Career Change as Self-Liberation

It's mid-January. Tomorrow is Blue Monday, supposedly the "most depressing day of the year." I don't put too much weight on this as science, but I do notice something real in the conversations I'm having right now.

The "new year, new career" energy that flooded timelines two weeks ago has quietly faded. You're back at the same desk, with the same emails, the same Sunday evening dread creeping in around 4pm. And somewhere beneath the surface, there's a thought you might not have said out loud yet: I just can't do another year of this.

If that's you, I want you to know that thought isn't dramatic.

The Midlife Career Paradox

Here's what I've noticed working with professionals already established in their careers: many have done everything "right." Built the career. Earned the title. Accumulated the experience. And yet there's this persistent, low-grade dissatisfaction that just won't shift, a sense of going through the motions in a role that previously meant something.

The frustrating part? It’s hard to explain. Nothing is technically wrong. And that makes it harder to justify wanting change, both to yourself and to anyone else.

I've been revisiting some fascinating research this month on how people navigate career change. Not the all singing and dancing LinkedIn announcement version.

The messy, emotional, sometimes-I'm-not-sure-what-I'm-doing version. And what struck me most wasn't the practical steps; it was the psychological transformation underpinning all of this.

What We Don't Talk About Enough

There's a concept in behavioural change research called self-liberation. It sounds almost poetic, doesn't it? Researchers describe it as the process of weakening the restrictive psychological barriers we've built around our career and life roles. It's the moment when you stop being held hostage by old narratives about who you're supposed to be professionally.

What I find fascinating is that career change isn't just about finding a new job title or learning new skills. It's about freeing yourself from a version of you that no longer fits. The song by Fantasia Free Yourself comes to mind! The identity you constructed at 24 when you were trying to prove yourself. The expectations you absorbed from family, culture, or that manager who said you were "really suited to" something you now know you're not.

Self-liberation, in this context, means giving yourself permission to outgrow and therefore change your career story.

And if you're thinking "but I'm too far in to change now", I'd encourage you to critically question the story keeping you stuck, is it actually true? Career change at later in life isn't always about starting over. It's building on everything you already know about yourself and deciding who’s stage you want to play on. Yours or someone else’s?

The Stages Nobody Warns You About

Here's something that might bring you comfort if you're contemplating a change: the process is squiggly, and shouldn't be rushed.

Career development researchers have mapped out that people moving through significant career transitions experience distinct psychological phases. There's a period of disengagement where you might feel disconnected from your work but not quite ready to articulate why. You might notice you've stopped caring about things that used to matter to you professionally. You're doing the job, but you're not in it anymore.

Then comes what's called a growth phase, a time of genuine self-examination where you reconnect with parts of yourself that got buried along the way. This can be emotional. You might feel regret about past choices, grief for paths not taken, or unexpected excitement about possibilities you'd forgotten existed.

Only after this internal work comes the exploration of practical options, the assessments, the networking, the applications. Trying to skip straight to the logistics without doing the deeper work? That's where many career changes stall or lead to jumping from one ill-fitting role to another. I’ve experienced the same thing, so you’re definitely not alone!

What I've learned through my coaching practice is that the people who navigate this transition most successfully aren't the ones with the perfect plan. They're the ones willing to sit with uncertainty long enough to understand what they actually want, even when that feels terrifying, inefficient or indulgent.

What This Means For You (Especially This Week)

If you're reading this in mid-January, feeling the weight of another year in a career that no longer fits, here's what I'd gently offer:

• The post-holiday dread is data, not drama. 

  That sinking feeling when you opened your laptop on January 5th? That's not you being ungrateful or difficult. It's the essential information about the gap between where you are and where you need to be.

• Feeling stuck isn't failure - it could indicate readiness. 

  That sense of disconnection from your work? It could be your signal that you've outgrown something. Not that something is wrong with you, but that something significant is ready to change.

• The emotional work is the real work. 

  Before you update your CV or start applying for roles, ask yourself: what beliefs about my career am I ready to let go of? What stories have I been telling myself that no longer serve me? What would I pursue if I genuinely believed it wasn't too late?

  
  

• Recycling isn't regression.

  Both health psychology and career development research acknowledge that people often move back and forth through stages before a change takes hold. Starting over on a particular step isn't failure, it's learning. Every iteration teaches you something new about yourself.

  
  

• Your experience is an asset, not dead weight. 

  Twenty years in a career isn't a trap. It's two decades of learning what you're good at, what drains you, what matters to you, and what doesn't. That clarity is valuable. It means you won't make the same mistakes you made at 25.

A Different Kind of Permission

What strikes me about self-liberation as a concept is that it acknowledges something career advice often misses: the barriers to change aren't always external. Sometimes the thing keeping us stuck is an internal voice that says "but this is who I am" or "it's too late to become something else" or "I should be grateful for what I have."

Career change, at its core, is an act of deciding that it isn't too late. That you're allowed to evolve. That the version of success you chased at 28 doesn't have to be the version you pursue at 44.

You're not abandoning who you were. You're expanding into who you're becoming.

If any of this has resonated, particularly if you're sitting with that familiar January heaviness and wondering whether this is the year something finally shifts, I'd genuinely love to hear from you.

Yinka

References:

Barclay, Stoltz, and Chung's (2011). Voluntary Midlife Career Change: Integrating the Transtheoretical Model and the Life-Span, Life-Space Approach. The Career Development Quarterly, September 2011. Volume 59

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