Time for a Change: The Seven-Year Itch… in your Career
Ask yourself seven questions and scratch that itch.
The concept of the "seven-year itch," traditionally associated with relationships, suggests that after seven years, people experience a natural desire for change or new experiences. This phenomenon can also be observed in careers, where a similar cycle of restlessness and desire for growth often emerges. Understanding this cycle can provide valuable insights into career development, motivation, and personal fulfillment.
I'm sure you've heard about the seven year mark in relationships and marriage. After seven years of dating, you ask a lot of questions. Do you get married? Do you break up? Is it time to have kids, move, take a big trip? How do you keep things exciting and interesting?
In fact, seven seems to be like the universal number for reset. It's a known cycle. If you think about it, our weeks are seven days and every seventh day we have a reset. Some people have it on Fridays and Saturdays, some reset on Sunday, but ideally we all have a reset every seven days. The seven reset also shows up biologically when our skin renews every seven years. In academia, professors take a sabbatical every seven-years or so. Even in farming, land takes a break every seven years.
So what happens in careers? Have you ever considered that every seven years you have some little funny feeling about me being stuck or being in a rut?
The Seven-Year Itch in Careers
In the context of careers, the seven-year itch describes a period when professionals feel a strong urge to reassess their job satisfaction, skills, and career trajectory. This phase is characterized by a sense of stagnation, boredom, or a craving for new challenges. It can be a critical juncture where individuals contemplate making significant changes, such as switching jobs, pursuing further education, or even changing industries altogether.
Several factors contribute to this phenomenon. Over time, the initial excitement and learning curve of a new job diminish, leading to a plateau in personal growth and satisfaction. As professionals master their roles, they may find their work less stimulating and struggle to find meaning or purpose. Additionally, the dynamics of the workplace and industry can change, affecting job security and satisfaction.
What does it feel like to have a seven-year itch in your career? It could be different for different people. For example, you can think everything is good. Life is good. Nothing's really wrong. You even convinced yourself that you really can't complain, but you're asking yourself why am I still feeling like something is off? Why am I feeling in a rut?
Even if nothing is really wrong, that basically defines a seven-year itch. Knowing something feels off even though you can't put your finger on it or feeling that all is okay, but something's missing.
Questions to ask yourself these seven questions:
When I am at work, am I often thinking about other things?
Am I thinking about how I can accomplish other goals, while still going to work daily?
Do I get easily distracted by my passion projects and losing focus on my work?
Am I constantly counting down to the weekend and days off work?
Do I feel like I could be doing bigger and better things with my life?
Am I starting to rethink my values and personal fulfillment in my career?
Do I complain more than I get excited about work projects?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be in a situation of a rut or an itch, that you just have to scratch! Then you decide, you know what, this is a good time for me to go back to school, maybe get another degree, maybe get another license or credential. In reality, this sounds like a great idea to enhance your education, to get more credentials, but oftentimes it's easier to resort to external factors than to think about our internal shifts.
Going back to school is external. You apply, you go, you take classes, but the real work happens not in that classroom or as you're pursuing another degree. The real work happens when you pause and reflect on what is really fulfilling you. What are you intending to do with that new degree or that new skill?
So before you apply to grad school or apply to get another license or more credentials, really think about the why and what you want to do with it as opposed to it being the it.
What is the action that you're actually going to take to make the shift or the change. The hard part is not school. The hard part is self-reflection. And as they take a sabbatical in academia, there's a lot of research that shows taking an actual break and a pause to reflect on where you are at and where you're going is the only real way to reset or scratch that itch that you might be feeling.
Think about this. Take time to do some personal development and reflection to figure things out. If you didn't have to worry about money and paying bills and having your financial responsibilities, how would you spend every single day of your life? I don't mean you're on vacation for a week or two and I don't mean that maybe you even take a month or two off work. If you really got to live a different life where you had unlimited money in your bank account and all your bills are paid for, how would you spend your days?
Oftentimes we believe that the dream would be to relax and sleep and travel, but truly think about what would be fulfilling to you. It doesn't mean that you have to drop everything and pursue this passion now, but you really need to think about what fulfills your values, interests, and lifestyle. It doesn’t necessarily mean that's where your paycheck is coming from. So if you can separate your paycheck from your passion, you can still be fulfilled even if work isn't the fulfilling part of your life.You don't have to shift and change what you do as long as you add on doing something that also fulfills you.
We spend so much time at work, so it is important to think about what's really happening during those hours and is it making us happy? If it's not making you happy, where are you getting your happiness from? Pause and think about where you are in life and what you might be feeling about it.
Ask yourself these questions:
What do I love and want to keep the same?
What drains my energy and shifts my mood negatively?
What am I missing that fuels my energy and increases a positive mood?
Take time to assess your responses and then consider what you are going to do to scratch that itch. The goal is to clear your mind and stop wondering, what if life was different? What if I did something else? Asking yourself, is this all there is?
It's not.
You do have control over the decisions you make every day. So pause and reflect, do the hard work to figure out where you're at and scratch that itch.