Navigating Change Limbo.

If you know you need to change but can’t, start here.

Sometimes you know you need to change, but …

You need to put up a fight before you accept it. Even if the change would actually benefit your life if you just accepted it and moved on.

Why?

This is change limbo.

Change limbo is when you know change is needed but you just can’t get into it.

You just can’t stop resisting. Complaining about it also becomes addictive, giving you a sense of control.

Tricking your change-resistance machine.

In change limbo, your brain is a change-resistance-machine. Because of this, you have to be a bit sneaky, to trick it to do something you know is good for you.

One way you can blitz change limbo is by making the actual change itself a footnote in your bigger career.

To zoom out to look at the bigger picture of your career.

Zooming out of change limbo.

Instead of trying to be cool with a change, today’s email is about giving you the opportunity to try seeing it as a footnote in your own story.

Here’s an exercise we teach in our Navigating Yourself Through Change workshop for people who find themselves wanting to feel more positive about what’s ahead. Give it a go, see what you notice.

• What role do you want your career to play in your lifetime?

Do you want to contribute in a meaningful way to a cause you’re passionate about? Do you want it to facilitate mortgage payments? Is work an intellectually stimulating exercise? Write it down.

• How does this current job facilitate that need?

Does it pay the bills? Does it have you learning new things? Does it help a group you’re passionate about? Write it down.

• What doesn’t your current job give you that you’d like more of? 

Do you crave more intellectual stimulation? Do you want meatier projects? Nicer colleagues? Write it down.

• What’s generally working well at your current job?

What are the least problematic parts of your job? What never changes or gives you any drama? Write it down.

• What’s not working so well at your current job?

Is the workload too much/too little? Are leads few and far between? Write it down.

Reviewing the above list, answer the following:

• One thing you want more of in your career.

• One thing you want to be different.

• Which of those things are within your control.

• One thing you can do about what’s within your control.

When you look at this list, what do you think?

That these questions help most people move through change limbo. Does it help you?

Forcing yourself to get clear on the life you want helps you see how you can leverage any change, even ones you don’t like at first, in service of that.