5 Signs It's Time To Give Yourself Permission for Change

I knew when I decided to start two podcasts that the time would come when their respective workloads and priorities would cross paths and I wouldn’t be able to keep up.

You may have noticed that this has finally happened, I’ve taken a couple of weeks off of my Off the Clock podcast in order to get our new podcast, ReImagining Ambition, up and running.

At another point in my career, I would have been disappointed and guilt-ridden about “dropping the ball.”

But actually, I was really at peace.

And the reason is that instead of allowing these workstreams to either take over my life, I gave myself permission. Permission to take my foot off the pedal and spend a couple of weeks getting our new podcast up and running.

Instead of assuming I could do it all - or that that was even a desirable position to put myself in, I just made a decision to not execute perfectly.

When was the last time you gave yourself permission to not execute things perfectly?

Giving yourself permission can be a great way to balance multiple competing priorities, explore before you’re ready for a change, or basically do anything imperfectly.

It’s a conscious lowering of the bar that helps create conditions and opportunities for learning and engagement.

Here are some signs that you may be in a place to give yourself permission.

  1. You’re hesitant to explore a job or career change because they really need you at work. Or you really love your teammates or your boss. This is so tough. I feel like I made the best friends at the toughest jobs so I know how this feels. But what if you gave yourself permission to focus on your own development and needs? And permission to maintain relationships and friendships you made along the way? I sometimes think that when that one person leaves - it potentially frees everyone else up to assess their goals and needs too.

  2. You’re balancing care work or health challenges and/or other obligations outside of work. You may need to give yourself permission to have a long enough runway so that you don’t burn yourself out from all ends. Wouldn’t it be nice if career challenges and transitions could be neatly wrapped up in just 6 weeks? Of course! But let me tell you, that’s not how this happens for most of us! I love a “start before you’re ready approach” because you end up giving yourself the time you actually need for the process.

  3. There’s no time to tend to your own career with your demanding job. But what if you didn’t wait for things to “slow down” and instead, you gave yourself permission to turn your dial down from 110% to 80%? What kind of space and energy would that free up? Chances are you’re overperforming at work and taking the notch down a little could very well go unnoticed.

  4. You feel like a job search, career change, side hustle or self-employment is an all-or-nothing situation. You succeed or you don’t. But what if you gave yourself permission to experiment? Treating career moves as experiments can actually be a lot of fun. It can take the pressure off and it compels you toward action. When you act, you’ll learn a lot - about yourself, your goals, and your process. We never lose when we learn!

  5. You have a lot of questions - and not enough data. It’s tempting to wait for that flash of insight where your every next step becomes perfectly clear - but that’s not usually where clarity comes from. You may want to give yourself permission to explore, ask questions, to collect data. A lot of new clients are “trying to figure it out” by thinking their way out of it, but often a more interactive exploration approach can be helpful. Where are you trying to “DIY” all of the answers? And how would your approach change if you gave yourself permission to explore instead?

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