Journaling Prompts for Realizing You Hate Your Career
The quiet realization that the career you spent years building makes you miserable is terrifying. You look at the degrees, the debt, and the time invested, and the concept of the 'sunk cost fallacy' crashes over you. The prospect of starting over feels impossible, yet the thought of doing this job for thirty more years induces dread. You may feel trapped by your own past decisions. Writing breaks the paralysis. It allows you to systematically separate your financial obligations from your professional identity, helping you construct a realistic, math-based exit strategy rather than succumbing to existential panic.
Journaling Prompts
Write down the specific tasks or dynamics in this career that are actively destroying your mental health. Which of these are inherent to the industry, and which are just specific to your current employer?
Acknowledge the sunk cost. List the exact time and money you invested to get here. Now, explicitly grant yourself permission to walk away from that investment to save your future.
Identify the financial anchor tying you to this career. What is the precise, calculated number you would need in the bank to safely execute a massive pivot?
What adjacent field or entirely different path have you secretly been researching? List three micro-actions you can take this month to blindly test that new path.
Draft a timeline mapping out a two-year exit strategy. What slow, methodical steps can you take while still collecting your current paycheck to ensure a safe landing?