04. You're good at your job - but is it good for you? The career pivots one

You've followed the plan. Built the career. Ticked the boxes. And now you're exhausted and you genuinely can't tell if it's the job, the rain, or whether you just need three tequila shots!Before you do anything drastic — let's work out what's actually going on first. Because the career might not be the problem. And knowing the difference saves a lot of expensive mistakes.Episode 4 covers the real reasons career unhappiness shows up — from exhaustion to bad managers to the conditions of the job making your dream life impossible. Holly shares her own messy honest version including a cotton sportswear line, a taco towel revelation, and the subconscious rules that kept stopping her before she even knew what they were.Plus the three types of career alignment, Charles Handy's portfolio career concept, Holly's mum's Tuesday reality check — and three questions worth sitting with this week.SHOW NOTES:You've followed the plan. Built the career. Ticked the boxes. And now you can't tell if it's the job, the rain, or whether you just need three tequila shots and a holiday.00:01 — No work chat policies at the dinner table, stress-spending on kitchen appliances you'll definitely use this time, and the three tequila shots option. A warm hello to everyone who's here feeling slightly surprised by their own life’s twists & turns — and a special shout out to anyone who never expected to be here considering career pivots. We feel you! 04:31 — The four camps: blow it up, company hop, analysis paralysis, avoid it altogether. None of them are wrong — they're just what happens without the right tools. The mission of this show: you don't have to blow everything up to start building something better.06:56 — The first tool before anything else: self reflection. Not catastrophising or a therapy spiral — just honest quiet time to work out what patterns you're running and what stories exhaustion has been writing for you.08:00 — Working out where the meh is actually coming from: exhaustion, one bad situation, money, lack of agency, the environment, or the trickiest one — when the conditions of the job make the life you want damn near impossible.11:26 — Examples of when conditions clash with values14:00 — The one question that separates a fixable problem from a career problem15:45 — Panic mode: why it's the worst place to make big decisions from and the nuances it causes you to miss entirely.17:45 — Holly's honest version: architecture wasn't always wrong — the conditions changed. The portfolio career concept coined by Irish philosopher Charles Handy in 1989.21:00 — The side hustle period: the cotton sportswear line, the one metre diameter taco towels (fifty thousand pounds a month, thousands of buyers, nobody needs this), and why neither felt right.24:30 — Subconscious rules: the rules we have about how we're willing to make money that we never consciously named. 32:21 — The money and mission separation: your passion and how you make money don't have to come from the same place.36:00 — The three types of alignment: task alignment, mission alignment, and role alignment — the industry is right but the role is wrong.41:30 — Holly's mum's Tuesday reality check: What are you actually doing day to day?46:00 — Three questions to leave you with: is it the career or something else? Which type of alignment are you looking for? And what does your perfect Tuesday actually look like?Sources: Charles Handy — The Age of Unreason (1989). Irish philosopher. Coined the portfolio career concept. Passed away 2024. Cillian Murphy — referenced as an example of mission and life values in alignment.Connect: Newsletter: wipit.beehiiv.com/subscribe Instagram: @hh_squaredI'm Holly. Let's keep WIP'n & Reppin'.