Image sourced from usatoday.com
Perhaps your career is feeling parallel to the movie, Groundhog Day, where you live the same day over and over again without all the joy and excitement you would like to experience.
If you are feeling stuck in your career, here are 5 practical tips of what you can do to overcome it.
Everyone feels stuck now and then in life. First, recognize you are not alone. The Ladders’ career advice is “It’s completely normal to feel stuck in your career, and instead of seeing it as a detour, change your mindset and see this as the perfect opportunity for you to grow”.
Second, perhaps you can ask for help to gain some inspiration, try something new, or build your resilience and realize this feeling will not last forever. But if the lingering feeling of dissatisfaction remains, let’s dig deeper. Indeed mentors job seekers to evaluate what the issue is. Do you need clarity on your role? Are you feeling you need a challenge? Do you need to update your skill set? Have your values changed somehow?
Third, identify your passion. Danielle Moss says, “Take a little time each day, or block out a few times a week to write what you do and don’t enjoy, both in work and in life.” See where the source of your passion lies and evaluate if you can make it part of your job. Here is a Forbes article about how leading from your strengths makes you a stronger leader.
Talk to your boss. This advice is bold and broad, and you need to assess the benefits and risks of talking to your boss based on what is happening in your workplace, your relationship with them, and weigh the pros and cons of having this conversation. Most bosses would be elated if their team talked to them openly about their dissatisfaction. Perhaps the roles are reversed, and you are the boss. Are you open to listening to what your team has to say?
You may opt to just be resilient. This is a word that keeps coming up in today’s workplace. Lifehack says it is “...the ability to tackle difficulties and setbacks, to bounce back, regroup, and to keep going.” A good book on this topic is Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
