I talk to dozens of very smart accomplished people who are deeply unhappy. These are the people announcing promotions on LinkedIn. They might be the people you envy, who seem to have won the lottery. And when it’s just us talking, they tell me how helpless and frustrated and overwhelmed they feel.
I’ve noticed a pattern that’s very common, and I believe it afflicts smart, strategic, high-achieving people more than others because some of the very traits that have made them effective professionally. In other words, the same strengths that you’ve built and been rewarded for turn into invisible walls that trap you when you’re considering a change.
Here’s a ~4 minute video showing what I see most often.
What breaks my heart about this is not just that it is unhelpful and unproductive.
It’s that it can actually do damage. You convince yourself that you are trapped. You blast yourself for overthinking instead of acting.
Or you panic-apply, or rage-apply, for something you’re not even all that interested in, just to do something. And when you get rejected or ghosted from that you feel even worse.
I don’t want that for you. There’s a better way.
I believe there are 5 distinct steps along the path to finding work that fits. This is my CHART Framework. Each step has a set of clear, definable tasks. When you tackle each one in order, you’re much more likely to feel confident, to reduce risk, and to recover your optimism and your conviction.
