New year, same job (Picture: Getty Images)
You’re dreaming about opening your own coffee shop one day, then plotting your ascent to tech CEO the next. And the question ‘where do you want to be in five years’ time’ makes you want to hurl.
A little uncertainty around what you want from the world of work is totally normal, but if you’re regularly staring into the abyss thinking ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’, congrats – you’ve entered an existential career crisis.
An ECC, if you will.
Trust us, you’ll know when you’ve crossed the ECC line, but there are some tell-tale signs that it’s brewing, says Tamika Abaka-Wood, a creativity-focused career coach.
‘A key sign is when there’s a dissonance between the work you’re doing and the work you’d like to do,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.
‘You may be chasing another person, culture or industry’s idea of “success’” – in other words, climbing the corporate ladder to put a particular title on your LinkedIn profile.
‘You might be measuring your career “success” by metrics that do not work for you and the life you want to lead.’
Career coach Tamika Abaka-Wood (Picture: Primos Cobb)
While you can make short-term career progression living by these models, it’s not necessarily a recipe for satisfaction long term.
So, how do you shake yourself out of that existential funk and figure out what you really want?
Tamika believes you can start to gain some clarity by asking yourself three simple questions.
How to start tackling your existential career crisis:
Step 1, go within
‘Ask yourself who are you today, and which parts of yourself do you want to amplify and or step into in your career?’
Step 2, go explore
‘Ask yourself what or who exists in your external world – in other words, outside your current role and or workplace – that can provide you with fresh perspective?’
Step 3, go ahead
‘What is the next most elegant step you can take to convert internal stagnation into action?’
If trends like ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting’ have taught us anything, it’s that people want more from their careers than a pay cheque at the end of each month.
Some are seeking increased company benefits or flexibility, Tamika says. Others want to be gamechangers who change the workplace status quo.
Many are stuck in jobs where they don’t feel fulfilled.
‘We’re coming out of a very potent era in which the majority of people around the globe have re-evaluated their relationships with time and work and how those two things interact together to impact the fullness of our lives,’ she says.
And while abbreviations like ECC and 60-second careerTok videos are all good fun, Tamika is sceptical about how much they really help disgruntled workers.
‘When new cultural phrases and language take off very quickly, it’s often to fill a space of uncertainty and ambiguity,’ she says.
‘Complex questions about what fulfilment, happiness, leadership and purpose mean to us have been replaced with bite-sized take-outs, which is a shame.’
To help, she’s co-founded Beyond, a nine-week course launching on January 16, which aims to help the career-curious figure out their next step beyond those initial three questions.
Getting yourself out of an ECC takes ‘some very personalised thought and attention to really diagnose,’ Tamika adds, so don’t expect miracles over night.
‘Diagnosis is one thing. But then you need a prescription,’ she says.
‘Asking yourself these three questions as part of a phased process for change will unlock many more, all of which will help set you on the right course of action in the right direction.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
MORE : Is your manager a ‘seagull boss’, who flies in, dumps on everyone, then flies off?
MORE : How to tell if you’re the annoying work colleague
Your three-step plan for figuring out what the hell you’re doing with your life.
