Ep. 35: Navigating Major Career Realizations Without Panic
What happens when you make a big career or life pivot… and then realize it’s no longer right for you? In this episode, I talk about the often-unspoken reality of the pivot after the pivot and how to navigate it without panic.
In this solo episode of The Pivot Point, I explore what it means to have a major realization after you’ve already made a big change. We’re often told that we get one big pivot, one defining move—but the truth is, we are constantly evolving, and it’s normal for new desires to emerge over time.
I share a personal story about realizing that even though I loved my corporate engineering role, I loved coaching more—and how that realization hit me suddenly, triggering panic rather than clarity. I walk through what not to do in those moments, and what actually helps you move forward from a grounded place.
This episode breaks down a simple but powerful framework for responding to these “truth bombs,” including why you don’t need to act immediately, how to separate desire from logistics, and how time and support play a critical role in sustainable pivots.
If you’ve ever thought, “I made a change… so why doesn’t this feel like the final destination?” this episode will help you trust yourself, slow down, and make decisions that are aligned—not reactive.
What You’ll Hear
✔️ Why it’s normal to experience a pivot after the pivot
✔️ How panic and urgency distort decision-making
✔️ A grounded framework for responding to major realizations
✔️ The difference between wanting something and acting on it
✔️ How time, support, and boundaries create clarity
✔️ Why slow, intentional pivots often lead to better outcomes
“You are allowed to want something without acting on it yet.”
If this episode resonated, share it with someone who’s navigating a big realization of their own.
Download the Heart-Aligned Career Transition Starter at https://www.leadintact.com/freebies/heart-aligned-career, or book a free 20-minute clarity call at https://leadintactwithlaura.as.me/free-consultation if you want support gaining clarity on your next move.
Proceed as if success is inevitable, because it is.
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You are listening to the pivot point where we unpack the defining moments that shift careers and lives. I'm your host, Laura Dionisio, a founder of Lead Intact, and my mission is to spotlight the raw real stories behind career pivots, the fears, the hopes. The messy middles and the bold decisions that follow if you're feeling stuck or quietly wondering what's next?
I hope these stories help you see yourself a little more clearly and inspire you to start moving toward your own dream life. Let's begin.
What happens when you make a huge pivot and then you realize, oh, this ain't it. Here's the thing. We're often taught, or at least I was, that you kind of get like one big thing, one big shebang, and then you're like, oh, been there, done that. I have found this to be especially true for my clients who are.
Let's say like late forties to mid fifties or so when they're like, oh, you know, I'm at the tail end of my career. Like it is not time for pivot. Here's the thing. We are ever evolving humans, and if you are the kind of person who strives to continuously be growing, and you are, I can tell because you're listening to this podcast, then of course.
It's possible that you have another pivot coming.
So I wanna share a story. I have pivoted a lot, even in my corporate career. So yes, I mostly stayed in engineering, but it was in different spaces., I went from government to private sector and then I left engineering for a bit.
So I did a lot of pivoting and I'll admit with each pivot it seemed like, okay, this is it. I'm gonna stay here. But then. When I was at, a job where I genuinely really cared about the project. I was really passionate about it. I was a team lead. I cared about my teammates. I really believed in the mission of what we were doing.
I, I really believed that it was going to change the world and our sphere of where that industry was and. You know, I got accolades, recognition that kinda thing. And one day when I was at a business meeting, a coaching business meeting, um, because at the time I had already started Lead Intact as a side project, like as a passion project side business, that kind of thing.
I just was hit with a sudden realization that. Even as much as I loved my day job, my corporate job at the time, I still enjoyed coaching more. And in fact, the model that I was currently living with, the corporate job being my full-time job and lead intact being a side job, I wanted it to be flipped.
If anything, I wanted my business to be my full-time focus and then maybe do some engineering on the side and.
Can I be honest with y'all? Like, let me be real. Let me be so real at this point. Just to give you like some background of where I was, context of where I was at the time in my life. I had been coaching like. Let's see. I had been in the personal development space for probably like 10 years at that point.
Something like that. Maybe not quite, maybe like eight. And I had had my own business at that point for three years or something like that. Two, three years. I didn't handle it well. So I just wanna say if this has happened to you where you pivoted in your career, in your life and it was your dream life for a while, and then suddenly you have this realization that it's hitting you real hard, like a fricking match truck.
It did not feel nice, right? I think there is a narrative out there that. Your calling just calls to you, right? Or maybe it's like a, a soft voice. Or maybe you just one day wake up and you're like I'm done. And look, I'm not making fun of that because honestly, there have been certain pivots in my life where it has felt like that that was not the case.
This time. It hit me. It was like a, I don't wanna do my engineering career as a full-time job anymore. I'd rather work on my business.
And my immediate reaction was panic. Okay, so listener, if this is you, hey, I've been there. Done that, may do it again. And what I ended up doing was like, despite all the training I've had, I gave into it immediately.
Called my mentor immediately, left a voice, like here's how crazy I got left a voicemail, text messaged, and then had like a full on freak out via email. Okay. Luckily, my business mentor had good boundaries and was just like, you know, you can bring it up in a call if this is still something that you would like to share with the group.
Now I share this because that's not what I would recommend. Like, if I could talk to myself, here's what I would say.
One, whatever your immediate reaction is, for me, at that time, it was panic. Walk away for a hot moment.
Okay? Don't take any action from that space of panic. In my case, I definitely took action. I called people, emailed, whatever. Go for a walk. Go meditate. Go journal. Get a glass of water. Just let the feeling pass. Did you know that it takes 90 seconds to fully process a thought? The only reason it can last longer is if you are then having conversations with that, or if you're like continuously cycling through that particular thought.
Okay, 90 seconds get grounded from a place of being grounded, present, calm, or at least like a less state of panic. Then you can ask yourself. Okay, what would I like to do with this newfound knowledge? And the first thing I'd invite you to do is to first express gratitude, right? First of all, how cool, how many of us are like, I don't know what I want.
I've said that, I've said that not that long ago. I dunno what I want. So even if it may feel like a bucket of cold ice water, thrown at your head unexpectedly still. Thank you. Thank that part of you. Thank you heart. Thank you subconscious for offering up this truth of what I really desire.
Thank you. So express gratitude now. What I've observed, the next question comes up. After this is like, oh my God, should I do it? What should I do? And that honestly is what incited the panic for me at least. Rather than ask a question of, should I do this because should I do this, implies there's multiple nestled questions underneath that.
Actually, I suggest breaking it down a little bit.
Number one, do I want this? Do I want it? Not, how would I make it happen? What would I have to give up? What would people think? W what the fuck am I doing right? Just do I want this? You don't have to do, and this is what being grounded will allow you to understand.
You don't have to do anything about it. We're just kind of like in a fact finding mission. Okay. Do I want it? The answer's probably yes. 'cause otherwise it wouldn't have, it wouldn't have come up. Okay.
Can I do this? This is important because it's totally possible that fear is the only thing that's stopping you.
It is also very possible that logistics, it's not available to you right now. So without having any sort of attachment to what the answer is to, can I do this? Get so honest with yourself. Can I do this right now? Can I do this with time? Can I do this with support?
Here's what I love to tell my clients with regards to the, can I do this question for me? And you know, I actually learned this from my dad. The answer's always yes I can. It's just that there's like different nuances. Depending on where you are. Okay. Like I love the positive mindset of, yes, I can. Now, sometimes the answer is yes, I can.
I can do it right now. I at least know my first step or who to talk to, that kind of thing. So that is, yes, I can. Now, sometimes it's a little bit more hesitant. It's like, yes, I can. With some time. So when you get this realization of, oh my God, I hate my fucking job, or Oh my God, I really wanna start my business, or Oh my God, I am in the wrong field, right?
If you don't know what the immediate next step is, yes, I can given time is a perfectly valid answer. And what that means is it could mean, let me take some time to sit with this. Okay. Like, because multiple emotions are coming up, it could mean lemme take some time to fully understand what I actually want.
So in my case, this is what I ended up doing. I was like, okay, I'm not at the yes I can camp. I was like, yes I can and I need help and I need time. And so for me, I did an investigation of like, okay, what could my business look like? What is it about my current job do I enjoy, what do I not enjoy?
For the things that I don't enjoy, how can I make it better? So, like, for me, because I knew like I couldn't just quit my job then and there, and then, I know, like I've talked about when I quit corporate and started my business it may have seem like. That was the time that I hadn't already been thinking about leaving corporate.
But the truth of the matter is I first realized that I wanted to leave corporate like three years before I actually ended up leaving corporate. So I think that context is important because sometimes we see somebody's journey and we think that's the beginning point, but actually it's in the middle, right?
And then we compare ourselves, we compare our. Beginning stages to somebody's middle or somebody's end. So I just wanna make it clear, before I actually left corporate the realization first came three years ago and I knew I needed time. And so for me, the yes I can with time, what that time allowed me to get real with if I really want to switch in my business, what do I know to actually be true?
One, yes, I really enjoyed my job and I was so burnt out. Like overly responsible for things. Again, this is not like a blame fest, it's just this is what I accepted and took on and I didn't have anything left to be creative to start doing different things for my coaching business. And so that's when the decision came for me.
I'm like, okay, I think I need to either set some boundaries at work, ask for more support, or I may need to look for a new job. Okay, so like I just wanna say. I don't believe in making impulsive decisions, impulsive actions. That's not my jam. My jam is grounded decision. Now your next action may be really fast, and it's okay if it's not like it took me three years.
Okay. All right. The third answer that I like to the question of, can I do this? Okay, so we have, yes I can, boom, yes I can with time. And then third way to answer that is, yes I can.
With a little help from my friends. What I really mean by that is yes, I can with support, and this is where coaching is really helpful.
This is why I do what I do. I love helping people with those types of questions, like what I do next. I just have this realization and I really believe actually that. You can do things by yourself and figure it out and learn like we have chat. Now you can ask it's easier to research things and I really do believe that you can be successful that way and having done things.
By myself. And also having done things with coaching support, I'm a huge proponent of going the coaching route, and I'm not just saying that because I myself am a coach, it's because, as a coach in this particular field, like I know these things, right? I know the questions to ask, but when you are in the emotion, when you are in the thick of it, it's really hard to see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
So with a coach, you get somebody who can reflect things. That you've said somebody who can offer you insight. And if you're working with somebody like me, someone who give you a framework on how to get real with yourself, how to get honest and how to, identify what it is that you actually wanna pursue.
And so yeah, that is what I would recommend.
What I really wanna emphasize though, is. Whether that the big realization of, oh man, the pivot after the pivot comes as like a quiet whisper or like a breath of relief. Like, oh, finally I'm naming the thing that seemed like it was off. Or in the example I gave, it hits you like a big ass truck.
I just want to emphasize and really drive the message home that you are allowed to want something without acting on it yet.
Please do not act on it immediately. Take some time to sit with it, like assess, this is really what I want. Before taking action. You're allowed to sit with it to get a better understanding. Of what it is that you want. So in my example, the thought, the truth that like dropped real quick, like hit me in the face was I no longer want to work full-time as an engineer and work part-time as a coach.
If anything I wanted switched, but for me at least I really needed to sit with What does that mean though? What could that look like? And also what would need to happen for me to transition into that. And for me it meant, okay, less responsibility at work, so that I could be less stressed out, allow myself more time and space so I could get the creative juices flowing.
It meant me really paying attention to what are the things that I really loved at my job. What did I not like so much? What did I love in my coaching? What are some of the things where I'm like, oh, I don't know if this was really me. So for me, like it took me about three years to really sit with that clarity of what it could look like, and please move from a grounded choice.
Not panic, at the very least, when that truth hits, rather than reacting with panic like I did, I gotta do something right now, right this second. Or before you react in denial, oh, that can't be true. You know, just let the truth, let that statement live in your brain for at least like. 90 seconds, write it down somewhere.
It's okay. You don't have to take action. And I think that's the biggest, sigh of relief that I get from my clients is when I say, just because you have fully acknowledged that you want something, doesn't mean that you have to take immediate action out of it. So if this is you and you're like, wow.
Okay. I have been either panicking about this truth bomb that dropped on me, or you have been in denial about it, or kind of like ignoring the quiet whisper in your brain. I want you to know this. Every choice that you made since that realization dropped was the right one, and every choice you make from this point forward is also the right one.
Trust that you are going to get there. Wherever there is, even if you don't know where there is yet, and observe how opportunities and ideas and even people and like maybe even jobs come to you.
And I just wanna say, just because we live in a fast-paced society where you are often rewarded for fast action. It doesn't mean that you're meant to or that you have to take your time, stay grounded, ask for support, and know and trust that you're gonna be just fine.
In fact, you're gonna be golden if this episode resonated with you. If you would like your own support in gaining clarity for what your next move is, whether it's in your career life combination of both, book a free 20 minute call with me. And with that. Remember to proceed as if success is inevitable because it is. I'll catch you next time.
All right, friend. That's it for today's drop. If this episode hits something deep, don't just sit with it, act on it. Share this with a friend who needs to hear it, and then head to www.leadinta.com to grab your free heart aligned career transition starter, or book a free 20 minute call with me. I'm here when you're ready to stop feeling stuck and start moving toward what you really want.
Catch you next time.