EP26: The REAL reason you haven't made the career change you want
Welcome to the first Q&A episode of Regenerative Worklife! This week, we’re diving into a powerful listener question: Why do we resist change, even when we know we want it? Why do we choose to stay in unfulfilling jobs instead of pursuing our dreams?
Navigating out of the corporate world is complex! It takes courage to transition into regenerative work that brings life to you and those around you. We are forging new paths, challenging deep conditioning, and often doing deep personal work along the way.
In this episode, you’ll learn the difference between the practical concerns you think are holding you back—like money worries and doubts about your skills—and the deeper resistance that lies underneath. Resistance rooted in deeply held, often unconscious beliefs about your worth and value.
As always, this episode offers practical ways to start shifting that resistance and taking action toward the purposeful work you truly want. If you’re delaying meaningful career change, convincing yourself to wait just a little longer, or feeling trapped by self-doubt, this conversation is for you.
Have a question you'd like me to tackle in a future episode? Leave me a quick voicemail here: https://www.speakpipe.com/RegenerativeWorklife
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Full Transcript
Alisa: Welcome to Regenerative Worklife. I'm Alisa Murphy, and if you're ready to make the leap out of your corporate job and into regenerative work, this is the podcast for you.
Today is my first Q&A episode. I decided to introduce these because navigating out of the corporate world and towards regenerative work that brings life to you and those around you can be complex. We are forging new paths here, challenging deep conditioning, and often needing to do deep personal work along the way.
You'll hear more about that in my answer to today's question. So I wanted to make sure that I'm answering the tricky questions that come up for you as you make this transition. If you have a question about any aspect of quitting corporate and pursuing regenerative work, follow the link in the show notes.
You just leave me a short voicemail, it takes a couple of minutes, and I will do my best to answer your question here on the podcast. So let's get back to this listener's question. Why are we so resistant to change sometimes? Why does it feel so hard to take action towards what we really want? And what's really holding us back?
This is such a great question because it really gets to the root of what we're dealing with when we choose to make dramatic shifts in our careers. Particularly, when we're making those shifts through a regenerative lens, which means that we are stepping outside of the dominant system and creating whole new ways of working.
The first thing to say is that resistance to change is essentially fear. And that fear is there to keep us safe. The fact is, our fear feels safer staying stuck in a job that you know doesn't align with your values, you know isn't allowing you to make a real contribution, you know doesn't allow you to live in a way that feels natural to you.
Even if you hate that job, even if it's sucking the life out of you, your fear would often rather have you stay there because it feels safer there than stepping into the unknown. So the first thing we need to do is to pay a little attention to our fear. Let it know that we know that it's just trying to protect us and assure your fear that you've got this.
The author Elizabeth Gilbert, who I often find myself quoting, talks about accepting the fact that fear is coming along for the road trip, but also never letting fear get into the driving seat. So it can be in the car, that's fine, but it's not getting its hands on the map, it's not going to be choosing the playlist, and it is absolutely not putting its hands on the steering wheel.
Now if the idea of chatting with your fear feels a little bit too existential at this point, just try to notice when fear is showing up for you. When you find yourself thinking, I know I made a plan to quit this quarter but I'll just wait for one more bonus payout before I do because I've been looking at the landscape and things are really feeling quite unstable.
Ask yourself, whose voice is that? Could it be your fear talking? And what decision might you make next if your fear wasn't in charge? Okay, so we've acknowledged that fear plays a strong part in resisting the change we want. What else is holding us back? There are two layers to this. Firstly, surface challenges, and secondly, deeper challenges.
Surface challenges are things like believing that you don't have the right skills or experience, which is probably the most common thing I hear from people who are interested in doing this work. Another one might be money, of course. It's a really common reason that people feel that they aren't able to make these changes.
Now, while these kind of challenges do require a mindset shift, for example, your unusual mix of skills that you feel awkward about might actually be the key to finding a unique niche in the world of regenerative work, there are also practical steps that you can take to solve these challenges and feel empowered to move forward.
If you are struggling with either of the issues that I mentioned previously, I can recommend Episode 8, How to Connect Your Skills and Experience to Regenerative Work, which may help you to realise that you're more qualified than you think. And if money feels like the biggest blocker for you, listen to Episode 10, Three Easy Ways to Make Money While Pursuing Your Regenerative Career.
Now you will have heard me refer to these as surface reasons, and that's not because they aren't hard or important, but because they often act as a distraction or a disguise to the real reasons that you're resisting the career change that you dream of. When we get past the practicalities, what we find is deeply held, often lifelong beliefs that are holding us back.
And when we start to take action and realize that those surface barriers were not as immovable as we thought, we often discover that the really difficult stuff is what lies beneath. These deep-rooted reasons or beliefs are actually pretty universal. See if any of these resonate with you: I'm not good enough. I'm afraid that I'll try and fail. I don't deserve success. I'm not worthy. Good things don't happen to people like me.
Somewhere, underneath all of those reasons that feel sensible and rational to us, there are deep, often painful thoughts that are the real reason that we're not making the changes we long for.
But here's the good news. Awareness makes all the difference. When we get really stuck, it's probably because we don't know that those underlying thoughts are there. Or maybe we do know, but we desperately want to avoid having to look at them and deal with them. But if we can be brave enough to take an honest look at what's there, recognize those thoughts, and be aware when they are popping up and trying to guide our decisions, something really freeing happens.
The awareness of the thoughts creates a separation from them. And in that space between us and our thoughts, we find new confidence, new freedom, and the power to do things differently. Awareness is how we get unstuck, overcome our resistance, and finally make the changes in our careers that give us the work life we've been dreaming of.
So let's summarize. First of all, you are right, dear listener, resistance to change is natural to a degree. Change tends to trigger fear and our fear is there to keep us safe. So start by noticing when fear is popping up for you and remind it that you are in the driving seat and that you have got this.
Next, take action on those surface reasons that you believe are what's holding you back. My podcast is full of actionable steps that you can take, and every time you take a small step forward, you are wiggling yourself a little looser from that resistance. Finally, be brave and take a look at the deeper beliefs that may be the root cause of your resistance.
A question I like to ask is, if I could wave a magic wand and guarantee you that money wouldn't be an issue, is there still something that would hold you back? Work that magic on each practical or rational reason until you get to the juicy stuff underneath. And please remember, you don't have to take this too seriously.
We all have these unhelpful, deeply held beliefs. Perhaps it's just part of being human. If you can find it in yourself to smile at them, to even laugh gently at yourself, so much the better. The most important thing is to be aware that those thoughts are there and recognize when they are piping up and trying to control you.
Often, just being aware can bring you the space and freedom you need to do things differently. The last thing I want to say to this listener, and to anyone listening who might be feeling frustrated with themselves for not making the change they really want to see, is that my bonus tip, if you like, is please be kind to yourself.
This isn't easy work. Stepping out of the perceived safety of a corporate job and forging your own path into a regenerative work life that brings you joy and satisfaction, that's exciting, liberating, joyful work, but it's also really scary at times and can require you to do some challenging inner work.
Take it one action at a time and celebrate each step forward. And don't underestimate how much it can help to have a trusted guide by your side.
I offer six months, vision to reality, career transition mentorship. In that program, you and I work together through every stage of this transition, from finding the courage to quit, developing your vision for your future work life, identifying a viable niche, and every practical step of building a regenerative offering or business.And working with your limiting beliefs is one of the most powerful components of that work.
If you want to learn more about working with me to build the regenerative work life of your dreams, visit regenerativeworklife.com and click on VIP Mentoring. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you've enjoyed this first Q&A episode. Don't forget. You can ask your question. It only takes a couple of minutes and you can find that link as well as the links to my mentoring program.
Thank you for joining me today. I hope you've enjoyed this first Q&A episode. Don't forget. You can ask your question. It only takes a couple of minutes and you can find that link as well as the links to my mentoring program and podcasts I've mentioned today in the show notes.
Feel the resistance and make change happen anyway. I'll see you back here next Wednesday.
