Career Change - Find Your Perfect Job

One of our most honest learnings at Escape is that there is no single silver bullet to finding fulfilling work. No one-size-fits all blueprint to get there either.

Each of us are unique in our hopes, dreams and ambitions. We’ve each lived through a diverse set of experiences, cultures, and environments. All of us have a diverse set of values, gifts, talents, strengths, and skills. We each have our own unique potential to fulfill.

Why do you work?

"There are two sides to work. On one side is our need and desire for money. We work in order to get paid. On the other side, and totally separate from our wages, is the fact that we work in order to fulfill many other purposes in our lives."

Why do you work? What motivates you to get out of bed 5 days a week to make money?

What is the purpose of your paid employment? Here are some ideas for various purposes of paid employment from the book Your Money or Your Life. Which apply to you?

● Earning money

○ to provide necessities— food, clothing, shelter (survival)

○ to provide amenities (comforts)

○ to provide luxuries

○ to provide funds for others (philanthropy)

○ to leave an estate

● A sense of security

○ that your needs will be met

○ that your value as an adult human being is recognized

● Tradition

○ to carry on a family tradition of following a particular profession

○ to maintain a sense of continuity and connection with your past

● Enjoyment

○ to be in contact with interesting people

○ to have stimulation, entertainment and fun

● Duty

○ to do your fair share in keeping society functioning smoothly

● Service

○ to make a contribution to others, society and the world

● Learning

○ to acquire new skills

● Prestige and status

○ to receive praise, admiration and respect from others

● Power

○ over people who report to you and follow your commands

○ over the course of events, influencing decisions

● Socializing

○ to enjoy opportunities to socialize with your coworkers

○ to meet the public and feel part of a larger community

● Personal growth

○ to be stimulated and challenged

○ to expand your emotional and intellectual life

● Success

○ to get a way to measure progress and success

○ to compare yourself with others in your field

● Creativity and fulfillment

○ to achieve fulfillment, that feeling of being completely and well used

○ to be challenged, to stay sharp, to create something new

● Time structuring

○ to structure your time and give an orderly rhythm to your life

● Just because...that’s what people do.

Exercise: Why do you work?

Take out a piece of paper - answer the following questions - this will form your “workview”

What does success mean to you?

What does ‘wealth’ mean to you?

The idea of fulfilling work goes far beyond just earning a paycheck. It’s about finding meaning, satisfaction, and alignment with your values, and researchers and thought leaders have offered some useful frameworks to help us understand these deeper ingredients.

The six key ingredients identified by Escape The City—security, mastery, impact, passion, autonomy, and wellbeing—highlight the importance of work that not only provides financial stability but also contributes to personal growth and purpose. These elements are crucial for a career that feels fulfilling rather than just a means to an end.

Here’s a closer look at what these ingredients mean:

- Security: Having a sense of financial stability and a clear future outlook, which allows you to plan and feel safe in your work.

- Mastery: The opportunity to learn, develop, and grow in your field, gaining expertise and competence over time.

- Impact: The ability to make a positive difference in the world, whether in your community, your industry, or society as a whole.

- Passion: The deep interest and enthusiasm for the work you’re doing, which fuels motivation and engagement.

- Autonomy: The freedom to make decisions and manage your own time, allowing for greater control over your career and work-life balance.

- Wellbeing: Maintaining physical, mental, and emotional health in a way that supports your overall life satisfaction and happiness.

What’s important to note here is that fulfilling work isn’t just about financial success. Many people fall into the trap of focusing solely on salary or job title, but as these six ingredients demonstrate, fulfillment comes from a broader set of factors.

Recognising what’s missing from your career—whether it’s purpose, autonomy, or impact—is a crucial step in finding work that truly satisfies. By being honest with yourself about the unhelpful aspects of your current job or career, you can start to map out a path that brings these missing ingredients into your life.

Download and read the supporting document.

Over the next few modules, we'll help you gain a deeper understanding of your likes, dislikes, joys, and frustrations from your current and past work. This reflection will guide you in identifying both large and small changes you may need to make.

But first, based on the studies above, think about which ingredients of fulfilling work are currently missing for you.

Exercise: Fill in the ingredients of fulfilling work worksheet.

The Ingredients of Fulfilling Work: Likes & Dislikes

Reflecting on your past career and work experiences, both positive and negative, will help you begin to build your Escape compass. This will guide you in identifying the missing ingredients of fulfilling work and help you determine the changes you need to make.

Part 1: Identify your past and present work Likes & Dislikes

Think about specific examples from your career, work, or life experiences where you’ve either liked or disliked something. Try to come up with as many experiences as you can. You can take more than 10 minutes for this reflection if needed.

Likes:

- What have you really enjoyed? What excited you?

- When have you felt fully engaged in your work?

- When have you been most proud of your work?

- What are you doing when time seems to fly by?

- Recall a time when you couldn’t wait to get out of bed. What were you about to do?

Dislikes:

- What kind of work did you really dislike or feel bitter towards?

- When did you feel like you were faking it?

- What kind of tasks do you dread? Are there times when you dreaded going into work?

- What frustrates you the most? What do you have no patience for?

- What aspects of your work are you not enjoying at all?

If you're finding it difficult to identify your likes and dislikes, it may help to consider these categories:

- Location

- Work Environment / Physical Environment

- Activities

- Processes

- Industries

- Conversations

- Problems You’re Solving

- Team & Relationships

- Company Culture

- Level of Autonomy

- Types of Projects

- Where or How You Were Working

Thinking through these aspects can help you uncover more specific experiences that contribute to your overall feelings about work.

Download and read the supporting document.

Once you have your list of Likes and Dislikes, take a moment to distinguish which factors are Situational and which are Fundamental:

- Situational factors are aspects that can be changed by getting a new job at a different company or by rearranging your current work situation. These could include your commute, your boss, colleagues or team, company culture, or a toxic work environment.

- Fundamental factors are deeper and intrinsic to the work you’re doing. These may require more significant changes, such as a different industry, role, or day-to-day tasks.

Some people are in the right industry or role, but it's the situational aspects of their job that need to change. This could include things like a long commute, a difficult boss, or a toxic environment. On the other hand, some people may need a more fundamental change in their industry, role, or company culture.

For example:

- Is your miserable boss making you unhappy? (Situational)

- Or are you an architect who fundamentally dislikes the tasks associated with architecture? (Fundamental)

If you're using the worksheet, mark your list of Likes and Dislikes:

- Mark an ‘X’ next to anything that’s situational.

- Mark an ‘O’ or circle anything that’s fundamental.

Download and read the supporting document.

Download and read the supporting document.

Do you know your Good Career Criteria?

For many people, a ‘good career’ is shaped by external influences such as friends, family, teachers, and colleagues. It often revolves around things like earning an annual bonus, receiving promotions, or having a company car. While these are definitely positive things, there are many other factors that might matter more to you personally.

To deepen your understanding of your values and go a step further, it’s helpful to define what we call your Good Career Criteria. These are the key elements that make a career ‘good’ in your eyes — a simple picture of what success looks like for you. This will serve as a compass as you work through the next steps. Just like with your values, the challenge is to narrow down your criteria to your top 3, creating a clear guide for what matters most to you.

Use the following prompts to explore what matters to you:

- My guiding values are…

- I want to change my career because…

- Success, to me, means…

- My skills and resources include…

- My time and money constraints include…

As you reflect on these, look for recurring themes. What stands out as an absolute must-have for you? This is where you’ll identify your Good Career Criteria — write them down in the box provided.

These three criteria will serve as the benchmark by which you evaluate any new opportunities or business ventures. They are both aspirational and practical, and you should always refer to them when considering new paths.

Although these steps require deep introspection and can be challenging, they are essential if you want to make meaningful changes in your career. Keep revisiting your values and Good Career Criteria as a guide to stay on track.

Although your relationship with the word “Hero” may vary, here’s what we mean:

A Hero/Heroine is a tangible example of someone you might aspire to become. Someone who embodies a trait, habit, expertise, career, lifestyle or a body of work that you admire. Heroes are role models for the type of person you might grow into.

You could have a single hero who's created a lifestyle you admire. You might have many heroes whose small traits collectively embody someone you hope to grow into.

How the people we admire (and envy) can give us valuable information about possible new directions for ourselves.

Heroes aren’t meant to be worshipped or forever live on a pedestal far away. One purpose in having a hero is to try to close the perceived gap between yourself and them. You want to learn and study from your heroes, not just for the sake of it, but with the goal of one day becoming more like them.

Fortunately today we live in a world where we can have a closer relationship with our heroes through social channels — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs and many other online media channels, or even offline meet-ups. If our heroes have created bodies of work and have documented their life story, we can easily and quickly follow their blogs, read their books, watch their talks, learn about their lives.

Pay attention specifically to what it is about that person that you admire or envy. Why do you want to be more like them?

What can that teach you about the career you want to do?

To uncover your values, here are a few questions that will bring the good stuff to the surface. (Remember your career and your personal life when answering them - real values apply to both). Jot down your answers as you go.

1. When were you happiest? (What were you doing? Were you with other people? Who? What other factors contributed to your happiness?)

2. When have you felt most proud? (Why were you proud? Did other people share your pride? Who? What other factors contributed to your feelings of pride?

3. When have you felt most fulfilled and satisfied? (What need or desire was fulfilled? How and why did the experience give your life meaning? What other factors contributed to your feelings of fulfilment?)

4. Do any of the values in the accompanying document resonate strongly with you?

5. What words have come up? Does anything appear more than once? What did you feel most strongly about as you thought it through?

We need to get it down to 2-3 key words. If that’s all you’ve got, great. More likely you’ve got 10, 15, 20 (or more) on your piece of paper. So, to refine it, it’s helpful to get imaginative. On your list, look at the first two values and ask yourself, "If I could satisfy only one of these, which would I choose?" Visualize a situation where you’d have to make that choice - e.g. if you’re comparing the values of service and stability, imagine that you have to decide whether to sell your house and move to another country to do valuable foreign aid work, or keep your house and volunteer to do charity work closer to home. Keep working through the list by comparing each value with its next value. Keep moving the ‘winners’ to the top, until your list is in the correct order.

Now, take a look at your top 3. Do they feel right? Would you stand up for them, even if it put you in the minority? Would you be proud to tell them to someone you admire? Refine your top 3 until you’re happy with them.

Understanding your values can help you get clear on what’s not working in your current career, so that you can create guideposts for your future decisions - and end up somewhere better aligned to who you are.

It may seem like this is a distraction from thinking about the real stuff (looking for jobs, working on your CV, doing extra skills training), but stay with us.

So - what do we mean by values?

Values are the things you believe are important in your life and work. They (should) determine your priorities, and they’re your yardstick for measuring whether your life is turning out the way you want it to. Together, they make up your ‘why’.

When you’re living life in a way that’s not in line with your values, you tend to know about it. Everything’s a bit out of tune. Value time with family, and working 70-hour weeks? Value creativity, and spending all your time in spreadsheets? Value freedom, and being forced to stick to a rigid work pattern or routine? Understanding your values can help you suss out exactly what’s wrong, and which things you need to adjust to get it right. It can also help you design a career that’s most likely to give you the fulfilment, excitement and satisfaction that we’re all looking for - and keep you motivated when things seem hard.

All sounds like pretty big stuff, huh? Unless you’ve given it some serious thought already, you probably have a vague sense of what matters to you, but can’t reel off exactly what your ‘why’ is.

Let’s break it down. It’s worth getting really specific, and ideally having them written down so you can refer back to something concrete. We’re looking for 2-3 things that sit at the absolute core of who you are and what you care about - which may shift over time, but are unlikely to radically change month to month or year to year.

Identifying what’s next once you have the building blocks can feel impossible. But there are strategies to help you find your way forward.

Where do you start when you don’t know where to begin? How do you avoid going "somewhere" without meaning and instead head toward a place that truly matters to you?

If you’re struggling with these questions, you’re not alone. Not knowing how, where, or when to start is a common blocker.

It would be much simpler if someone could just tap us on the shoulder and hand us ourdream job or our eureka moment. Unfortunately, everything we’ve learned about career change suggests that this rarely happens.

That said, there are some tools and tips that can help you work out where to begin. Here are six principles that might guide you:

- Gain perspective (Where are you in the timeline of your career and life?)

- Chase your curiosities (What’s interesting to you?)

- Follow your frustrations (What bothers you?)

- Start where you are (What resources do you have available to you?)

- Get clearer on your big dreams (What do you want?)

- Identify your big blockers (What’s standing in your way?)

Gain perspective

Take a step back and think about where you are in the timeline of your life and career. Given that a 100-year life is becoming the new norm, you could potentially work well into your 80s. Have you ever zoomed out and considered where you are within this long timeline?

Exercise: Download the timeline and mark where you currently stand. You might realise there’s still a lot of time ahead of you.

Chase your curiosities

"Chase your curiosities" might sound like the "follow your passion" myth, but there's an important distinction here.

"Follow your passion" suggests that you must know exactly where you're heading and how to get there. On the other hand, "Chase your curiosities" only asks you to start, wherever you are, with what you currently have available to you. It’s about letting enthusiasm and interest guide your next steps.

Elizabeth Gilbert describes this beautifully:

"If something is interesting to you, trust that it is interesting to you for a reason; that it is another breadcrumb on the amazing trail that will make your life yours and not anybody  else's." — Elizabeth Gilbert on Curiosity.

Download and read the supporting document.

Please complete this personal brand canvas

A helpful way to think of chasing curiosities is to picture how a dog chases tennis balls.

If you throw a tennis ball with a dog beside you, what does the dog do? If she’s healthy, she has almost no choice but to chase the tennis ball.

There are likely things that pull you in the same way a tennis ball pulls a dog. Try to be attentive and listen to those things.

For example, every time you walk by a bookshop, do you feel pulled to go in? When you hear someone talking about sailing, do you instantly perk up and want to join the conversation? Or when you hear about a new business idea, do you think “HELL YES!”? These are all like tennis balls. New possibilities appear as you allow yourself to be pulled towards these things, just like a dog chasing a tennis ball.

These curiosities may not immediately lead to a new career path, but paying attention to what pulls you and giving yourself permission to follow them will likely guide you down meaningful paths. Tennis balls offer clues to your unique journey.

Exercise: Write down 10 curiosities or tennis balls that catch your attention.

Download and read the supporting document.

Here’s the revised exercise with fewer examples:

Exercise: Write down 10 frustrations

Think about the issues or problems that frustrate or bother you the most. These could be related to work, society, the environment, relationships, or anything in your personal life. What are the things you can’t ignore? What makes you feel like something needs to change?

Examples:

1. Inefficiency in processes or systems.

2. Environmental degradation.

3. Injustice or inequality in the workplace.

Use these examples as a starting point to identify what’s bothering you the most and how those frustrations can guide you toward more meaningful work.

Download and read the supporting document.

Here’s the exercise with fewer examples:

Exercise: Write down your current resources, communities, and skills

Think about what you already have at your disposal that can help you move forward in your career journey. Reflect on the following:

- What resources do you already have access to?

- Which industries do you know well or have credibility in?

- What communities and networks are you already involved in?

This exercise will help you identify what you can use in the present moment to start building toward your future goals.

Curiosities can help to identify new directions to head in; the ability to generate new ideas help you create new opportunities and options for yourself along the way. Curiosities and ideas are the thread between between creativity and new possibilities for yourself.

What if you can’t come up with any good ideas?

It’s easy to say “I’m just not an ideas person,” but we won’t let you off the hook so easily. You have the power to generate exciting new ideas. Although you might need to start by strengthening your own “idea muscle.”

Here are five tips to help you generate exciting new ideas for yourself and your future direction.

James Altucher has a simple daily practice: every day he picks a topic and generates 10 new ideas around it. The quality of the ideas doesn’t matter much. Most of them will probably be rubbish, and he may never act on them. But that's not the point. His goal is to make his brain work, to strengthen what he calls his “idea muscle.”

Just like any muscle, your “idea muscle” can weaken over time. It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re not creative, that you have no new ideas, or that you’ve run out of fresh ones. The truth might be that your idea muscle simply needs to be reengaged and strengthened. By exercising it regularly, you’ll develop your ability to generate ideas and recognize new opportunities.

Now that you’ve mapped out your foundations - your values, good career criteria, likes/dislikes, curiosities, frustrations - you can start building on them. As always, there’s no need to jump headlong into a new path. We’ll start by casting the net wide, with a bit of idea generation.

Perhaps you’re someone who struggles with having too many ideas. That can be overwhelming most of the time, but it means you can absolutely nail this step. Take 15 minutes to get your ideas out of your head and onto paper. Include old ones, new ones and think of more on the spot. Go wild.

More likely, you’re thinking “I’m just not an ideas person”. Reams of ideas don’t come easily to all of us. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there - it’s just a case of strengthening your ‘idea muscle’.

Exercise: flex your ‘idea muscle’

(We’ve stolen this one from the brilliant James Altucher - read the summary below).

1. Based on one of the clues you’ve gathered during previous steps, choose a topic. For example, if one of your frustrations is to do with species extinction, or you admire one of your heroes for their writing skills, take one of these clues as your topic.

2. Come up with 10 ideas related to it. You’ll find the first 3, 4, 5 ideas come fairly easily - but the trick is not to stop there. Push for the next ones, even if you feel like you’re flailing around for something, anything. Don’t worry about the quality or practicality of the ideas - most will probably be rubbish, and totally unrealistic. You’ll probably never do anything tangible with them, but give yourself permission to have them anyway. The goal is to get that muscle working and turn off the voices of judgment. Write down your ideas, and keep them somewhere.

3. Do this every day for a week. Note, this is better thought of as a routine, rather than waiting for ‘lightning bolt’ moments - holding out for inspiration to hit is a surefire way to miss it. Choose a time every day that you can commit to exercising your ideas muscle (e.g. when you wake up, on your lunch break, during your commute). After 7 days, you’ll have 70+ ideas: this is your hopper. (Even better, turn this into an ongoing daily habit - you’ll feel your idea muscle strengthen the longer you practice it.)

Now you’ve got a hopper of ideas, it’s time to start experimenting....

It’s discouraging to come up with ideas knowing that most of them won’t be any good. But it’s encouraging to know that the more ideas you generate, the better your chances of coming up with great ones.

Disney’s Imagineering Department, responsible for creating new experiences at its theme parks, has a process for idea generation that encourages a judgment-free atmosphere. It all starts with “Blue Sky” brainstorming.

According to The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland, the Imagineering department’s brainstorming rules are:

There is no such thing as a bad idea. We never know how one idea (however far-fetched) might lead into another one that is exactly right.

We don’t talk yet about why not. There will be plenty of time for realities later, so we don’t want them to get in the way of good ideas now.

Nothing should stifle the flow of ideas. No “buts” or “can’ts” or other “stopping” words. We want to hear words such as “and,” “or,” and “what if?”

There is no such thing as a bad idea. (We take that one very seriously.)

We must start broad and wide before we turn narrow and constrictive. Begin with Blue Sky. If you start shooting down the ideas before they even come out, you’re already constricting yourself to what’s possible.

By fostering a free-flowing, non-judgmental space, Imagineering encourages fresh and creative thinking, leading to innovative solutions and ideas.

There’s a common misconception about ideas: that you should hold onto them tightly and keep them to yourself. People often get protective of their ideas. But not sharing (or even giving away) ideas is a good way to suffocate them.

Ideas do no good just sitting in your head. We must set them on fire and release them into the world. Act on them yourself, freely discuss them with others, and even give them away.

Don’t wait for new ideas to arrive.

Remember that the magic in any creative work isn’t waiting for inspiration to strike. It’s about showing up, having a discipline of doing your work consistently, and opening the door for inspiration to show up. The same goes for your ideas and your own Escape.

Stretch yourself to think of new ideas and options. Try James Altucher’s “10 Ideas a Day” exercise and make your brain sweat. Establish a discipline of frequently coming up with fresh solutions to old problems, even if it’s just for fun. New ideas come when your “idea muscle” gets stronger.dgmental space, Imagineering encourages fresh and creative thinking, leading to innovative solutions and ideas.

There’s a common misconception about ideas: that you should hold onto them tightly and keep them to yourself. People often get protective of their ideas. But not sharing (or even giving away) ideas is a good way to suffocate them.

Ideas do no good just sitting in your head. We must set them on fire and release them into the world. Act on them yourself, freely discuss them with others, and even give them away.

Don’t wait for new ideas to arrive.

Remember that the magic in any creative work isn’t waiting for inspiration to strike. It’s about showing up, having a discipline of doing your work consistently, and opening the door for inspiration to show up. The same goes for your ideas and your own Escape.

yourself to think of new ideas and options. Try James Altucher’s “10 Ideas a Day” exercise and make your brain sweat. Establish a discipline of frequently coming up with fresh solutions to old problems, even if it’s just for fun. New ideas come when your “idea muscle” gets stronger.

By being patient with your curiosities and not expecting them to lead to immediate gratification, and by being freewheeling and generous with your ideas, you will create exciting new possibilities and opportunities for yourself.

Both curiosities and ideas come from a well that has the potential to be abundant and overflowing. Maybe not at first, but once you get better at listening to your curiosities (artist dates!) and strengthening your idea muscle (10 ideas a day!), you’ll be well on your way to thinking and dreaming big.

Exercise: Idea Gen

Now that you’ve mapped out your foundations – your values, good career criteria, likes/dislikes, curiosities, and frustrations – you can start building on them. As always, there’s no need to jump headlong into a new path. We’ll start by casting the net wide, with a bit of idea generation.

Perhaps you’re someone who struggles with having too many ideas. That can be overwhelming most of the time, but it means you can absolutely nail this step. Take 15 minutes to get your ideas out of your head and onto paper. Include old ones, new ones, and think of more. Go wild.

More likely, you’re thinking “I’m just not an ideas person.” Reams of ideas don’t come easily to all of us. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there – it’s just a case of strengthening your “idea muscle.”

When pursuing something that matters to you, you’ll encounter not only negative and discomfortable emotions; you’ll also identify real, tangible challenges and obstacles. We call these Blockers.

Blockers are the real (and perceived) things standing between us and who we aim to become and what we want to escape into. Like a brick wall, Blockers block our way forward.

Blockers include a myriad of things like: lack of time; lack of money; fear (of failure, of the unknown, and so many other things); loss in status, reputation, money; financial woes; perceived risk; lack of skills, knowledge, confidence or support; challenging relationships and difficult conversations; limiting beliefs (“I’m not good enough,” etc.); “not knowing exactly what I want”; and other such demons.

Imagining these big Blockers can easily keep us from making a big change before we’ve even taken our first step forward. To be fair, some may be genuine risks. Others, to be even fairer, might be “horrible imaginings.” (Kudos Mr. Shakespeare).

Real or imagined, Blockers are inevitable and universal along any career change or entrepreneurial journey. The first step isn’t to ignore them, but rather, to acknowledge them.

Use Your Blockers as a Guide, Not an Endpoint

Worries can be useful when used in your plan of attack; less useful when they keep you stagnant and standing still. Instead of using Blockers as an excuse to stop (or never start), use them to shine light on the things in your life you need to address.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said something similar in his book *Meditations*:

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius, *Meditations*

Exercise

Our Blockers don't exist to stop us in our tracks; they're there to shine light on the real things we need to address in our lives. Blockers show us the way toward the life and career we aspire to grow into.

Step 1. Look at where you want to get to.

Think about your life as it currently stands in relation to where you want to be. What is stopping you from moving from your current position to all those places you're curious about? What things are holding you back? What are the big burning questions swimming around your head?

Step 2. Write down your Top 10 Blockers.

Step 3. Rank your Blockers.

Now – which are your top 3 Blockers? Put a star next to them, circle them, or write them down.

Step 4. Turn your Blockers into To-Dos.

For each of your Top 3 Blockers, what is one very small action you could take this week to lighten the heaviness of this Blocker? What could you do to shine a little bit more light on the complexity of the Blocker? Is there a conversation you need to have? Is there information you need clarity on? Is there a person you need to meet? Is there research you need to do?

If you can brainstorm 3 actions for each Blocker as to how you might be able to tackle it, you can reframe your approach to Blockers. Blockers don't have to be like a brickwall that you can't get past, but an obstacle that you can use as the way to action.

Download and read the supporting document.

Download and read the supporting document.

Download and read the supporting document.

As we touched on in Career Change Myths, one of the biggest temptations of the hopeful Escapee or entrepreneur-to-be is believing we can simply think our way to a new direction. It’s also tempting to believe that our next opportunity is sitting on a job board waiting for us to find it. Conventional wisdom tells us that the more we introspect and the more we search, the closer we'll get to our next exciting and more fulfilling opportunity.

Based on everything we’ve learned, this is almost never the case. Of course, introspection has its place (and we've done our fair share of it in the first few weeks of this course). And sure, you might find another job or opportunity on a job board (hopefully on ours!). But a deeper and more fundamental Escape requires a different approach. The methods and tools that got you to your current position are unlikely to launch you into something new and more meaningful.

The antidote to trying to think or search your way to a new direction is ACTION.

Action without having all (or many) of the answers.

Action without knowing exactly what you want.

Action without feeling like you're ready.

Remember the quote from Herminia Ibarra in Working Identity:

“By far the biggest mistake people make when trying to change careers is to delay taking the first step until they have settled on a destination."

However, we can settle on a mini destination to help us quickly and cheaply learn about the viability of potential new directions. Now, we'll begin testing our way into new directions.

Download and read the supporting document.

Now, using your possibilities as a guide, you'll pick a direction of travel – something that excites you and that you want to test out the viability of.

With that direction of travel in mind, you should launch an Escape Project to explore that direction and help you learn more about its viability as a potential career. You'll embrace three core mindsets with your Escape project, the mindsets that successful Escapees embrace when exploring new paths:

The "Project" Mindset: Projects are short-term, have a self-contained goal, and can even be fun. The goal of a project is to inch one step closer in your escape. Your Escape Project will last 1-3 months – a good amount of time for you to learn something substantial, but not too long of a commitment.

The "Experimental" Mindset: Your primary objective with your Escape project is to learn. It doesn't matter if your project is a 'success' or a 'failure.' What matters is that you learn something about yourself and your future direction.

The "Hustle" Mindset: How can you create opportunities for yourself, whether it's getting your foot in the door for a new job or testing out a new career? The answer is Hustle. We'll first define what "hustle" means, how others have used it to create new opportunities, and ideas for you to harness your own hustle in your Escape Project.

Also, it's important to understand what good action looks like. Paramount to the success of your Escape Project is understanding what constitutes good action. We'll share some examples to help you brainstorm your own actions.

Like it or not, we make an inordinate number of assumptions about the world around us every day. This is also true of our careers, and potential career paths we might go down. Each potential career you are interested in will hold a number of aspect you assume you’ll like, you assume you’ll be good at, and you assume lots of other things about.

When you're thinking about a big change, there are a lot of unknowns. With that uncertainty comes an inevitable fear of what might happen (or not happen). ‘Failure’ – whatever that means for you – often tops the list of worries. What if this new direction doesn’t work?

The good news is, there are ways to find out before fully committing. The trick is to find small ways to test it out without investing too much time, money, or energy.

It’s all about adopting a Prototype Mindset.

Like any prototype, a career prototype is a minimum viable version of the bigger idea. It’s rough, ready, easy to put together, and doesn’t require a large commitment.

A career prototype, in this sense, can be thought of as a ‘project’. It’ll have a short-term, self-contained goal, and completing it will give you insights and experiences that inch you one step closer to your escape. Launching a small project in a direction that excites you is much less daunting (and smarter) than making a big, blind leap.

Your Escape Prototype Project will last 1-3 months – a good amount of time to learn something substantial, but not too long to make the stakes too high.

To design your project:

Choose one idea from your hopper (from Step 6). There’s no science to this – pick one that you're most drawn to or that seems easy to break down into somethingz small.

Set n amount of time (e.g., 6 weeks). Long enough to keep going if the first attempt doesn’t go quite to plan, but short enough not to over-invest in a long-term challenge.

Define a certain number of deliverables (e.g., writing 5 blog posts), or another metric (e.g., get 3 paying customers).

Adopt an experimental mindset – think like a scientist. The point of your project is to learn. It doesn’t matter if the project is a ‘success’ or ‘failure’; what matters is what you learn about yourself and your future direction. A scientist may have a hypothesis and hope for a specific result, but that’s not her main concern. Her job is to prove or disprove her hypothesis and remain unbiased through the process. She cares most about what she learns from the experiment.

At the end of your project, do a review. What have you learned about this area of work? About yourself? What could you have done differently? And most importantly – what does this tell you about what your next project should be?

If your prototype project turns out to be a dud (unenjoyable, too difficult to execute, or simply not for you) – phew. You’ve avoided making a big decision that might have sent you in the wrong direction. Adjust the plan for your next project based on what you’ve learned, or go back to Step 6 to choose a new idea from your hopper – then go again.

If your project shows signs that it’s worth pursuing – i.e., you’ve enjoyed it, achieved a small goal, or received positive feedback – then it’s time for the next step.

Download and read the supporting document.

So, you’ve decided on a direction you're interested in. The next challenge is to find the perfect opportunity that aligns with your passions, skills, and values – to find a box with your name on it, waiting for you to claim.

At least, that’s how most career changers think. It’s easy to spend hours scouring job boards, hoping that elusive opportunity will show up among the listings.

Overcoming this hurdle is all about what we call ‘The Hustle’.

The Hustle is how you create opportunities for yourself. It’s how you open new doors and build a career on your own terms. It’s how you stand out and put yourself in a field of one, rather than competing in a field of hundreds.

'Hustle' has become a cliched term, so let’s first define what we mean by Hustle, and more importantly, what Hustle is not.

What Hustle is not: sleazy or manipulative. It doesn’t involve hurting, deceiving, or taking advantage of others.

A Hustler makes things happen and tells the world about it. No endless thinking or wondering. Just taking brave steps forward – even if the next step isn’t perfectly clear.

Download the supporting document.

Here are the top 3 traits of Hustlers that we've met and worked with over the years at Escape.

Don't wait to be asked. Demonstrate value to others before they ask, and before you're given explicit permission. Give ideas and solutions generously, and you’ll open up new paths and exciting options for yourself. Help others and you’ll help yourself.

Or in Einstein’s words: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

Examples: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” –Albert Einstein.

Creating value is all about demonstrating your value to others before they ask and before you’re given permission to. Act on your ideas, give generously, and focus on demonstrating the value for others and you’ll open up new paths and exciting options for yourself. Help others and you’ll help yourself. Pursue things that excite you and be quick to demonstrate value.

Create Value: Ideas & Examples

Do Free Work

Doing free work sounds simple. But this isn’t just about taking an unpaid internship and volunteering on a community project. It’s more targeted and ambitious than that. Doing free work is about aiming high and offering to work on mini-projects for people you admire and from whom you can learn from.

“Doing free work is about building healthy relationships with people you want to learn from and work on projects youʼre interested in...Whatever ideas I propose will somehow be tied to skills of mine, but phrased in a way that's beneficial to the person I'm emailing.”

Doing free work works because it allows you to display your value FIRST -- potentially without the expectation of return. In doing so, you’ll give yourself a better shot at a new opportunity.

Creating just for the sake of creation is freeing. It allows you to express yourself without pressure. The last time I did this was brainstorming ideas to help someone with a project. It wasn’t about personal gain, just about offering value.

For you, it might be something simple like writing, drawing, or sharing thoughts online- just for the joy of creating and potentially helping others.

Download the supporting document.

“Ideas are the only thing we have left...we’re in an idea economy now.” –James Altucher

James Altucher (introduced in How to Generate New Ideas), has a reason for his 10 Ideas a Day practice other than just to flex his “idea muscle.” He believes we’re now living in an Idea Economy. Ideas, he argues, are potentially the only thing we have left.

“Ideas,” Altucher argues, “cannot be outsourced. We are in an idea economy now.”

But here’s the thing about ideas: they will do no good just sitting in your own head. We must set them on fire and release them into the world. Act on them yourself, freely discuss them with others, and even give them away.

Sometimes Altucher will give away his ideas to people he thinks they can help.

“When you come up with ideas for someone else, always give ALL the ideas away for free if you think they are good ideas.”

That goes contrary to the scarcity mindset many of us have grown up with. It’s a mindset that can hold back entrepreneur-to-be at the beginning of their time together. It’s common for people to be protective of their precious ideas and not share them openly with the room.

This is trap #1 to avoid as an entrepreneur or a career changer. By not being willing to share your ideas with others, it’s impossible for others to help you. By holding back, you’re banking on the notion that someone else is willing to quit everything in their life to focus on your idea (which is often what’s required to successfully pursue a new venture).

Sharing your ideas may open up opportunities for you. Embracing a spirit of generosity tends to pull people toward you and more importantly, allows them to help you bring your ideas to fruition. And for the ideas that you don’t plan to implement, they can help someone else out.

Show, don’t just tell. Titles, degrees, and accreditations were celebrated in the 20th century, but they carry less weight than ever in today’s world of work. They may open doors, but in reality, employers and collaborators are looking for applied skills and real-life experience. In other words, don’t just tell us what you can do—show us. The Hustle is about doing the work and sharing the work so the world can engage with it.

Shining in Public doesn’t necessarily mean having a blog or being on Twitter. You could shine in public by attending a new meet-up and introducing yourself differently or by launching your own meet-up. Shining in public might be as simple as announcing a new project to a handful of close friends and colleagues. It’s about letting your new ideas, possible future selves, and projects touch the world—even if it feels scary.

When you dare to shine in public, communicating who you are, what you believe in, and what you’re working on, you give the right people and opportunities a chance to enter your life.

Shine in Public Ideas, Examples & Resources

Idea #1: Do Something Publicly (literally)

Idea #2: Proactively Share Something

Idea #3: Invite Others to Engage With You

"Alas, the work we're being asked to do now, the emotional labor we're getting paid to do, is frightening. It's frightening to stand up for what we believe in, frightening to do something that might not work, frightening to do something that we have to be responsible for." –Seth Godin

Idea #4: Face Imposter Syndrome Head-On

Imposter Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon where you feel like a fake, despite having solid skills and qualifications. It affects people who are actually good at what they do, but they feel like they’re fooling others, that their accomplishments aren’t real.

As Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian stepped onto stage at 99U’s Pop-Up School, a slide behind him read:

“I have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s awesome.”

If the co-founder of one of the most popular websites on the internet has no idea what he’s doing, what does that say about the rest of us? One of the greatest myths is that the fearless entrepreneur or corporate escapee has it “all figured out” before starting.

Here’s a secret: they didn’t. Here’s another: they still don’t.

Alexis concluded his talk bluntly:

“Sucking is the first step to being sorta good at something.”

Having the courage to “suck”—in whatever you’re testing out, with whatever you’re working towards—is the crucial first step in going somewhere worth going. Embrace the “suck,” then keep stepping.

Opportunities manifest through people. Your next opportunity will likely come in the form of someone—someone you know, someone you don’t, or even someone you have yet to meet. This isn’t about schmoozing at networking events; it’s about authentic connection. Meet people who care about what you care about by getting involved in groups and events linked to topics that spark your curiosity. Make a point of helping others with useful introductions, and see where things lead. View networking simply, as Steven D’Souza does, as the "art of making friends."

Your next opportunity will likely come from someone, whether they’re a person you know, a person you hardly know, or someone you’ve yet to meet. Choose genuine connection over superficial networking. Surround yourself with people you admire, be generous with your time, ideas, and care, and help others with useful introductions. When you build relationships this way, new opportunities may unfold naturally.

Build Authentic Relationships Ideas, Examples & Resources

Idea #1: Ask For Help

Idea #2: Help Someone Else

Idea #3: Make a Connection Without Seeking Gain

Idea #4: Redefine Networking

Networking has become a dirty word—fake smiles, schmoozing, handing out business cards, and the insincere "What do you do?" (and the implied "What can you do for me?").

We’re not fans of traditional networking. Instead, we believe in genuine connection with interesting people and helping them pursue projects they care about. The best “networkers” we meet also dislike “networking,” but enjoy forging authentic relationships with people they admire and being genuinely helpful. True networking is about making friends and being generous. When practiced authentically, it can open up new opportunities. The best networkers understand what Zig Ziglar meant.

Examples:

Here are some examples of what the hustle might look like in action:

● Email people at organisations you admire. Reach out with a simple hello and offer genuine value—an idea, suggestion, or relevant article/video that might interest them.

● Look at who you know. Find people in your contacts who work in—or know someone who works in—your new area. Buy them a coffee and foster the relationship.

● Create a mini website. Use Strikingly or Squarespace to create a site that represents who you are, so you can share it with new contacts.

● Write a blog. Get your voice out there on a simple blogging platform like Medium, and write a couple of articles about your topic.

● Make sure your Twitter profile is up to date. Post about your area of interest and connect with people in your new field.

● Go along to networking events. Use Meetup.com to find relevant groups, and start getting to know people who work in your new field.

● Volunteer. Build skills and transform your CV by carving out time to work for free, even if it’s just a couple of hours a week.

It might not seem like it at first glance, but the truth is that you're already a hustler. Chances are you’ve created value, shined in public, and built authentic relationships in various areas of your life. It's about building these behaviours and relationships, to harness opportunities as you experiment and explore new directions.

It’s easy to confuse good action with procrastinating action. When in doubt, remember that good action checks many of these boxes:

● It interacts with the world (1 person or many people).

● It’s small enough to be realistically achievable.

● You want to do it, but it’s uncomfortable (7 out of 10 comfort level).

● Or...you don’t want to do it, but you’re excited when you think about having done it.

● There’s a small degree of risk involved or potential for making mistakes or feeling foolish.

Feeling stuck and can’t think of good actions? Here are some ideas:

● Reach out to your role models/heroes/heroines: Role models are the embodiment of a person or part of a person you hope to grow into. They’re the tangible example of something you aspire to become like. People you admire may embody a trait, a habit, an expertise or a body of work that you respect. Make a list of people you admire. Be clear on why you admire them. Take it one step further and reach out to them. Ask to interview them. You may be surprised who says yes.

● Conversational research: Interview someone who is doing what you might want to do. Ask them what their day-to-day is like. Ask them how they got there, what they’ve struggled with, and what their advice would be to someone who’s just starting out.

● Shadow someone: Ask to shadow someone who is doing what you might want to do. Witness their day-to-day.

● Start and complete a short project: A great way to learn a new skill or fine-tune a current one is to spearhead a project that applies that skill. Three months is a good amount of time to complete a small project.

● Attend a meetup: Go to meetup.com and search for a topic you care about or a community you’re interested in. Introduce yourself and expand your circle.

● Start your own meetup: Don’t see something you like on Meetup.com? Start your own!

● Introduce yourself in a new way: The next time you go to a party or meetup, practice introducing yourself in new ways. Test out different narratives and styles. When you share what you care about and who you are, you give the right people an opportunity to enter your life.

● Unnecessary creation: Create something (piece of writing, photograph, whole project) for the hell of it. Don’t worry about the objective. Just do it because you want to do it. If there’s someone who helped inspire your creation, share it with them and thank them. They’ll appreciate it.

● Contracting: Is there a parent, colleague, manager or friend that you need to have a real conversation with?

● Do free work: Work on someone else’s project. Take on a microproject. Volunteer your time to help out a startup that is low on resources. Doing free work for someone else can help you learn a new skill, grow a current one, and open the door for a future opportunity.

The hustle is how people create amazing opportunities for themselves—don’t miss out. It’s not about beating yourself up if these aren’t things that come naturally to you, it’s about identifying what you can do more of to maximise opportunities for yourself.

Download the supporting document.

It’s important to put a few things in place to help sustain your career change or escape. One of the biggest concerns for people is money, so here’s some advice and guidance on how to break it down, so it doesn’t stand in your way.

Financing Your Escape

How to manage the money question?

Map your relationship with money

Start by understanding your financial relationship. “Your Money or Your Life” is a great way to approach it. Clarify your goals, assess your risk tolerance, and calculate the following four key numbers:

- A = The minimum you can live on per month during your escape.

- B = How many months you think you’ll need to live on it (the Hit).

- C = Your ideal recurring income after the transition (post-escape).

- D = Your total escape fund (pre-escape savings).

The magic number is D, your target saving amount. The minimum acceptable amount to resign on is A x B (i.e., the amount you need per month multiplied by how many months you think your transition will take). After B months, you’ll need to be at C, or else you’ll rethink your plans or go back to your old job. You may have a part-time work plan to extend the time for your transition.

If your escape involves an unknown income stream (like a new salary or business venture), consider inflating B by at least 25% as insurance. This will cover the risk of the anticipated income not arriving on time.

Setting a deadline:

The easiest deadline for resignation is when you hit your magic number (D). This gives you something concrete to aim for and helps with the discipline of saving. It also removes the uncertainty of wondering when the right time to quit is. There’s no right time—make it the day you hit your target.

Make a worst-case scenario plan

Ask yourself: What’s the absolute worst that can happen? Being prepared for the worst-case scenario helps you build resilience and strengthens your mindset during the transition.

Every business has revenues, costs, assets, and liabilities – and so does your personal finance. To succeed in your career transition:

- Keep costs low while figuring things out.

- Get paid for anything while learning.

- Know your monthly burn rate and how many months you have to transition.

- Test small ideas, don’t guess.

Minimise costs by auditing your spending. Earn creatively with freelance skills or odd jobs. Focus on building assets and eliminating unnecessary liabilities.

Invest in yourself through experiences and education rather than material stuff. Travel and learning enrich your perspective. Spend consciously based on your values and transition goals.

Find case studies for intelligent transitions here: [Google Document link](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oSXJE6-i1ylZ55np0JQllKwqTsVUZ__k4Ast0A5NffM/edit?usp=sharing)

Changing careers takes a level of resilience, for every great opportunity that comes your way, there are likely 3 that don’t pan out. To help you you’ll want to adopt a growth mindset, with a growth mindset you’ll think differently about failure - because it’s all about learning. Skills, setbacks, criticism and feedback are all taken differently, check out our extra resources to learn more about developing a growth mindset.

Keys to mindset and resilience

UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS

Your brain has a big job: to keep you safe. It’s a job that it does spectacularly well. And thank goodness it has. It’s helped your ancestors evade an impressive gaggle of beasts, battles and bad times to help ensure you’re sitting here today.

Most of us are fortunate to no longer need to look out for hungry lions, vicious crocodiles, or savage rival Tribespeople as we go about our day-to-day tasks. Unfortunately our brain hasn’t quite caught up with this reality.

In his book The Chimp Paradox, Steve Peters calls this part of the brain which runs on gut instincts, emotions and thinks in black and white as our “inner chimp.”

Our “inner chimp” is at odds with the rational, evidence-based part of the brain which sees shades of grey and doesn’t fall for all-or-nothing thinking. Peters explains the paradox: we need our chimp for basic survival instincts, but if we don’t have a plan to manage it, it can run our lives and keep us from doing truly meaningful (but internally scary) things.

We respond more strongly to threats than to opportunities. It’s how our brain operates. Think about someone standing on a high bridge or a diving board, saying they want to jump off, but their mind is refusing to let them do it. The same can feel true for the scary steps along our own Escape.

Our brain can have power over us unless we understand this and decide to do something about it.

In this lecture, we will explore a concept introduced by career psychologist and core Escape School faculty member, Rob Archer, called Experiential Avoidance. This principle is especially relevant when dealing with our sometimes unhelpful chimp brain.

Experiential Avoidance suggests that the brain will try to avoid anything that involves short-term pain or fear, even if the long-term outcome is something we truly want. For example, imagine you have a deep desire to run a marathon. This goal requires hard work – waking up an hour earlier to train, skipping afterwork drinks to focus on your running, and pushing through painful miles. Your brain, however, will try to talk you out of it. It might say, “Stop! This is too hard! I hate it!”

The brain makes a convincing argument for why you should stop and avoid the discomfort, but these “away moves” will keep you from achieving your goal. Rob refers to these as “away moves” and “towards moves.” When you feel the urge to avoid discomfort, it’s important to recognise that those “away moves” are keeping you from what you really want. On the other hand, “towards moves” keep you moving forward. Be aware of the brain’s tendency to seek comfort and avoid discomfort; while it’s trying to keep you safe, it’s also holding you back from achieving your higher ambitions.

Discomfort is often seen as something to avoid, but in reality, it’s a good sign. Moving towards something that truly matters can be tough. We often sabotage ourselves, catastrophise, and engage in all-or-nothing thinking. Our emotions, while useful for survival, can be unreliable guides when it comes to fulfilment. If something excites you, it’s likely that it will also scare you. If you care deeply about a goal, you may fear losing it, which is a natural response.

But this discomfort should be viewed as the beginning of growth, not the endpoint. Take the marathon example again – during the race, there will be moments of pain and difficulty. If you give up at the first sign of discomfort, you’ll never experience the satisfaction of achieving the goal. Embrace discomfort as a sign that you are stepping into uncharted territory and growing. If your goal is important to you, push through the discomfort and keep moving forward.

In summary, remember to treat discomfort as a positive indicator that you’re on the right path. The way forward might be challenging, but if you persist, you’ll be closer to achieving your most meaningful ambitions.

An analysis of the 558 emotion words in the English language found that 62% of them were negative and 38% percent were positive.

As humans, we have a tendency towards the negative. This probably stems back to our “inner chimp” just trying to identify problems and keep us safe. We default to focusing on obstacles, not goals. We want to fix things. We want to stay alive.

The things that worry you and that you’ve turned negative about may be genuine risks. But instead of using them as an excuse to stop or never start, take them and use them to your advantage.

Here’s an idea: Take your worries and write them down. Turn your worries into a To-Do list.

Knowing that these are things you need to address (big and small) will help you size each up and plan accordingly. Worries can be useful when used in your plan of attack -- less useful when they keep us stagnant and standing still.

GET PHILOSOPHICAL

When trying to build up a healthy “escape mindset,” it’s helpful to go back -- way back -- to the days of ancient Rome and the philosophy of Stoicism, which teaches us this: most things are not within our immediate control.

Jules Evans, our resident philosopher at the Escape School teaches the general concept of stoicism by drawing two circles, one inner circle labeled “Zone 1” and one outer circle labeled “Zone 2.”

“Zone 1 is what we have control over. Zone 2 is what we do not.”

What’s in this larger uncontrollable Zone 2? The weather, the economy, major government decisions and policies, your health (to a large extent), other people’s health, other people’s actions and reactions. On and on.

What’s in Zone 1? Surprising little, but certainly this: our reaction to the things that happen around us and to us in Zone 2. The honest truth is that we have but very little control over most things in life. But what we reign control over is how we decide to observe and react to the things in Zone 2. We have control over our perceptions to these things.

To quote Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Meditations, a bedrock of Stoic thinking:

“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions -- not outside.”

Escaping anxiety is a choice. Choose to focus on Zone 1.

Download and read the supporting document.

A crucial part of sustaining your escape and career change is surrounding yourself with the right people. As the saying goes, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." This is why it’s essential to seek out individuals who can support you, especially when things get tough, and offer new opportunities that will help you grow.

Find people who share your interests, whether online or in person, to help you stay motivated and inspired. Connecting with the Escape community online is a great place to start. Additionally, look for meetups or local groups that align with your passions. Building a network of like-minded individuals can provide the support and encouragement you need to keep moving forward on your journey.

Download and read the supporting document.

These five stages represent the key steps in creating lasting change and achieving success:

Foundations – This is where it all begins. Lay the groundwork by clarifying your goals, identifying your values, and setting up the necessary structures for success. It’s about building a solid base that will support the journey ahead.

Explorations – Now, it's time to test different paths and see what resonates with you. Experiment, learn, and discover what excites you and aligns with your vision. This phase involves curiosity and openness to new possibilities.

Testing – Once you’ve identified some promising directions, it’s time to put them to the test. Try things out, evaluate what works, and refine your approach. Testing helps you find the best way forward by learning through experience.

Hustle – This stage is about hard work and dedication. It’s the time to put in the effort, face challenges head-on, and stay focused on your goals. The hustle phase requires persistence and determination, pushing through the obstacles that arise.

Sustain – Lastly, it’s essential to maintain momentum. This phase is about sustaining your progress by staying motivated, building supportive networks, and continuing to evolve. It’s about ensuring long-term success by keeping your drive alive and adjusting as necessary.

Together, these stages form the roadmap for a successful escape and career change.

You’re probably sitting there with lots of paper, plans, and now a clear direction on what to do next to make your career change.

If you need more help, then please sign up for The Escape School newsletter. We share our upcoming events, workshops, advice, tools, and information on our accelerators to help with your escape.

Also, make sure you connect with the Escape community locally in your city on Facebook.

Well done for giving it a go. It’s not easy, but we believe it’s worth it and have seen the huge impact that pursuing this change has on many people’s careers.

Let us know how you get on, and if we can help share your idea.

Happy Escaping!

Download and read the supporting document.

Please do watch Brene Brown's TED talk on Vulnerability

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability