I am working with a coaching client who has stayed in her job too long.

She knows it, but for different reasons, she chose to stay at a company where she has been undervalued, overworked, and not growing her career in any meaningful way.

But now the time has come.

She is done.

She hired me and we got to work.

We began by connecting her career dots. We looked at her current role, the things she was doing, the things she liked, and the things she’d like to stop doing. We looked at her gaps and what she could do to update her professional and technical skills so she could be more marketable.

We discussed her ideal role and compensation.

We made sure her resume and LinkedIn profile were ready to go.

We discussed the basic process for the job search given she hadn’t been on one for several years and was feeling nervous.

All this was pretty straightforward until we started to talk about the location. This is when she pushed back.

Her current company was right near her dry cleaners. She often went

right down the street to Costco to get the things she needed. She loved the bank branch by her work (they know her there) and she was averse to finding all new restaurants to eat at for lunch. These things worked really well for her now.

They were not the problem. Just where she worked was, so she did not want to change them up.

This meant that she was only interested in hybrid or onsite roles within 5 miles of her current company.

She did not want to change her routine.

I get it. Changing jobs, even though she was choosing it, was change enough. To also have to think about changing workout locations, the Costco she visited, finding a new dry cleaner, or different restaurants was all too overwhelming.

I knew that if we could find something within a 5-mile radius of where she currently worked, that would be ideal.

I also knew that because she wasn’t willing to adjust her thinking about the location, she was significantly limiting her options and opportunities.

🍳 This choice could have her moving from the frying pan to the fire. 🔥

She could very likely accept a role that was not as challenging, paying her under-market and limiting her career growth options all because she loves her dry cleaner!

Coaches sometimes have to say the hard things.

This time I asked her how she would feel if she could find a job that required her to find a new dry cleaner but was making $10,000 more in exchange.

Or, what if the extra 10 miles and 15 minutes put her in a company that was doing work that fully aligned with her values and had a leadership team that led from a place of collaboration versus command and control?

Would a bit of discomfort not be worth it?

Of course, the answer was yes.

Her options just tripled.

PLUS+++ One of the things I have her doing for homework is trying out restaurants in different towns in the opposite direction of her current company. (Yep! That’s the kind of homework I give my clients!).

The big lesson is that when you are faced with lots of changes at once don’t let that keep you from thinking bigger.

Remind yourself that have been through changes before and, though they were uncomfortable at first, eventually you figure it out

You will take the changes as they come and know you can find a new dry cleaner and the best-kept secret of a restaurant that is now your weekly go-to!

Are you done with your current career situation but feeling overwhelmed by all the changes you imagine in front of you? I have the perfect antidote to this. Schedule a call with me. Do not stay where you are undervalued, burnt out and stuck any longer! Here is the link to schedule.