How to Stop Sabotaging Your Own Career Without Even Realizing It

Catch Yourself Before You Burn Out, Blow Up, or Bail

There’s a version of your career that’s more alive, aligned, and impactful than the one you’re living.

But most people never find it.

Not because they lack talent, but because they keep following the shoulds.

And when life throws a wrench in the plan, they just try to recover fast enough to keep going… instead of asking if “going” is even the right direction.

😖 When Did You Stop Listening?

Here’s what I see with almost every mid-career pro I coach:

They’ve gotten really good at managing hard things but really bad at listening to them.

You get a little quiet nudge… a tug of discomfort… a moment of “this isn’t it.” But you shake it off because there are calls to take, messages to send, and bills to pay.

You’ve got a family to feed and a career you should be grateful for.
So you keep going.

Until one day, you wake up in a role — or an industry — that no longer fits.

But by then, it’s not just a change you need. It feels like a full rewrite.

This is how we sabotage our own careers.
We don’t pause long enough to see where we are.
We just keep sprinting in the direction we started.

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💡 Burn the Garlic, Learn the Lesson

This week, I burned the garlic. Literally.
It was a moment of doing something I knew I shouldn’t be doing, but going along with it anyway because it felt like what I should do.

The signs were there that I wasn’t paying enough attention, but I ignored them.

I needed to eat, I needed to get my newsletter out.

So I tried to do them at the same time. Didn’t work.

I don’t have a lot of regrets in life or things I wish I would have done differently. But almost every single one I do have falls into this same category — my gut was telling me something… and I ignore it.

The signs were there, but I kept pushing on without pausing to reflect on them.

And after talking to so many people about their career paths, I think we do this a lot.

We’re getting the feedback — through feelings of burnout, stress, avoidance, etc. — but instead of facing those things head on and taking a moment to look around and go, “What’s really making me feel this way? And what should I do about it?” we power through.

I think that’s how we end up feeling trapped in places and spaces we don’t really want to be in.

And it doesn’t have to be that way.

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📋 The Play to Run

Sometimes the best career move isn’t action — it’s awareness.

So here’s this week’s clipboard. Let’s run this play instead:

1. Notice the garlic moment.
When something doesn’t go according to plan and you get those feelings of exhaustion, ‘how did I get here?’, or dread, instead of rushing back into your routine, stop and ask:

What is this moment trying to tell me?

2. Track the drift.
Write down where you thought you’d be right now vs. where you are.
Be honest. Is the gap just logistics or has your story shifted?

3. Break your own rules.
The playbook that got you here might not be the one that gets you there.
Give yourself permission to rethink your next step not just through strategy, but through story.

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🏅 Get In the Game This Week

Here’s your action step:

Schedule one hour this week to audit your own career story.

• What patterns keep repeating?

• What moments still bother you?

• What feedback or achievements light you up?

Don’t try to solve it. Just study it like a game film.
The clarity comes in the review.

If you’ve been pushing through a career that doesn’t feel right — you’re not behind.
You’re just ready for a better story.

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🔐 Ready to start leading your next move?

The Career Story Accelerator is open.

Five weeks to write your career story and run the right plays to figure out what’s next.

🗓 Starts October 19th
DM or email me “STORY” and I’ll send you the details.

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🔐 For Paid Subscribers:

✅ Need help getting started on your Career Story? The STARR Story Builder will walk you through it step-by-step. Starting Lineup members get access for free!

🔑 Unlocked at the bottom of this post - scroll down to access.

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💌 Know someone stuck in the same loop? Send this their way.

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