Career Refresh Digest #42
Welcome to the latest edition of the Career Refresh Digest.
This issue is about interests: why they're easy to lose touch with, why it's often not the role that's the problem, and a simple way to start noticing yours again.
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WORTH THINKING ABOUT
Losing touch with your interests matters more than you might think
"I don't even know what I'm interested in anymore" is something I hear often, usually from people who've had no real downtime in years. It's a genuine gap, and it matters more than people expect.
Interests aren't just a nice to have on top of a career decision. They're one of the clearest signals of fit. The more genuinely interested you are in something, the more likely you are to find satisfaction in doing it, whether the interest shows up in the work itself, the organisation, or the sector around it.
The trouble is that interests are also one of the things we lose sight of under sustained busyness. There's no space left to notice them. Time outside work goes to recovery rather than anything that might reveal what actually engages you.
Without that information, it's easy to make career decisions on whatever's expected or whatever's next, rather than on a genuine sense of what would suit you long term.
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WORTH REFLECTING ON
When the job feels wrong but the role isn't the problem
A pattern that comes up often: someone stops feeling engaged by their work and assumes the fix is a different role, or a different profession entirely.
But when we look more closely at their interests, it's not always the role that's lost its shine. It's the organisation it's part of, or the sector it sits within.
Someone who moves the same role into a sector or organisation that actually connects to what interests them often finds the engagement comes back, without having to reinvent anything about the work itself.
It's worth separating the two before assuming the bigger move is the one you need. Falling out of love with your work isn't always about the work. Sometimes it's about what the work is in service of.
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WORTH DOING
A two-week noticing practice
If you suspect you've lost touch with your interests, don't try to answer the question directly, because it tends to draw a blank when asked head-on.
Instead, for the next two weeks, keep a running note of moments that catch your attention. What do you pause on when scrolling? What would you pick up in an airport bookshop? Which conversations with colleagues or friends do you find yourself leaning into? What would you choose to read or listen to if you had an unexpected free hour?
Don't filter as you go, just take note. At the end of two weeks, read back through the list and look for patterns.
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If this raises more questions than it answers, or you'd like a more structured way to work through what genuinely interests you as part of a bigger career decision, book a 15-minute call here.
That's it from me for this fortnight.
– Lucy
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ABOUT THE CAREER REFRESH DIGEST
The Career Refresh Digest is a fortnightly newsletter for mid-career professionals who feel stuck or out of step with their work. Each issue shares practical insights and tools to help you reset direction, make clearer decisions, and reshape your work to better fit your life – drawing on recommendations, research, and insights from client work.