Ever heard the phrase “what you resist persists”? The more you resist making changes in your life and more specifically your career, the more stuck you will feel.

We often use the term 'stuck' as a metaphor to describe how we feel when we are not sure what direction to take. Of course you are not really stuck, you are not a tree rooted to the ground, you are a fully functioning human being, with the ability to think, see, read, write and take action. If you think you have lost your direction you will not find it between EastEnders and Coronation Street or on the beer mat at your local bar! You must take action, and you must make time and space for discovery, awareness and planning your future career. Whatever action you take, it will get you moving in some direction. Often people are afraid of making the wrong decisions and taking the wrong action; how can you know it’s the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ action until you take it? How can you know that the one tiny step you are resisting taking, will not lead you along the path to a purposeful and fulfilling career?

Imagine yourself on a country walk, or even a mountain one, and you come to a section with 4 or 5 different pathways, you don’t have a map so you have to make a decision based on what you can see, sense and feel and any knowledge you may already have. How will you decide which path to take? If you feel stuck, directionless and refuse to make a decision then you’ll likely still be there when the winter snow falls and buries you under 6 feet of the icy cold stuff – and then you really will be stuck!

If you hate your job, your boss, the company or the responsibilities you have, you are the only person that can do anything about it. Your boss will continue to behave in the same way and your job will likely remain the same unless you take action to change it. I worked with someone at the beginning of the year who had been ‘waiting’ for redundancy. The redundancy had not come and so she had taken some action towards looking for a new job. She came to me again seven months later, feeling ‘stuck’ and I discovered, still ‘waiting’ for redundancy! I asked her how long she was going to wait – 6 months, 6 years or maybe 20?! So then she said, “Well, what if I find another job and then a few months later I find out that my old colleagues have been offered the redundancy I had been waiting for”? Yes, what if? What if they do and what if they don’t? What if your new job potentially offers you a greater package in the next five years than the whole redundancy package AND what if you are also doing work that fulfils you in and environment that you love, that energises you and utilises your skills and talents?

Hmmmmmmm What if? There are no guarantees in life and you can only move forward by taking action, exploring, researching, asking helpful questions and being willing to make changes in your life and in your own behaviour. Of course it's not necessarily easy but from personal experience, I would say it's definitely worth it!

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