CAREER CHANGE: Finding Your Next Chapter

There are times in life when we know we have outgrown something.

It might be a career, a relationship with work, a familiar routine, a way of thinking, or even the expectations we once had for ourselves.

The difficult part isn't always recognising that something needs to change.

Sometimes the harder part is trusting ourselves enough to take the next step when we don't yet know exactly where that step will lead.

This is something I see repeatedly through my work as a Tarot reader, coach and teacher — and something I have experienced in my own life.

One of the most important things I've learned about change and reinvention is this:

You don't always need to have the whole path mapped out before you begin.

When you know something no longer fits

We often imagine change as a dramatic moment.

We leave the job.

Move somewhere new.

Start a business.

Make a major decision.

But real change doesn't always happen that way.

Sometimes it begins much more quietly.

You notice that something doesn't feel right anymore.

A career that once suited you no longer does.

The routine that once felt comfortable starts to feel restrictive.

Perhaps you find yourself thinking about what else might be possible, even though you have no idea what that might look like.

Or maybe you simply realise that the person you are now has different priorities from the person you were five or ten years ago.

That doesn't necessarily mean that anything has gone wrong.

Sometimes it simply means you have changed.

And recognising that can be the beginning of something new.

Career Change and My Own Experience of Reinvention

My career has certainly not followed a straight line.

I've worked in aviation, including working with Boeing and the 787 Dreamliner. I've experienced very different professional environments, went on to work in the Civil Service, and eventually built my own business as a Tarot reader, coach and teacher.

Looking back, each chapter taught me something different.

Aviation taught me about professionalism, people, responsibility and working within complex environments.

The Civil Service gave me a completely different experience of organisational life and public service.

Building my own business has required something different again — creativity, independence, resilience, communication and the willingness to keep learning.

What is interesting when I look back is that none of these transitions happened because I had every detail of the next chapter worked out in advance.

There wasn't always a perfect five-year plan.

Sometimes the first step was simply becoming honest about what no longer felt right.

Only then could I begin asking what might come next.

You don't need certainty before you move

One of the biggest things that can keep us stuck is the belief that we need certainty before we act.

We think:

What if I make the wrong decision?

What if I regret it?

What if the next thing doesn't work?

What if I don't know what I actually want?

These are understandable questions.

But waiting until we feel completely certain can sometimes mean waiting indefinitely.

Instead, it can be useful to ask a different set of questions:

• What am I actually ready to leave behind?

• What matters to me now, rather than five or ten years ago?

• Where am I holding myself back because I'm waiting for certainty?

• What have I learned from the chapter I'm leaving?

• What would moving forward look like if I trusted myself a little more?

You don't necessarily need to know the final destination.

Sometimes you only need to know the next step.

Reinvention doesn't have to mean starting again

The word reinvention can sound as though we have to discard everything that came before.

I don't believe that is true.

Your previous experiences don't disappear simply because you change direction.

They become part of what you take with you.

The skills you've developed.

The relationships you've built.

The challenges you've overcome.

The mistakes you've made.

The things you've discovered you don't want.

And perhaps most importantly, the things you've learned about yourself.

My previous careers didn't become irrelevant when I became a Tarot reader and coach.

They became part of the person I brought into my new work.

Sometimes reinvention is less about becoming an entirely different person and more about bringing different parts of yourself together in a way that makes sense for who you are now.

Change often happens through small decisions

We can put enormous pressure on ourselves to make one huge decision that will suddenly change everything.

But often, change happens through a series of smaller decisions.

It might be setting a boundary.

Having a conversation you've been avoiding.

Exploring an idea you've repeatedly dismissed.

Updating your CV.

Researching a new career.

Starting a course.

Giving yourself permission to consider self-employment.

Changing how you spend your time.

Or simply admitting to yourself:

“This isn't working for me anymore.”

That admission can be surprisingly powerful.

Because once you are honest about where you are, you can start deciding where you want to go.

What Tarot can offer when you're asking “What's next?”

This is one reason I find Tarot such a valuable reflective tool.

For me, Tarot isn't about handing someone a predetermined future or telling them what decision they must make.

It can provide a different way of looking at a situation.

A Tarot reading can give you the space to slow down and explore questions that are sometimes difficult to ask when you're caught up in everyday life.

For example:

What am I ready to leave behind?

What am I not seeing clearly?

What is holding me back?

What strengths am I already using?

What possibility have I not allowed myself to consider?

Sometimes the value isn't in receiving an immediate answer.

It is in asking a better question.

And that can change the way we see the situation we're facing.

You may not need more answers — you may need better questions

When we're uncertain about the future, our instinct can be to look for more information.

More research.

More advice.

More opinions.

Another plan.

Another list of possibilities.

Sometimes that is exactly what we need.

But sometimes we already have more information than we realise.

What we actually need is the space to listen to ourselves.

That is where reflection, coaching and Tarot can work particularly well together.

Coaching can help you explore where you are, what you want and what action might move you forward.

Tarot can provide prompts for reflection and help you look at a situation from a different perspective.

Neither needs to tell you what to do.

The decision remains yours.

What if you don't know what comes next?

Perhaps you're at a point in your life where something has changed — or needs to change — but you don't yet know what the next chapter looks like.

You don't have to solve your entire future today.

Start with what you know.

What isn't working?

What have you outgrown?

What matters more to you now?

What are you curious about?

What would you explore if you weren't worried about getting it perfectly right?

And then ask yourself one more question:

What is the next step I could realistically take?

Not the perfect step.

Not the final step.

Just the next one.

Because sometimes the path only becomes visible once we start walking.

Your next chapter doesn't have to look like the one you planned

After experiencing several very different careers and eventually building something of my own, I've learned that reinvention doesn't always happen according to the neat plan we imagined.

Sometimes life changes the plan for us.

What matters then is deciding what we want to do with the next chapter.

You may not have every answer.

You may not know exactly where you're going.

And you certainly don't need to have everything figured out before you begin.

Sometimes you simply need enough honesty to acknowledge what has changed, enough curiosity to explore what might be possible, and enough trust in yourself to take the next step.

Your next chapter doesn't have to be fully written before you begin it.

Exploring your next chapter

If you're navigating career change, personal reinvention or a period of uncertainty, a Tarot reading or coaching session can provide dedicated space to step back from the noise, explore what is really going on and consider what you want next.

My approach combines Tarot, coaching and reflective questioning, giving you the opportunity to explore your situation from a different perspective while keeping the decisions firmly in your own hands.

You can find out more about my Tarot readings and coaching at susannekennedy.com