How to Turn Career Confusion Into Your Dream Job

Today I share with you my own personal story from beautiful Switzerland.. me scrolling through job ads in tears to landing my dream role a year later. But it came with a catch.. I had to escape the Comfort Zone Trap.

Maybe you’re feeling similarly at the moment.. sitting there with your coffee getting cold, scrolling through job ads that used to make your heart race.

But now? Nothing.

Just this heavy feeling in your chest because the work that once fit you perfectly feels like it belongs to someone else entirely.

I’ve been exactly where you are right now. 2 Years after my daughter was born, I had twenty years of marketing experience under my belt and work I absolutely loved. But when I sat down to go back, it hit me like a truck. I had changed so much, but I hadn’t updated my work to match who I’d become as a mother.

And here’s what I realized sitting on my bedroom floor, feeling completely lost: your comfort zone isn’t keeping you safe. It’s quietly stealing your dreams, one “maybe next year” at a time.

So I want to share with you today:

Why staying comfortable is actually the most dangerous thing you can do (for yourself and your family)

I talk about how we tell ourselves we’re being practical, being smart, waiting for the right time. But really? We’re just scared. And while we’re waiting to feel ready, our kids are growing up and we’re staying stuck.

The inner work that actually changes everything

I share exactly what I did when I realized I couldn’t keep living this way—the journaling, the reading, the coaching that helped me see what I really wanted. Not what I thought I should want, but what actually lit me up inside.

How I landed my dream job in a field I’d never worked in

This part still gives me chills. I flew back to Australia with my baby, no job, no apartment—just this deep knowing that I was on the right path. And six months later, I was working in corporate social responsibility, doing work that stretched me every single day.

Comfort Zones are cosy

We stay in our comfort zones because they do feel safe. They feel more predictable. They feel sometimes a little bit easier to get back to or to stay in. But guess what? Your comfort zone can quietly kill your dreams. Very quietly.

Especially when you have kids because you’re so busy with everything else, you’re so busy running around, doing all the things for everyone. And now you scroll job ads and you feel zero excitement, but you tell yourself, maybe it’s not quite the right time. You think, but what if I fail? What if I can’t handle it yet?

And suddenly you’re putting your own life on hold for certainty, not for purpose, not for fulfillment. And it’s a trap. It’s especially brutal for us moms because there’s so much more at stake. We’re not just doing this for us. We’re doing it for them too.

My Rock Bottom Moment

Look, I’ve been there too. My daughter was born and it took me a couple of years. I was a stay-at-home mom and I was really happy. I was working on a side project that I had. It was the best time of my life, but when I sat down to go back to work, it hit me like a truck.

I had 20 years experience in marketing and communications and I absolutely loved my career, but suddenly I felt empty. I just stared at the job listings, nothing happened. I had changed, but I hadn’t updated my work to match.

And to make it worse, I had just moved back to Switzerland from Australia and I knew in my gut, this wasn’t where I wanted to raise my daughter. And my relationship, not a good time either. I was struggling so much uncertainty that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know where I belonged anymore, personally or professionally. So that was my rock bottom.

The Turning Point

I then got curious and I thought to myself, I can’t keep doing this. I have to get myself out of this situation and I started to do that inner work. I read through What Color Is Your Parachute, which is a career book. And little by little, I started to rebuild my vision of what meaningful purposeful work looked like for who I am now.

And that’s when I landed on CSR corporate social responsibility. Sustainability and contribution, values, they all ticked my boxes I didn’t even know I had. It felt very scary because I had never worked in sustainability before, but at the same time I was looking at these job descriptions and I felt so excited, so on fire. I just knew I belonged there.

So I said to myself, I figured out harder things in my life before much harder things and I will figure this out too. So I got a certification from Harvard Online Business and I set my sights on a dream role at a company I really wanted to work for and you wouldn’t believe it but six months later I landed exactly that role in Sydney.

But I really had to take a big risk. I flew back with my baby. I had no job. I had no apartment. I just had that faith that it was the right path for me. And in the end it paid off big time. It was my dream role. Still to this day. I think about it often and I am so grateful to my younger version that I put in that work, that I researched, got to know myself better to understand what drives me, what I really wanted.

I believe, if your old career doesn’t fit anymore, it’s because you’re ready to step into a new version of yourself.

So I really want to encourage you to stop waiting to feel ready. Because that feeling of ready is never coming. You have to move before readiness shows up. And you have to get clear on what you want. You have to sit down and do the work. Sit down in journal every day. Read books. Start coaching.

I’m reading an amazing book at the moment that is so inspirational and it’s called What’s Your Dream by Simon Squibb. He’s also got a very inspiring TikTok channel. You know, I love TikTok.

Take Your First Step

So I want to encourage you to start taking your first steps to figure out what lights you up today. Start taking small little steps, start doing a course, start having conversations with people, start applying for roles, even if it scares you, and especially if it scares you.

Your Career Confusion is only temporary. If you’re feeling a little stuck right now, do one thing this week that pushes you a little out of your comfort zone, you know, apply for that job. Book the call with someone that inspires you. Send them an email, write them a message. Research a career coach that you’ve been wanting to work with. Research what career or business coach could help you with your next steps.

And it doesn’t have to be perfect, it never really is. It just has to be a starting point to get you out of that zone where you feel dead inside, you know, where you feel like nothing’s happening anymore, where nothing lights you up anymore.

Because if you don’t get out of that zone, nothing will change. You will stay in that never-ending loop of maybe next year, maybe next time, and before you know it your daughter will be 10, your son will be 10 and you will wonder what happened, where did the time go? And I can promise you it’s gonna be even harder then.

So start taking little steps now, start taking your first steps now. You open the door to something new, to something more exciting, to a new little adventure. Something that fits the new version of you that exists now. Not the one from five years ago.

My Second Career Pivot

When I look back at the time where I was sitting in my office at my desk trying to figure out what to do, dreading these job applications that didn’t light a fire in my belly anymore. Oh man, I’m so grateful that I put in that work. I’m so grateful because just thinking about the emotions now coming up, even when I record this episode now, I’m getting so emotional about this time and I’m so grateful to myself that I had faith that I trusted that I can do this, that I took that leap of faith, that I took that next step, that I put in the work.

I’m so grateful to myself, because I wouldn’t have landed my dream job. I wouldn’t be doing work that excites me. And I learned so much in that role, a role that really stretched me every day and I’m so grateful how much I have learned and all the stories I can tell, all the experiences, all the impact I’ve had. I wouldn’t feel this strong sense of purpose as a mom and as a woman.

And now, today, five years later, things have shifted once again. Because they do, we change. And my purpose for role had to evolve. We had a difficult time in 2020, which led to me having to come to Europe. So the circumstances changed. And everyone in my family believed it was safer for us to come to Europe. So we did. And that meant that I wasn’t able to continue my role. That meant I had to start once again from scratch, and had to figure things out, and had to work through the emotions of not feeling fulfillment in my work anymore, not feeling like I belonged, and so once again I had to start from scratch.

I was in Germany, I left Germany when I was 21, so I hadn’t lived there for a long, long time, and I didn’t feel I belonged there. I couldn’t find an exciting role where I was living. So once again, I had to start from zero. I had to reinvent myself. I had to recreate, redesign my life. And it wasn’t easy. It’s never easy. But it led me to where I am today.

And there certainly were moments that were quite emotional. And I certainly had a moment two and a half years ago when I was sitting on my bedroom floor once again, realizing that there’s no fire in my belly anymore, that I didn’t know where to from here. And then I got an amazing coach and she helped me see all the things that I wasn’t able to see myself and she helped me understand what I really wanted and she helped me light that fire in my belly again. She made me understand and come home to myself and I’m forever grateful to her for that.

Helping Others Find Their Path

Because of that new chapter that I opened, I now get to help other women do the same. I now got to realize how many times I have transitioned, how many times I have pivoted from nothing into something completely new. How many times I had to be brave to encourage myself and to walk that path alone.

So because of that, I get to help other women and mothers do the same now. I got to realize how many times I have pivoted and changed and transitioned my career. And how great I am at showing other people a way forward, because there’s always a way forward. You just have to take that very first step out of your safety zone, into a life that’s waiting for you, into your next chapter.

Because I can promise you, that next chapter is always more exciting than the one before. Most people don’t regret the things they did. They regret what they didn’t do.

So please do take that step. Your dream job or your dream business surely isn’t sitting in your safety zone. Please be brave, especially for yourself, but also for your children because you are their hero.

Please share this episode or blog post with anyone who would benefit from it. Please review the podcast if you have some extra time. It really means so much to me.

Thank you so so much and I see you back here soon!