I work with an exceptional woman. Smart, ambitious, and successful - by every external measure. Not that she feels like it, though. Ask her to list her achievements, and she will struggle to name more than a few.

Career has been important in her life. Very important, often even a central piece. After being great at school, the career was the next obvious thing to prove herself in. And has she proven herself! And then, at some point, something started feeling off. At first fairly easy to ignore, then no longer so. Perhaps something has changed in her life: a family has been started, a child or children have arrived, or another type of significant life event has happened. Something that makes her - or eventually forces her - to stop and reconsider. It is scary, though, somewhat like Pandora's box. It can feel that if she starts asking questions - the questions she successfully avoided asking and answering for a long time (usually by keeping very busy) - it will never stop. And then, there might be no going back.

Back to the bubble, back to "everything is fine". But it is scary to even think about it, isn't it? That job, that carefully constructed career, it took so much effort, time, and work to build. And as a woman in a rather male-dominated industry, often even more so. Who is crazy enough to "throw it all away"? And to "start from zero"? No, it is not just about money, even though, realistically, what other jobs and industries can even pay as much? And city life is not cheap. And if children are in the equation? The cost grows exponentially.

But it is not just fear of losing income - she is also afraid of losing the structure, the clear path, the system she understands. Without it, how does she even measure whether she is doing well? It is the security and safety of that logo and the brand name. It is the clarity of a career path, a pre-determined, standard, and recognized career path, of course. Not crucial, but important nevertheless. The system she understands, the familiar game. True, it might not perfectly fit anymore, or perhaps not at all. But it is the known, and everything out there is the unknown, isn't it?

The battle of identities, the old and the new one, not formed yet. The shoulds, the expectations - both from others and hers from herself. And the latter have always been the highest. And that inner critic, the harshest. All those unquestioned patterns running the show in the background, while she is thinking that she is in full control of her life and career…Careers that often chose her in the first place. And then she stayed. Yet another year, yet another bonus. Because what keeps her goes beyond the obvious, the facts; it is connected to her own definition of success, work, achievement - and of herself and who she is. And for a long time, perhaps since she started working, her job title has been telling the world who she is.

Who could she be without that title and formal recognition? What could she become and what could she create? And what would life and work look like if the entire script was written on her own terms?

What if it was possible to redesign her own career, only this time around her own life and the specific season of life she is in - and according to what that season needs from her and her own priorities?

Because there is always a price. Missed precious moments and bedtimes, the time that goes by so quickly (even if it can seem very slow at times!). A lack of time for dear people in her life because she prioritized work and getting things done, or perhaps that right relationship she is looking for but which keeps escaping her while she pretends that everything else matters more. And the list goes on - because there is always a price for every choice and every decision, or lack of it. ‍

If you recognised yourself here, let's talk.

Book a conversation: https://calendly.com/ivana-career-navigator/intro-conversation or email me: ivana@career-navigator.org