When You’ve Outgrown Your Job — But You’re Not Ready to Admit It

January has a particular energy. The new year, a clean diary, all that talk of fresh starts. And yet for many, the return to work feels exactly the same as it did in November. Same inbox. Same meetings. Same low-level frustration you’ve learnt to live with.

You don’t hate your job. You’re good at it. You’re respected. But something has shifted, and you can feel it.

 
1. My unexpected return to an old life

My own return to work after Reyes this year was slightly unusual. I was asked to take on a translation project – over 8,000 words. Not small, not huge. Just enough to properly step back into a world I lived in for 13 years.

For the first ten years, I genuinely loved it. It played to my analytical brain. I enjoyed the problem-solving, finding the right word in the right tone for the right context. I still do. There’s comfort in it.

You know how long it will take. You can plan your time, measure your output and see progress clearly. There's a real sense of satisfaction in sending the finished document back to the client. And when I started the job last week, I felt myself relax. It felt safe. Familiar. A part of me thought, Here we go. I know how to do this.

2. The knowing that never quite goes away

But here’s the truth I’ve always known: translation was never my forever job.

Even when I enjoyed it. Even when I was good at it. Even when it paid well. I knew.

And you probably do too. That quiet voice that says, I want to do something different. You might ignore it, rationalise it, tell yourself to be grateful – but it doesn’t go away.

For years, I told myself I’d make a change “one day”. After the next job. After the summer. Once things were calmer. When I'd chosen a coach training provider.

Then my second daughter was born and something clicked. I realised I was already halfway through my working life. All those “one days” might never come. If I didn’t act now, I probably never would.

What's more, with two children in tow, my priorities were very different. Working nights, weekends, “from anywhere in the world” – suddenly didn’t fit.

So I did something that had been sitting in my body for years. I retrained. At the age of 42 and a half. Not to do something sensible or predictable, but as a coach – a role that certainly plays to my real strengths: listening, empathy, critical thinking, challenge, working with people. It’s been a much bumpier, less predictable ride than I ever had as a translator – and honestly, there are days I miss the certainty. But despite that, I now know I’m on the right path. 

 
3. The moment it became clear

As the translation days went by, something shifted. Quietly. I realised how much I missed people. The conversations, the energy, the depth, the “aha” moments.

Coaching isn’t tidy. You can’t measure progress in word count. There’s no formula, no hourly output. And yet, when I look at my values – connection, courage, making a difference and nature – coaching fulfils three of them, and sometimes all four when I run walking sessions in Retiro. Translation, for me, fulfils none.

That doesn’t make it a bad job. It just means it stopped being my job. And that’s the distinction many struggle to make.

4. What it looks like when you do listen

I see this with clients all the time.

One woman came to me as an architect. Highly skilled, super successful – but bursting with a creative energy that had nowhere to go. Through our work together, she slowly gave herself permission to explore that side of her. She’s now illustrating children’s books one day a week. It didn’t replace her career overnight, but it reconnected her with a part of herself she’d quietly parked for years.

Another client was a senior finance executive with two decades of experience behind her. She didn’t want to throw that away – but she no longer felt aligned with the sector she was in. She ended up moving to work for a Fundación (a philanthropic organisation in Spain), channelling everything she knew about finance into something she actually cared about. Same skills. Completely different meaning.

Neither of these women “blew up” their lives.

They listened. They explored. They made considered shifts. Small at first. Then braver. That’s what growth actually looks like.

5. Why you stay (even when you know)

If you’re honest, you probably know you’ve outgrown your role. But knowing doesn’t automatically lead to change.

Because you’re comfortable. Competent. Paid well. People respect you. Change feels irresponsible. You’ve invested years here. You don’t know what you’d do instead.

So you stay. And you tell yourself it’s fine. It’s not that bad. Plenty of people have it worse. All true – and also irrelevant.

Because the real question isn’t, Is it terrible?
It’s, Is it still right for me?

 
6. The danger of doing nothing

January is when this thought creeps in: If I make no changes, then this year will be: Same work. Same frustrations. Same compromises. Not forever. Just… again.

And that’s where the quiet panic lives. Not in dramatic career moves, but in the slow realisation that time is passing and you’re not using it how you want to.

 
7. I’m not telling you to quit

Let me be clear. I am not suggesting you quit your job, retrain as a yoga teacher or book a one-way flight in the January sales. This isn’t about impulsive change.

It’s about stopping the shutdown. That moment when the knowing voice appears and you silence it. Again.

What if, instead, you listened? Just a little. What if you explored what feels heavy, what drains you, what lights you up, what you secretly envy in others, what you’d do if fear wasn’t running the show?

With me. Or on your own. Curiosity, not action, is the first step.

8. A question for January

As you settle back into work, ask yourself: if I change nothing, how do I feel about that? And if I made one small change? Or two?

Not a life overhaul. Just movement. That’s often where clarity begins.

9. A gentle invitation

If you’re in that in-between space – not desperate, not fulfilled, just quietly restless – you’re exactly the kind of person I work with.

I offer a free 30-minute discovery call where we can explore what’s really going on for you and what you might want from the next chapter. No pressure. No selling. Just clear thinking.

Book here if it feels right:
👉 https://calendly.com/carmel-drake/discovery-call

Because you don’t have to hate your job to outgrow it.
And you don’t have to leap to start moving.