Is it really that you need to change jobs or is it just an issue of balance?
My client Nicole was 100% certain she needed to pull back in her career.
“If there are never going to be enough hours in the day, then I guess I will just need to agree to do less and go down to part-time work.”
As it turns out, she was wrong.
She didn’t need to change jobs or pullback in her career at all…she just needed balance.
It can be confusing to figure out – is it the job? Or is it just me?
But it is an important question to answer, because if it’s the job…go and find another.
If it’s you…then your unhappiness will follow you to the next job…and the next…and the next.
For Nicole, she wasn’t happy in her job because she wasn’t really happy with herself. She didn’t believe in herself. She saw herself as an imposter and was just waiting for someone to call her out and say “how did YOU get this job?” (said with a very snarky mean-girl tone).
👎🏽And because she never felt good enough, she became a perfectionist & people pleaser.
👎🏽She felt the overwhelming need to be prepared for every presentation and meeting.
👎🏽She needed to respond to every email as soon as she could.
👎🏽She needed to be available to her team after hours to make sure they felt supported.
👎🏽Nicole never left her desk at the end of the day feeling energized and excited about what she did.
Her life was very unbalanced.
Her brain was only tuned into the radio station that said: do more, be more, keep going, you’re behind & you’re not enough.
The radio station was blaring at home, at work, at church…literally everywhere.
So, of course, if she went down to part-time or pulled back in her career, the station would just get louder…it would say, see, I told you that you couldn’t handle it.
In coaching, she learned how to re-tune the radio station to something more useful.
A station that focused on what she did well.
And it shifted everything for her.
When she stopped listening to the imposter syndrome station, she was able to think clearly.
🔥She was able to stop and see how good she was at her job and why she deserved it.
🔥She was able to set up boundaries and stop working at night.
🔥She was able to take full weekends off and tell people “no” when she didn’t have time to do something.
And guess what? She started feeling happy in her job.
She shares her story and the mindset shift it took for her to get out of imposter syndrome and start believing in herself on the Ambitious and Balanced Working Moms Podcast, episode 35. Click here to listen.
If you are wondering if changing jobs is really the answer for you, I want you to answer the following questions:
If you felt balanced in this job, would you stay? Why or why not?
What percentage of the time/energy you spend outside your standard hours is required in the job? (meaning every other person in the job would be over-working like you) and what percentage is you (your own need to “get it right”, not being able to say no, etc…)?
What “overworking tendencies” are going to follow you into the next job?
What makes you truly great at your job?
Think of a time you felt energized in your job. How can you find more opportunities to do more of that?
When you’re done, take a step back and ask yourself, what do my answers tell me? Is it me? Or is the job?
