18 DEC 2025
Why being good at your job can make change harder.
Success can keep you stuck. Here is how to break the pattern and explore what else might fit.
By Anna Soelberg
Founder, - 4 min read
The people who find change hardest are rarely the ones who are struggling. They are the ones who are good at what they do, valued for it, and quietly bored by it.
Competence is comfortable. It also narrows the story you tell about yourself, until the only options that feel realistic are variations of the same role.
Separate the skill from the setting
Most of what makes you good at your job is not the job. It is judgement, pattern recognition, the ability to hold complexity and make it simple for other people. Those travel far better than a job title does.
Being good at something is not the same as it being the right thing.
Start by listing what you are known for, then ask where else that would be valuable. The answer is usually broader than the market has told you.
