Liminal Spaces | How to Thrive When Changing Your Career Trajectory

Transitions are an inevitable part of life. We change jobs, move to new cities, and increasingly, change our careers entirely. While these changes may be exciting, they can also introduce an unsettling sense of uncertainty—particularly when pursuing a new career that forces us to rethink our work identity. 

When changing careers, people may enter a “liminal space,” which is a state of in-betweenness where we have not yet fully transitioned out of a former work life or fully into new territory. In a liminal space, it may be difficult to recognize who we are without the familiarity of our recent sector, skillset, or colleagues. We feel caught between two worlds and not fully a part of either.

The uncertainty that defines a liminal space can be stressful. However, liminal spaces also open the door to playful experimentation with our “work identity”—how we see, describe, and conduct ourselves professionally. If you are in the midst of a transition or are preparing for big changes, try the following strategies to navigate the uncertainty.

Accept the discomfort and move forward anyway

Our brains are wired to resist uncertainty; knowing what happens next allows us to prepare accordingly. While evolutionarily helpful in responding to imminent threats, this wiring can leave us feeling fearful, anxious, and uneasy when faced with career uncertainty. 

In practicing acceptance, you acknowledge your experience, allowing yourself to feel emotional discomfort without resigning to it indefinitely. In doing so, you free up mental space to move forward in your working life, avoiding a cycle of rumination in which you repeat negative thoughts or judge how you’re feeling.

While conceptually simple, acceptance takes practice. To start, consistently remind yourself that unpleasant feelings are normal and temporary—and that you can (and likely will) feel uncomfortable while remapping your career trajectory. 

If you do slip into ruminative thinking, try creating a “cognitive budget,” a list-based method for placing unproductive thoughts into an off-limits category. To create a cognitive budget, list out questions, concerns, and issues that you cannot control or answer—for instance, anxieties about finding the right career path, facing rejection, or navigating a complex job market. Once you have your list, place it in a prominent location and glance at it regularly. Using this list enables you to direct your energy toward transitioning successfully. 

Reflect on how work shapes your identity

Work often defines who we are, particularly in cultures that value ambition. But when work defines us, we risk allowing it to dictate our self-worth. This means that inevitable challenges in our working lives can leave us feeling diminished. 

To mitigate this risk, reflect on how deeply work is connected to your identity. Ask yourself, “Do I make space for non-work activities? Do I forge bonds outside the office? How often do I talk about work in conversations?” If work dominates your life, try listing ways to introduce more variety to your days with community events, volunteerism, or family gatherings.

You can also adopt a more flexible view of your work identity, extending it beyond former job titles or other temporary labels. Instead of locking onto a particular role or title as the basis for who you are, focus on what motivates you. For instance, if your passion is to help others, you might recognize there are myriad ways to accomplish that overarching purpose.

Make time for experimentation

Liminal spaces can also become opportunities to explore and redefine your work identity. When in transition, you can engage in “identity play,” in which you imagine yourself in many occupations without deciding on a particular direction. In doing so, you enable creative thought amid uncertainty.

To engage in identity play, carve out dedicated time and space that distances you from the habits and norms of your typical social setting. Identity play can involve taking an online course in a new field or volunteering abroad for a cause you’ve never worked in. Regardless of how you engage in identity play, treat your time as if you’re a child playing pretend; in other words, do your best to minimize your mental constraints and self-judgments.

Look out for your best-fit “future work self”

While experimenting, you may start seeing a clearer picture of where your work life could be heading. As you engage in identity play, write down where you are, what work you produce, who you work with, and how you feel in each “dream” occupation. If you reach a point where a particular future is clear and easy to imagine, then it might be time to move toward that new vision. 

This “future work self” is a mental representation of your new career aspirations, untethered to a prior title or occupation. The more vivid your future work self becomes, the more it can motivate you to take steps toward creating it.