When change chooses you: Finding renewal in unwanted transitions.
- Group CPO
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
By Julia Lee. Specialist Career Coach.
October 2025.
Sometimes change arrives uninvited. This may come along as a restructure, redundancy, leadership shift, a sudden change in organisational direction – and suddenly the ground beneath you feels unstable. This has a habit of feeling deeply personal, even when you know rationally that it’s not. Our career story, which we are attached to, begins to unravel, and what’s left is uncertain, anxious and hollow.
Enforced change often brings a collision between identity and circumstance. You have built a career on being a consistent high performer, competent, capable and now, without warning, those qualities no longer guarantee security. Psychologically, its disorientating. The world continues to move, cool posts written by peers appear on linked in, your resume suddenly feels out of date, there is a sense of an intangible new reality.
In my work as a specialist career coach, I see this moment as a kind of psychological crossroads. Theres the outer change; job title, team, or structure – and there is the inner shift that determines what happens next. It is natural to rush to rebuild what has been lost, but genuine renewal starts by acknowledging what has been disrupted.
It is natural to grieve the familiar. Work gives us much more than income; it gives us life rhythm, recognition, meaning and connection. When that is gone, even temporarily, we lose the mirror that reflects back our sense of worth. Naming that loss is the first step toward reclaiming agency.
The next step is reflection. Change has a way of revealing truths we’ve avoided – the role had actually become too small, you were bored, the values were outgrown, you may have made too many compromises in the case for financial stability. These disruptions, though initially unwanted, can act as catalysts. What surfaces is what has been quietly calling out for our attention.
Renewal often begins with small, subtle acts: creating a workable structure, seeking new conversations that open possibility, finding the language to express what you actually want next. This is the exciting bit, inner work meets practical strategy, career planning becomes less about repair and more about conscious design.
Enforced change invites us into a liminal space, a threshold between what was and what’s yet to be. It is uncomfortable precisely because it is transitional. But it is where creativity, self-awareness and new direction can be born.
If this is you, start with questions not answers. Ask yourself:
What has this moment revealed about what you value most?
What do you want to carry forward what are you ready to leave behind?
As a career coach I offer confidential 1:1 sessions designed to help you reconnect with your purpose and direction and to proactively design your successful next step.
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