You are in your career for the long haul, and the mid-career point is an opportunity for growth and self-care. It’s normal to wrestle with feelings of unmet expectations, missed opportunities, and paths not taken as you reach the midpoint of your career. Use this period to reevaluate your priorities, draw from your experiences, and carve out a path that aligns with your goals for the future.

Take a long, hard look at your work environment — the job role, expectations, culture, leadership, coworkers, growth opportunities and so on. Consider how you are feeling about those elements today, and try to remember how you felt about them before the mid-career fatigue set in.

  • What’s different now?
  • What’s changed?
  • Looking back on your career, what element allowed you to express your best self?
  • What aspects of your work gave you genuine enjoyment but have dwindled over the years?

Embarking on this “editing” process might seem overwhelming, even impossible, amid the busyness of life. But the perspective gained has immense benefits. When answering the above questions:

Tap into your purpose. Shift from a career shaped by external forces and others’ agendas to one driven by what you find meaningful. Identify what genuinely energizes your sense of purpose and let that guide your way forward.

Recognize the areas you have mastered. Reflect on the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired thus far in your career. Do not hold back! Consider how you might use them to fulfill your purpose, values, and priorities.

Determine what you want your days to look like. As you think big, don’t lose sight of the minutia. Get microscopic and consider what you want the particulars of your daily routine to look like.

Identify your current values and priorities. You may find that they’ve changed over time. Carefully consider which compromises you’re willing to make—and which ones you aren’t.

Remember that there’s no roadmap, we’re all different. The goal is to draw on the wisdom and experiences you’ve gained along the way, and consciously curate the next phase of your life. Re-discovering joy in the process is the key to finding your mid-career bliss.

 

References:
Harvard Business Review (2024, February 2) Rebecca Knight: 6 Questions to Ask at the Midpoint of Your Career
Medium (2023, December 21) John Horan: Mid-Career Journey – End of the Year Check-In