Navigating the seasons of your career
How a pause might well be the exact right action to take
Hi, I’m Tineke, coach for women feeling stuck in their careers. I publish my newsletter here every Friday, focusing on ONE topic to do with your career, career change, happiness, women and work, creativity and books (I love books!).
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Did you know that every cell of your body is renewed every seven years?
I read that somewhere, years ago. It stuck with me ever since.
Because I personally find that liberating and mind-blowing, all at the same time.
Imagine it: you’re a whole new person from who you were in 2018! (Which - come to think of it - I AM! YOU are!)
Bringing this amazing bit of science together with the knowledge that - on average - people have 7 (SEVEN!) careers over their lifetime, it made me think about seasons. About new beginnings and about endings. About transitions.
So today - bear with me - I’m going to scrape together my less than coherent thoughts on this.
Navigating the seasons of your career
Levinson’s Seasons of Life theory
Daniel Levinson’s Seasons of Life theory talks about the different stages of our lives, from early adulthood to midlife and beyond, each with its own challenges, opportunities and transitions.
He describes life as a series of seasons, each with its own spring (new beginnings and energy), summer (productivity and joy), autumn (reflection and harvesting the fruits of our labour) and winter (rest and preparation for new growth).
Seasons of a career
Whilst Levinson’s theory applies to life stages, I have come to recognise that in careers too!
I believe that each career has seasons. Having navigated through 4 careers (so far) over a good couple of decades, I can definitely see where there was high enthusiasm and energy and hunger to learn new things (spring), where I was at peak performance and was enjoying what I was doing (summer), where enthusiasm started waning, but I was still motoring on (autumn) and where I quietly said goodbye (winter).
In hindsight, that is.
How to recognise the season you’re in
And that’s the clue, isn’t it?
Because the thing is, when you’re in the middle of your career, working hard, with little to no time, you hardly ever sit back and say to yourself ‘Hang on, let me think for a while in which season of my career I currently find myself’.
So how DO you recognise the season you’re in?
By taking notice of your emotions. By recognising how much energy you’re feeling for the work you’re doing. How energised or reflective you’re feeling.
But also:
When you’re daydreaming about doing something completely different. When you find yourself scrolling the internet for other places to be, different work to be doing.
When you’re feeling uncertain, and don’t know where you’re heading
When you’re experiencing a loss: a redundancy (lay-off), a break-up, a bereavement or other significant life event
When you’re feeling restless and unsettled
Transition phases
The thing I haven’t been talking about is transition phases. Because between each life phase (pre-adulthood, early adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood), the ‘settling down’ period, which Levinson believes takes around seven years (seven years, again!), is a transition phase, which Levinson believes lasts around five years.
Each of those transition phases is different, with a different emphasis, different needs.
A transition into early adulthood is all about establishing yourself, whilst a transition into a later stage of your life and career might (is most likely to) lead to different choices.
So why all this talk about seasons?
The reason I started thinking about this is because I believe the theory about seasons to be true. I’ve experienced it and have seen it in others.
If I think back to who I was back in 2018 (to stick with that, as it’s neatly 7 years ago), I see a different person.
A person just about to end her long career in change management, someone excitedly entering a transition period, in which she learned new skills (coaching, starting a new business) and started creating a dream of - one day - combining all her passions and skills in her career.
Looking at myself in 2025 I’m seeing a person who is transitioning again. Someone who has anchored herself in a quiet little harbour (my job as a Coach on a Senior Leadership programme) for a while to take stock, to evaluate, to recuperate, to heal, to learn, to grow. To pause, as a wise fellow coach told me.
Someone who continues using her skills, experience, creativity and what she has learned to support others on this journey of recognising the seasons of careers, of identifying dreams for what’s next, for supporting and providing accountability for making that a reality.
Someone who is making the best use of the opportunities given to her to enhance her own learning and growth, whilst looking forward to what(ever) is coming next. However long that may take.
Yes, I’m a different person than I was in 2018. So are you. And you know what? That’s perfectly OK.
What this means for you
If you’re finding yourself in a confused place - a place where you feel uncertain, unclear, restless, upset even - I’d like you to consider the above.
That there’s a season for everything. That - in fact - your life, and your career, are made up of seasons. That it’s normal to go through those highs and lows. That it’s normal to not have it all sorted out. Even if you thought you did.
That - instead of fighting the wave - you can decide to ride it instead. To use this period to refocus on what’s important to you, to rediscover your values and realign your direction with your passions.
Because what you’re experiencing is normal.
What you’re going through is what we all go through at one point (or rather: at several points!) in our lives.
It’s an opportunity to dream, to realign our actions with our dreams, and to make the choices, take the actions, that make a new beginning possible. Even if that action is to take a pause.
So, my question to you is this:
What season are YOU finding yourself in right now? In your life? And in your career?
How are you feeling about it?
What are you doing to embrace this transition phase?
And if you want a sparring partner, someone who knows what that feels like and has been there, then let’s talk!
Tineke X
P.S. Are you currently finding yourself in a transition phase? Are you feeling confused, uncertain, restless about what’s next? If YOU want to start EXPLORING who you can become and what you can - and want to - DO in your career (and life), then book a call! Because I KNOW how you’re feeling and can support you in pausing, reflecting and considering what’s next.
🔴🟡🟠
Tineke Tammes is a Career Coach and supports professional women in making successful career transitions. Besides that she is also a lifelong feminist, part-time portrait artist, never-only-read-one-book-at-any-time reader, obsessive doodler and supporting senior leaders in their career journey.
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Wonderful insights and reflections, Tineke. I love to think of life in terms of seasons. Each has pros and cons, different features and rhythms. The secret is to embrace each. But those transitions can be unsettling. I am approaching one myself as my youngest will leave home next year. I'm feeling excited about it because it involves a move and I have a vision and high level plan.