“Do What Works”: The Stupidly Simple Way To Stop Wasting Time And Make Progress Toward A Fulfilling Career

I don’t know much about you, but I know these three things are true:

1. Your life is busy
2. Your time is precious. 
3. You really, really want to find a more fulfilling career.

Between work, family, errands, self-care, domestic tasks, <insert additional responsibility of your choice here>, finding the time and energy to dedicate to your career change can feel like an endless battle.

So it’s particularly painful when you do dedicate yourself to the process, only to feel like nothing you’re doing is paying off.

I hear it from my clients, our workshop participants and Launch Padders all the time:

• “I’m so tired of spending hours applying for jobs that never lead anywhere”
• “I’ve tried to think of new ideas but my brain’s just not giving me anything”
• “I’ve done so many psychometric tests but I’m still no clearer”
• “I talk to my family about my shift but they never make me feel better”
• “I keep buying self-help books to learn how to do this better, but nothing’s changed”

They’re endlessly pouring time, hope, heart and energy into things that just don’t seem to be working. 

And unsurprisingly, they’re exhausted, and on the verge of giving up.

Is that you, too?

If so, this is where it ends.

Enough.

Stop looking for a new, radical solution to the problem you’re facing, or repeating approaches that have proven themselves to be unproductive.

Instead…

Put your energy where it’s already proven to bear fruit. 

Ask yourself: “What has already proven to work for me, and how can I do more of that?”

Do what works, and stop doing what doesn’t.

If job hunting isn’t getting you anywhere, stop doing it. 

If making lists in a journal hasn’t given you any new ideas, stop doing it. 

If you’ve been talking to the same three people about your career change for months and they’ve been helpful up to a point, but no more – stop going back to them and expecting a sudden burst of previously untapped genius.

If searching online for career change advice is interesting, but hasn’t actually got you unstuck in a way that you need unsticking right now, stop doing it. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony of this one!)

If something isn’t working for you, don’t put a single drop more of your energy into it.

Instead, look to your life for evidence of what works to create the outcomes you want.

Let’s simplify, streamline, and focus ourselves.

From now on, you will only take actions that you already know work – because they’ve worked for you before.

Let’s look at some examples…

a) Struggling with a lack of fresh, interesting ideas for your career change?

Ask yourself: 

• When was the last time I had an exciting new idea – about my career or anything else? 
• What specifically led to that idea popping up? 
• Where was I, what was I doing, who was I with?
• What are my evidence-based, proven ingredients for idea generation?

Katrina came to a coaching session with me feeling stale and uninspired. So I asked her: 

“When was the last time you discovered something new and inspiring, whether career-related or otherwise?” 

She told me: “Last week. My sewing machine had broken, and I knew there was a studio nearby that ran sewing classes. I had never visited, because I know how to sew. But I went there to see if they had a machine I could borrow for a day to finish my project, and I found out they have a whole community of artists working there. 

They were such cool people, and I left feeling really excited to have found them. It got me wondering about a future for myself as an artist who’s part of a collective…”

Katrina left our session clear on her new career change idea-generating strategy: her one job was to go – physically, in person – to places that did things she was interested in and see what they were up to.

At our next session, she was like a different person, full of energy and new ideas to explore.

Why? Because she focused on what worked.

b) Finding it hard to manage your time in a way that prioritises your shift?

Ask yourself: 

• When was the last time I created time for something that really mattered to me? 
• What specifically did I do? 
• Who did I get help from? 
• What mindset or perspective helped me most?

Rob was working full-time, raising his two boys with his husband, and trying to make a career change. And the career change just kept sliding to the bottom of his priority list. 

When he looked back for an example of a time he’d made space for something that mattered, he realised what was missing: other people.

“I did a Masters two years ago, over and above my day job. The kids were younger and even more demanding back then, but I made it work by putting a team around me. My parents stepped up for childcare (on the understanding that it was temporary) and I had a study group that met weekly to co-work together.

I remember how much easier it was to make time and actually work on my studies when there were other people in the mix. Why am I not doing that now?”

To make time, Rob needed community. It was what he knew worked. So he did it. 

He found someone else who was making a career change, and they agreed to meet up once a week, in a café, to focus on their shifts together.

And (surprise!) it worked, again. 

c) Keen to talk to someone in a new industry, but don’t know anyone who does that kind of work?

Ask yourself:

• When was the last time I had to find someone I didn’t already know in order to help me with something – career change related or otherwise?
• What specifically did I do?
• What was it that worked?
• How can I apply that same technique here?

Jen was on our Career Change Launch Pad when she realised she really wanted to talk to people who worked outdoors, and find out more about their jobs. 

But she was an HR professional, and all her friends and family worked in the corporate world. She felt frustrated and stuck. 

So we asked her: when have you done this before? What’s an example of a time you’ve needed a certain type of person, and gone out and found them?

Jen thought back, and laughed. 

“A couple of months ago my boiler broke. I’ve been burned before by tradespeople who didn’t come through word of mouth, so I posted on my neighbourhood Facebook group, and got a load of recommendations. But surely I couldn’t do that in this context?”

With a little encouragement from the Launch Pad community, she did exactly that. She posted in her neighbourhood Facebook group, and asked:

“I’m thinking about making a career change, and I’m really curious about working outdoors in nature. Does anyone here know someone who works outside, and who might be up for a 20-minute chat with me about what they do?”

Within 24 hours, she had 19 offers of conversations or introductions. In fact, she eventually had to close comments on the post, because she had too many opportunities.

Why? Because she repeated an approach that she already knew worked.

d) Feeling like you’ve lost momentum in your career change?

Ask yourself: 

• When was the last time I felt like I’d fallen into inertia on something, and got going on it again? 
• What did I specifically do that made a difference?
• What impact did it have that I’m now chasing again?
• How can I do that again? 

Mark had been stalling in his shift for months.

“I was doing so well – talking to people, testing out ideas, learning about what I need and want. And then the holiday season hit and I just… stopped.”

We did some digging for another time in the past when he’d ‘got going’ on something elsewhere in his life, and what emerged was… running.

“I had a knee injury that stopped my exercise routine for a good while. Once I was ready-enough to start again, my physio made me break down my runs into tiny developmental steps. I didn’t actually go for a run for ages; I just did small mobility exercises, and then walked around the block, and then increased the levels until I was back in the game. It wasn’t my usual style – I’m normally all-or-nothing – but it got me running again.”

Mark started taking embarrassingly small steps in his career change. 

The first week, he took 10 minutes to find one event in his area that looked interesting.

Then he had a chat with his brother-in-law over a family lunch about his work in investing.

Then he joined a free webinar on LinkedIn about micro-finance. 

And with each small step, he found his motivation returning…

This approach isn’t fancy. But it works.

In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with new ideas and well-marketed “5-step strategies” and self-help books with colourful covers, it’s easy to get sucked into the belief that new challenges require flashy new approaches.

Or, alternatively, that pre-existing systems (like job sites and Myers-Briggs) are there for good reason, and therefore if they’re not working for you, you’re the problem.

But you’ve made it this far. You’ve made a lot happen in your life already, by applying approaches that worked. 

You are the walking, talking evidence for what works.

What works is what works.

And ultimately, that’s all that matters.

If you were to only “do what works”, what would you stop doing, and what would you focus your energy on instead? Let me know in the comments below