8 min read • Career Transitions • Reflection 1
When Success No Longer Feels Like Success
When people think about career transitions, they often imagine someone who is unhappy, burnt out, or eager to leave a difficult situation behind.
Over the past few years, however, I have become increasingly interested in a different pattern. In conversations with sustainability professionals, I have found that some of the most significant career questions emerge not during periods of struggle, but during periods of success.
What has surprised me most is not that people begin questioning their careers, but that they often do so at the very moment others would describe them as successful.
These are professionals who have built respected careers, developed deep expertise, and earned positions of influence. They care deeply about their work and are making a meaningful contribution to their organisations and society. From the outside, there is often little reason to expect them to be questioning what comes next.
Yet many of them are.
The question is rarely:
“Should I leave my job?”
It is more often:
“Does success still mean what it used to mean?”
Why this seems especially common in sustainability
Although I suspect these questions arise in many professions, they seem particularly common in sustainability.
Many people choose this profession because they want their work to contribute to something they genuinely care about. Career decisions are therefore rarely just about progression or status. They are also connected to identity, values, purpose, and contribution.
At the same time, sustainability has changed dramatically over the past decade. What was once a relatively niche discipline has become a strategic business function. Many professionals who entered the field to solve technical challenges now spend much of their time influencing leaders, navigating organisational complexity, and enabling change through others.
These are positive developments, but they also change the nature of success. As careers evolve, people often begin asking not whether they are successful, but whether success still reflects what matters most to them.
Looking back on these conversations, I’ve noticed that this shift often reveals itself through a few subtle patterns.
Three early signs that your definition of success may be evolving
Although every career transition is different, I have noticed three patterns that often emerge before people make any visible career change.
1. Achievements no longer feel satisfying for very long
Promotions, successful projects, and professional recognition still matter, but they no longer provide the same lasting sense of fulfilment.
It is not that achievement has become less important. Rather, external achievements are no longer answering the questions that have become most meaningful to you.
2. You begin asking different questions
Earlier in our careers, we often ask questions such as:
- How do I grow?
- How do I become an expert?
- What role should I aim for next?
Later, the questions often become:
- Is this still how I want to contribute?
- What gives me energy?
- What do I want the next chapter of my career to look like?
In my experience, career transitions often begin when the questions change, long before the answers do.
3. Certain possibilities keep returning
Perhaps it is coaching.
Teaching.
Writing.
Building something of your own.
Taking on a different kind of leadership role.
These possibilities may not make immediate sense from a traditional career perspective. Yet they continue to capture your attention.
Rather than dismissing that curiosity, it may be worth asking what it is trying to tell you.
The question to sit with
This observation became the first reflection in my guide, What’s Next? Eight Reflections on Career Transitions in Sustainability.
If this article resonates with you, I will invite you to pause before asking:
“What should I do next?”
Instead, consider a different question:
How has my definition of success changed over the past few years?
Career transitions rarely begin with clarity.
They begin when the questions change.
Continue the conversation
This article expands on the first reflection from What’s Next? Eight Reflections on Career Transitions in Sustainability.
The guide explores seven additional questions that many sustainability professionals encounter as their careers evolve, including:
- The Impact Question
- When Professional Identity Starts to Outgrow Your Role
- The Attraction of a Different Path
- The Plateau Problem
- The Hidden Cost of Carrying the Sustainability Agenda
- Influence vs Ownership
- The Tension Between Alignment and Practical Constraints
If these questions resonate with you, I invite you to explore the complete guide.