The Courage to Jump: Finding Direction When It’s Time to Change

Why following your joy is the ultimate career strategy.

This week, a chance conversation with an old work colleague got me thinking about the risks and rewards of changing jobs and heading in a different direction in life. I am also mentoring someone who is currently having the difficult conversations with her long-time employer about her “good exit” plan. Whilst the latter has a destination in mind with a new social enterprise on the horizon, the former colleague felt a bit directionless and lacking in energy.

It chimed with my own experience of exiting Dementia Adventure, in that the new path forward does not always become clear straight away after exiting an organisation or changing course. Also, it can take time to formally acknowledge your inner voice that has been telling you it is time to leave and move on. In my own experience and that of leaders I support, often this voice begins to gently express itself at least a year before people take action and actually exit.

But it can take courage and bravery to listen to and act upon the feeling which we know to be right, deep down, and finally take the leap. Particularly with the practicalities of family finances and the general volatility and uncertainty associated with working lives now.

This is a paradox so many of us face. We often stay too long in roles we have outgrown because the familiar discomfort is less frightening than the unknown. And when we do finally jump, the sudden lack of structure can leave us feeling completely adrift.

I have had a wide variety of jobs over the years, including nursing auxiliary, youth worker, tour leader, project manager, open water swim coach, and CEO, to name just a few. If I was to create a full CV with all my previous roles, you would see a very long, varied list of job titles. I have been a founder, an executive, a non-executive, a board member, and now a mentor.

But a CV only tells you what I did, not why I transitioned from one to the next. Some of those transitions were logical steps up a ladder; others were more practical and pragmatic. For example, I stopped tour leading to settle down and marry Lucy. The CEO to Mentor and NED transition was a well-trodden path which made sense to me. But the most important leap I ever took wasn’t driven by a sensible career strategy. It was driven by a need for a profound quality of life change.

Moving to the Scottish Highlands to build a portfolio career was a massive risk. I stepped away from the traditional security of full-time executive leadership at the charity I founded and had led for ten years. But I did it because I realised my compass had shifted. I no longer wanted my life to fit around my work; I wanted my work to fit around my life, specifically, a life deeply rooted in the seasons and the outdoors. I had spent years researching and writing about “green exercise” and “green care,” and I wanted to be “living the life I love” in the large land and seascapes of the Highlands of Scotland.

It is common to lose our direction after leaving a job; the natural instinct is to immediately start scrolling through job boards, looking for a title that matches our old one, or perhaps turn to that all-encompassing world of consultancy. We look for a new box to fit ourselves into, partly because we underestimate how much of our identity was wrapped up in our previous job title and responsibilities.

But what if, instead, we used joy as our compass in making a work transition?

When you don’t know what to do next, following your energy is a good strategy. When I was leaving Dementia Adventure, I created a vision board and a five-year strategy for the life I wanted to create in the Highlands. I started capturing quotes that fitted with this vision.

Here are a few of those quotes I drew strength from, which might help you if you are currently directionless after an exit, or are perhaps considering exiting your organisation (can’t remember where they all came from now so credits are listed where I know them):

“Eventually, you’ll end up where you need to be, with who you’re meant to be with and doing what you should be doing.”

“Your next chapter is going to be amazing.”

“There is wonderful joy ahead! Even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.” – 1 Peter 1:6

“When it is time for a new job, the perfect position will present itself easily.”

“The key to happiness is doing more of what you like to do.” – Billy Connolly

“Say to yourself… what would you be, then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus

And finally, perhaps most importantly for me:

“Pay attention to the things you are naturally drawn to, because they are often connected to your path, passion and purpose in life.”

So, taking the last quote as inspiration, you can ask yourself more related questions:

• What are the subjects you choose to read about on a Sunday morning, or late at night?

• What could you talk about for thirty minutes straight without any preparation?

• What are the problems you naturally enjoy solving for people?

• What environments make you feel most alive?

• Where were you and what were you doing the last time you felt full of joy?

For me, it is sailing and swimming in the sea at Nairn, and the deep satisfaction of mentoring others and inspiring positive action. The career opportunities simply formed around those passions once I gave them the space to breathe. For example, I am now a boat skipper on Loch Ness as a part-time role in my portfolio of roles. It is something I couldn’t have foreseen doing when I left Dementia Adventure, but something I was drawn to once I started asking myself, what I would love to do.

Following my energy led me to the helm with Loch Ness Cruises, a role a traditional CV would never have predicted.

Taking a risk on a new opportunity is always daunting. But the biggest risk of all is spending the best years of our potentially 100-year lives in a role that drains our spirit, simply because we forgot we had the power to choose something else.

If you are at a crossroads right now, I will leave you with three questions to ponder:

• What are you tolerating right now that you know, deep down, it is time to leave behind?

• If you didn’t have to worry about a job title, what activities naturally bring you the most joy and energy?

• What is one small risk you could take this week to move closer to that joy?

Let me know your thoughts, or share your own career leap stories, in the comments below.

Sail on, friends.

Neil