And so this is Christmas…
A magical time for reflection.
Before we all switch off for a bit and tuck into our favourite festive movies, I’d like to ring out the old year by shining a light on three types of career-side magical thinking (and not in the good sense of “magical”) that I see again and again in my clients.
If you’re feeling stuck or frustrated as 2025 approaches, there’s a good chance you’re caught in at least one of these traps.
MAGICAL THOUGHT #1:
“If I get my career right, my life will follow.”
This is the classic mistake of living to work rather than working to live.
Personal happiness and fulfilment are sacrificed—indefinitely—in the name of career success.
But here’s the truth: if you fall for this superstition (and that’s all it is), you’ll end up like a dog chasing its tail. Your best hours, days, months, and years will be poured into experiences that simply won’t add up to a life.
You’ll struggle to decompress outside work. You may even find that workplace behaviours—urgency, competition, stress—start infecting your home life.
And within your job? You’ll be frustrated too—because you’re asking your job to give you something it can’t: personal fulfilment.
If I listed every distortion and wasted effort this causes, this blog post would run painfully long. But let’s name one biggie:
“I’ll finally feel like a worthwhile person when I’m successful.”
If that voice sounds familiar, you need to have a stern (but kind) chat with yourself this Christmas.
Career success can boost your self-esteem, but it will never substitute for deep, healthy self-regard.
When you see work for what it really is—a piece of the puzzle, not the whole—you can value its challenges and rewards without mistaking them for your source of meaning.
And here’s the kicker: most people buy into this living-to-work mindset without realising it.
That’s why it’s so powerful to take an honest look at how you’re really spending your time, energy, and emotions.
If Work is consistently crowding out Life, something’s got to give.
MAGICAL THOUGHT #2:
“Playing it safe is the safe option.”
Once upon a time, this wasn’t magical thinking—it was sound advice.
Back then, the world of work belonged to the steady-as-you-go Realists. Safety and predictability were the hallmarks of a solid career path. As Bono’s dad told his kids: To dream is to be disappointed. Get a permanent, pensionable job—that’s the smart move.
But not anymore.
Technology (hello, A.I.) and globalisation are transforming work at a relentless pace. The world of safe, predictable careers is shrinking—and it’s not coming back.
Today, those who are struggling most are the Realists—those steady, safety-first types who thrived in the old system.
Their problem isn’t their realism—it’s their lack of restlessness.
They stay in roles for years, even when the work drains them. They coast along, bored or stressed or demotivated. They put more thought into planning their next holiday than mapping out their career.
In short, they sacrifice their potential to an outdated idea of “being sensible.”
And the irony? Their safety-first strategy is becoming the riskiest move of all—because their model of reality is broken.
The future belongs to what I call the Restless Realists.
People who stay grounded—but plan for change, and even instigate it in bold, imaginative ways.
Does this mean that dreamers and lateral thinkers have suddenly inherited the earth? Not quite… which brings us to the third trap.
MAGICAL THOUGHT #3:
“If it doesn’t always give me the right feels, then it’s not right for me.”
If I worry about anyone more than the old-school Realists, it’s those who don’t balance their restlessness with realism.
Take a graduate who feels bored and underwhelmed six months in.
If they’re restless without realism, they’ll jump ship—and do real damage to their long-term prospects.
Here’s the trick:
Know when to be patient and when to be impatient.
By all means take risks—but make them measured risks.
Expect a certain amount of tedium and slog. Assume setbacks will come.
Learn the power of delayed gratification, and make it your ally.
I often use the analogy of learning a foreign language. You’ve got to put the hours in. It won’t come overnight. It’s a process—and your job is to trust that process, while always looking for ways to optimise your efforts.
The person who dreams big but refuses to do the work?
They’re like someone who falls asleep wearing language-learning headphones and expects to wake up fluent.
Nope.
A basic, non-negotiable level of commitment is needed if you want real career growth.
Think of it as learning the grammar and vocabulary of your field.
If you run at the first sign of boredom or adversity, you’re only sabotaging your own progress.
People caught in this trap let their moods drive their moves.
They expect reality to bend to their feelings—and when it doesn’t, they feel stuck and resentful.
But no amount of poor-me whingeing will fix that.
So what’s the solution?
Simple:
Get excited about stretching beyond your comfort zone.
Start relishing the challenge of making yourself a powerful, viable force in the working world.
Identify your real path, roll up your sleeves, and put the damn work in.
Your future self will thank you—profusely.
Okay—enough real talk for now.
On behalf of all of us at Clearview, here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas and much career success in 2025!
Jane
