What If Fulfillment Isn’t a Mind-Driven Decision?

If you’re questioning your work, wondering whether to stay or go, you’re not alone. As high-achieving professionals—especially those in leadership—we often find ourself stuck between logic and longing, loyalty and liberation.

We might be wondering: Is this discomfort just a phase, or a signal? Am I being ungrateful… or am I growing?

The truth is, fulfillment isn’t always something we can think our way through. Sometimes, we need to feel our way forward.

Here is how I now approach the question of whether to stay or go, based on the hard learned lessons from my own journey of multiple career transitions – intended or not – in almost two decades.

Three Steps to Clarity—From the Inside Out

1. Acknowledge—Without Judgment

Starting by naming the truth of where we are.

Our emotions are valid. Guilt is not a requirement for change.

Ask ourself:

• What’s keeping me from making a shift?
• What assumptions am I holding about the future?
• Are they based on facts, or fear?

This is not about rushing a decision—it’s about creating space for truth to emerge.

2. Let Our Body Speak

This step is vastly ignored—and we pay the price in tension, fatigue, or burnout.

But our Body knows. It holds the data long before the brain does.

Scanning for signals:

• Jaw tension, shallow breath, sleeplessness?
• Or is there lightness, energy, vitality?

Our Body is a complex system—with its own wisdom architecture. We must learn its language. It will not lie to us.

3. Tell Ourself the Hard Truth

Here’s the most humbling part:

What got us here won’t get us where we want to go.

Resilience is a virtue—until it becomes armor.

Hope is beautiful—until it becomes a trap.

When we drop the story that “things will eventually get better,” we make room for aligned action. And that’s where our authentic confidence lives.

A Quiet Invitation

If this resonates, take a moment to pause today—not to figure things out, but to feel what’s true.

What does your Body know that your mind keeps silencing?

No need to map the entire journey.

But the next right step?

You already know it.