Ever wish you could just hit a “pause” button for your career the way you do for your TV? According to Rachael O’Meara, you can. O’Meara, a sales executive at Google and an executive coach, is author of the new book ” Pause: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break.” U.S. News recently interviewed her at one of Google’s San Francisco offices, where she was the featured speaker at a Watermark event. There, she shared her thoughts on five signs that suggest it might be smart to take a break from your job or career to mentally regroup and figure out your next steps.
[See: Tips for Surviving a Career Transition.]
O’Meara notes that she saw every one of these red flags herself, before deciding to take her own extended pause from a previous role she held at Google. She also points out a pause can be any length of time — it’s not about an epic long break, it’s about what works for you. While a pause can take the form of a more significant journey, it might also be as simple as carving out space for one deep breath, depending on your needs.
Through the conscious act of pausing, O’Meara managed to circumvent the burnout she was experiencing in her former role and got back on track in a direction at the company that was a much better fit for her talents and interests. To help determine whether a break from what you’re currently doing might be right for you, too, see if any of these situations sound familiar:
You find yourself hating your job. “If you used to love your job and now you loathe it, that switch in perspective is telling you something has changed,” O’Meara says. In her book, O’Meara explains how she used to arrive at work happy and excited to solve her department’s challenges and help clients meet their needs. But as she took on greater responsibility as a manager, she found herself feeling stressed out and stuck. O’Meara suggests thinking about whether you still enjoy what you’re doing at work, or if instead, you feel less fulfilled than you did previously — and possibly ready for a change. “When you take a pause, or intentionally shift your behavior, you can help find your way back to enjoying what you do again,” she says.
Your boss isn’t happy with you. When your supervisor tells you that it’s not working out, it’s another sign that a pause may be in order. “Your boss may ask, ‘Are you sure this is a good fit for you?’ Or it could be blunt, like it was for me: ‘This isn’t a good fit for you.'” O’Meara suggests when this happens, it may be a good time to step back and develop more skills, or perhaps choose a different focus, adding that the knee-jerk reaction to this type of criticism from your manager is often going into denial. “Many people think, like I did at first, ‘Why should I change? I’m going to quit,'” O’Meara says. “It’s easy to dismiss the writing on the wall that a job isn’t a fit for you — but the truth is, you are probably the one that’s the issue.”
[See: The 6 Best Jobs for Work-Life Balance.]
You’re spending too much time on digital devices. O’Meara points out that a “technology intervention” can signal that it’s time to take a break. “If someone makes a remark that you’re on your phone all the time, or you notice that you can’t slip away without checking your email first, you may be getting too much screen time,” she says. “It’s important to develop a shift in your behavior — a pause from your devices, email, texting and social media — to create some boundaries.” O’Meara also emphasizes the importance of looking beneath the surface of your actions to understand why you’re addicted to technology, whatever form it takes. “Ask yourself what’s behind your attachment to a specific device or application,” she says. “In my situation, I recognized the reason I couldn’t unplug was a misplaced attempt to fulfill my hunger to matter.”
A big change happens in your life. If you find yourself experiencing a major life event or challenge that shifts how you spend your time or behave, this might be a good time to pause. “Maybe it’s a health issue, or you get laid off, or face some other adversity,” explains O’Meara. “A lot of times, we want to muscle through these types of big changes. But this is a good time to be with yourself and significant others, not necessarily [to] rush into something new.” She adds that when you take the time to pause instead of blindly continuing on the same path, you create the opportunity to evaluate your current choices and get aligned with what is truly meaningful to you.
[See: 10 Reasons to Quit Your Job Already.]
A new opportunity comes up. It’s not every day that an exciting new opportunity presents itself. When it does, this could be the right time to create a pause period in your life. “If you feel an urge that you want to follow a passion for a while, it’s easy to say that you’re too busy,” O’Meara notes. “But when opportunity knocks, you can decide to explore it.” She acknowledges this isn’t always easy if it means leaving a secure job for an opportunity that’s risky, such as pursuing a personal project, or even embarking on a new job or career. Nonetheless, O’Meara believes it’s important to check in with your emotions and yearnings on a deeper level to evaluate what’s right for you. “Sometimes you need to face your fears and go into the unknown to assess what’s next.”
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5 Signs You Need to Take a Pause in Your Career originally appeared on usnews.com
