Three Things I Am Leaving Behind This Christmas So My Work Finally Fits Who I Am | #565

As you move through the Christmas gatherings and small talk about work and life, is there a quieter part of you wondering, “Can I really keep doing this for another ten years?”

For many midlife professionals, the holidays bring more than just celebration—they spark deep reflection. Amid the lights and laughter, there's often a quieter voice asking if “fine” is really good enough. This episode speaks directly to that inner voice and helps you begin the new year with clarity, not just resolutions.

In this special Christmas episode:

• Discover the 3 hidden patterns that may be quietly holding you back from work that truly fits who you are now.
• Learn why pretending everything is “fine” erodes your self-trust—and what to do instead.
• Hear how leaving behind the myth of perfect timing can unlock real, aligned change in your career and life.

Listen now to uncover what you need to leave behind this Christmas to create the space for a more authentic and fulfilling next chapter.

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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

Christmas has a way of throwing certain questions into more sharp focus. You can be surrounded by food, family, lights and presents and at the same time notice a quieter thought in the background. Is this really how I want my work and life to feel for the next decade? If you are in your 40s or 50s and you have spent years in a demanding career, that question can feel especially loud at this time of the year. 

Welcome to Personal Development Mastery Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Agi Keramidas, a coach and former dentist. And this podcast is here to support you as a midlife professional in transition, navigating the uncertainty of what comes next in your work and life. 

Today is a special Christmas episode and I will tell you the three things that I'm leaving behind this Christmas so my work finally fits who I am. So rather than talking about what I want to add in the new year, I will talk about what I am choosing to leave behind. Because often it is not the lack of a new plan that keeps us stuck where we are. 

It is the beliefs, habits and ways of relating to ourselves that we have accumulated and we carry with us year after year. These are the ones that quietly block us from creating work that fits with who we are now. So as you listen to me sharing the three things I'm leaving behind this Christmas, I invite you to notice which of these resonate with you and what your own version might be.

The first thing I'm leaving behind is pretending that fine is enough. It's this time of the year that people ask how's work and the answer that comes out almost automatically it's fine, it's okay, I can't complain. For a long time as a dentist I did exactly this, I told myself the story of it is fine, long after it stopped being true for the person I had become.

I kept comparing my inner experience to other people's outer circumstances. What I am leaving behind this Christmas is that habit of minimizing my inner truth, of saying it is fine when I know that it's not. Because every time we say it's fine when it's not, we send ourselves a message that our inner experience is negotiable. 

This over time erodes our self-trust and it becomes harder to listen to that part of us that actually knows. So here is a simple question for you, where in your work are you saying it's fine this Christmas when if you were deeply honest you would say this no longer fits who I am. You do not have to fix it all today, just stop pretending that fine is enough. 

That's the first thing I am leaving behind. The second thing I am leaving behind this Christmas is waiting for the perfect time. It's the belief that there will be a perfect moment to change. 

You might recognize some of these thoughts, I will look at it after Christmas, or once this project is over then I will think about it, or when things are less busy at home then I will start. And what usually happens when we think like that? The holidays pass, the project ends, something else fills the space and the decision is rolled forward another year. In my own journey and in the journeys of the people I work with, I have seen that the perfect time never announces itself. 

There is always a good reason to delay things. So this Christmas I am choosing to leave behind the myth of perfect timing. And a question for you, if you stop waiting for the perfect time, what is one small step you could take in the first three months of the new year to explore a different direction? And the third thing that I am leaving behind this Christmas is trying to figure it all out in my head. 

It is the idea that I have to think my way to the perfect next chapter. If you are an accomplished professional, you are probably very good at solving problems with your mind. You analyze, you plan, you forecast and this has served you very well in your career.

But when it comes to questions like what do I want the next chapter of my life to look like? Or what kind of work truly fits who I am now? In questions like this, pure thinking is not enough. You can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, make endless lists of pros and cons and still feel stuck. I know I certainly did. 

Earlier this year in an episode I spoke about three dimensions of mastery I see. Mind mastery, flow mastery and living mastery. Mind mastery is important but it is not the whole picture. 

Flow and living come from being in motion, from taking small aligned actions and noticing how they feel. And in that sense mastery is not something we get to at the end. It is something we live into step by step.

This applies directly here. You will not think your way into work that fits with who you are now. You will live your way into it through experiments, conversations and experiences.

So this Christmas I'm leaving behind the pressure to have the entire next chapter figured out in my head before I allow myself to move. And a question you might want to ask yourself. What is one small experiment I can run in the next year that will help me experience rather than just think about a different way of working? And so let me bring this all together.

The three things that I am leaving behind this Christmas so that my work can better fit who I am are. First, pretending that fine is enough when I know it's not. Second, waiting for the perfect time to move. 

And third, trying to figure it all out in my head before I allow myself to act. As you sit in the quieter moments of this Christmas period, I invite you to make this into a simple ritual of your own. Take a piece of paper and write at the top. 

This Christmas I am leaving behind. Then choose your own three things. What matters is that they are honest.

And remember, you do not have to know exactly how that will unfold. By choosing what you will leave behind, you create space for something new to emerge. If you recognize yourself in what I have shared today and you are in that midlife space of transition, this is the work I do one-to-one with a small number of listeners. 

Together we bring clarity to 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 circling the same questions in your head. Over the holidays, I am also resting and reflecting, so I am opening new one-to-one spots in 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. Thank you for spending part of your Christmas with me and for allowing my voice into your journey. Merry Christmas and stand out, don't fit in.