The Myth of Job “Jail”
Are you feeling stuck in a job right now, and telling yourself it has something to do with your age? Feeling like you’ve just got to stick it out at this point?
I was there too. With voices in my head that, I bet, sound a lot like yours.
It’s too late to make a career move now.
I know my way around this job. It’s just easier to stay.
Do I really have much to offer?
I’ve got seniority vacation time. No place else will give me that.
No one is looking for people my age.
I need to just be steady and responsible, get through it until retirement.
Now I’m going to say something else you’ve heard before : LIFE IS SHORT
It is too short for an OKAY experience, too short to enjoy yourself LATER, and too short for GOOD ENOUGH.
YES. The thought of trying to do something different brings up anxiety, and doubt and sounds like too much work. But what is the WORK you are putting in now? There IS a sacrifice either way. You might not think about it that way now, but 20 years forward – how will you look back at this decision?
Why don’t we trust ourselves to just MAKE things work out? That we can come out on the positive side of a big change? Instead, we find a zillion excuses of why something isn’t possible. We do it because there is SAFETY there - where we can believe that what happens in our life is about random circumstance. When it is truly ALL up to us
There are ALWAYS options. Usually, not one that is perfect (kind of like your current circumstance) but there ARE options. Accept that there is a downside to any choice. Pick the one that offers you the most, and don’t look back.
You don’t need to resign tomorrow. MAKE A PLAN. Decide what it is you would really like to do and start investigating what it would take. How could you make it work? Maybe it is something more inside of, or in addition to, the job you have. Something more that you should have the courage to ask for.
Just REFUSE to give in to the critic in your head and to accept what is. Stick with it, keep searching, until you make it happen.
Because it MATTERS and you are WORTH the effort.
