navigate this?
You are so welcome!
thank you i feel encouraged ,and im ready to soldier on
We are so sorry to hear. Try to remember you are exactly where you are meant to be and great things are ahead for you.
Actually, this is what I am going through right now! At times I feel lost. When I try to focus ahead, what I see is just darkness. It even makes me give up and think I’ve made bad decisions in my life. This article has opened my eyes a little bit.