This one comes up constantly in my coaching conversations — usually from clients who are exhausted from trying everything and getting nowhere. The Busy Work of Career Change... New job applications. New industries. New qualifications, even. All in the hope that something will finally click. But without real clarity on where you're actually headed, you can end up busy without ever being closer. Movement can feel productive - but movement isn't the same as direction.

I am an example of this trade-up. It wasn't graceful. It wasn't planned. It hit me twice, at two very different points in my life. The First Hit The first time was before I fell pregnant with my first child. I experienced severe burnout — the genuine, stop-you-in-your-tracks kind. It forced me to stop and really question what mattered. (I talk more about this in Episode 1 of The Inkling Effect Podcast, if you're curious.) With enforced time off to think, I started asking myse

I didn't set out to become an entrepreneur. Honestly, for most of my second career change, I was just trying to survive it. But looking back, there were clues. Things I kept gravitating toward. Ways I kept showing up — even when I was terrified. And it turns out those weren't random quirks; they were strengths doing what strengths do.