The Hidden Cost of Staying in an “Okay” Career for One More Year (And How to Make 2026 Your Pivot Year) | #564

What if one more year in your “okay” career quietly costs you more than you realise?

In this episode, I speak not as an outsider, but as someone who has been there – a former dentist who stayed in a successful but misaligned career for longer than felt true.

You’ll hear:

• The three hidden ways an “okay” career drains your self-trust, energy, and relationships
• How to stop rolling the decision forward to “next year” again and again
• A simple 3-step plan to make the year ahead your pivot year, without tearing apart the life you have built

🎧 Listen now to get honest about what another “okay” year is really costing you – and how to start moving towards work that actually fits who you are now.

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor

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Conversations and insights on career transition, career clarity, midlife career change and career pivots for midlife professionals, including second careers, new ventures, leaving a long-term career with confidence, better decision-making, and creating purposeful, meaningful work.

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Transcript

As this year comes to a close, there is a question that haunts many accomplished professionals. Can I really do one more year of this? You have built a solid life around a demanding career. You know how to perform, to carry responsibility, to be the person others rely on. 

On paper, it works. But when you are honest with yourself, another sentence keeps coming back. This is okay, but it's not longer who I really am. 

You can feel you have outgrown the version of you who built this career, yet the idea of actually changing it feels frightening. Welcome to Personal Development Mastery Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Agi Keramidas, a mentor, coach, and former dentist. 

In this episode, we are talking about the hidden cost of staying in an okay career for one more year, and how to make next year your pivot year. You might be listening to this as the year is coming to a close. Around this time, when people ask you how's work, the words that come out of your mouth are something like, it's fine, it's okay, I can't really complain. 

From the outside, your life looks good. You have created stability, you are seen as someone who has done well. And yet there is a quiet inner voice that keeps saying, this does not fit me anymore. 

That tension is very familiar to me. For over 20 years, dentistry was my career, my identity, my day-to-day reality. On paper, I had made it.

The career, the recognition, the nice car. But inside, there was a growing sense of discontent and an inner pull towards something else. You might be in a career you once loved, but it no longer excites you. 

You might feel like you have outgrown your role or even your profession. You feel this pull towards something more meaningful, more aligned with who you are now. And then another thought comes in. 

Now is not the right time. I'll see how things look next year, or after the holidays, or after this project finishes, or after things calm down. So you roll the decision forward and you stay in your okay career for one more year.

And let's clarify something here. When I say okay career, I don't mean something bad or toxic. In fact, that is what makes it tricky. 

An okay career is one that looks respectable from the outside. It pays the bills and maybe more, much more. It gives you a sense of security.

But inside, this okay career feels dull or draining or flat. It feels misaligned with your values or perhaps too small for who you have become. The danger with okay is that it's comfortable enough to stay, but uncomfortable enough to slowly eat away at you. 

And today I want to talk about the hidden cost of the decision to stay in a okay career for another year. And I don't mean the obvious things. I mean, subtle costs that build up over time.

And also at the end of this episode, I will share a simple plan you can use to start changing things. But first, let us look at what staying in the okay career for one more year is really costing you. And I can see three major consequences. 

The first consequence is the erosion of self-trust. You know, each time you feel that inner nudge and you override it, your self-trust weakens a little. You carry on being sensible, but underneath you start doubting your own judgment. 

And over time, indecision feels safer than choosing. But what I want you to keep in mind that indecision is still a decision, a decision to stay where you are. The second major consequence is the opportunity cost to your future self. 

And what I mean by that is that one more year, like the previous one, in an okay career is not just a repeat. It is a year that you are not building what comes next. No experiments, no new skills, no data from trying things in real life instead of just in your head. 

Consider this, if you had spent even one hour or two hours a week this past year exploring a new chapter, where might you be now? That gap is the quiet cost of delay. The third major consequence of remaining where you are is the spillover that this has into the rest of your life. You know, work does not stay at work. 

When you spend most of your time in a role that no longer fits, it shows up. It shows up at home as less presence, less patience, more numbing behaviors. These are three major hidden costs of one more okay year.

And now let's talk about a simple plan to make this your pivot year. I do not believe in those big New Year's resolutions that fade by February. What actually works is a clear decision and small consistent steps.

And I will share and invite you to take those three steps. Step one is to decide this is going to be your pivot year. Rather than vaguely hoping things will change at some point, choose it consciously. 

Declare to yourself, this is the year I move from an okay career to work that is aligned with who I am now. And you do not need the full plan. You just need that decision, not to sleepwalk through another year. 

So take a piece of paper and try it down. By December, I want to be able to say this was my pivot year because... And finish the sentence in your own words. Step number two that I invite you to take is to get honest about what aligned means for you.

And when I say that, I do not mean that you have to work out your ultimate calling. Start with some simple questions like, when do I feel most alive at work? Or which parts of my current role drain me the most? Another very good question is for my next chapter, even if I may not know what it is exactly, what are three non-negotiables for me? And the step number three that I will invite you to take is to choose one real experiment for the first three months of the year. A pivot does not begin with a dramatic leap.

It can begin as simply as with an experiment. So ask yourself, what is one simple real world experiment that I can run in the next three months that can move me towards aligned work? This could be a conversation or a small project or a course that you wanted to take or protecting a block of time for exploring these things. Whatever it is, make it specific and doable. 

And then at the end of three months, review it. This is how clarity is built through action and reflection, not just thinking harder. Let me recap what we've discussed about so far.

Staying in a okay career for one more year, quietly erodes your self-trust. It steals time from your future self and spills over into your health and relationships. You can choose a different pattern. 

You can decide that 2026 is your pivot year. You can clarify what aligned work means for you now and design one concrete experiment for the first three months that moves you in that direction. If you recognize yourself in what I have described today and you do not want to spend another year circling the same questions, this is the work I do one-to-one with a small number of listeners. 

Together, we get clear on what you actually want after this chapter. We design a grounded plan that fits your reality and we focus on helping you take confident steps forward instead of staying stuck in your head. Over the holiday period now, I'm also resting and reflecting and so I'm opening new one-to-one spots from January.

If you would like to explore whether we are a good fit to work together, you can book a free clarity call with me at personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com slash mentor. The link is in the show notes. If you are listening to this episode later in the year, that same link will show you my current availability. 

Thank you for listening and for allowing my voice to be part of your journey of transition. Until next time, stand out and do not settle for a life that feels less than what you know is possible for you.