By Barbara Poole

It happens when you least expect it. You’re snug in bed, sleeping like a baby, and wham! Something jolts you wide awake at about 3 a.m. Or, you went to bed hours ago, but you’ve yet to visit dreamland, and instead you’ve been tossing and turning and worrying about how few hours stand between you and your alarm clock.

Whichever variation you are experiencing, it’s not just a simple case of insomnia. You’re realizing that while you are lying awake and staring at the ceiling, your thoughts keep turning to your job — how unfulfilling it is, how insecure it feels, how much you dislike your boss, how bored you are.

What you have is a major case of career stirrings. This is your inner guidance system telling you that something is off-kilter. It is the voice that speaks to you when it’s dark and quiet and you don’t have the busy-ness of the day to mask the true feelings that are nagging at you.

Although the sensation of career stirrings is not particularly pleasant, there is huge information value associated with this experience. So before you reach for the remote control, get up to raid the refrigerator or pop a sleeping pill, consider what messages these stirrings may be offering you.

I’ve worked with many clients who have experienced this phenomenon. Not initially knowing how to make sense of their stirrings, they attribute them to indigestion, overwork or extra caffeine. In some cases, they make the connection to inner guidance, but go prematurely to a sweeping and drastic conclusion, i.e., “I hate my job and therefore I should quit.” All of these responses miss the subtle meanings inherent in stirrings.

The best response to a case of career stirrings is to simply allow them and pay attention.

Yes, this may mean that you lose a few nights’ sleep, but it’s an important step in understanding what your deeper self is really trying to tell you.

What are the circumstances that might lead to your experiencing a case of career stirrings, short of the drastic, quit-your-job variety? Sometimes it’s a simple case of boredom. This could mean investigating the possibility of a rotation into a new area of the company or on to a special project.

Perhaps it’s a matter of feeling like your job just doesn’t tap into your true talents and strengths. Each of us has a distinct set of natural abilities and strengths that crave being exercised. Consider whether there is a way to reconfigure your job so that it better utilizes your core strengths.

Many times the thing that prompts career stirrings has nothing to do with the job itself, but instead involves a problem with a work relationship. Ask yourself what courageous conversation you need to have, and how to do so in a way that doesn’t further damage the connection.

In this day and time, many people are experiencing career stirrings because of the volatility in the workplace, and the concern that their jobs could evaporate tomorrow as a result of offshoring, a weak economy or a host of other variables. If this is what is keeping you awake at night, it’s time to work on your readiness and marketability to venture out into the workplace if the need should arise.

Of course, sometimes a serious case of career stirrings really does mean that it’s time to move on. And many times, this is not just a calling to find a new job but a burning desire to completely reinvent yourself professionally. Although it takes huge courage and is not for the faint of heart, striking out in a brand-new direction may be the most exhilarating and fulfilling thing you can do if the career you are in has really used up its shelf life.

So if you are finding yourself awake in the middle of the night more often than not, and you

have a sense that it keeps coming back to your career, consider these tips:

• Invite the feelings you are experiencing to fully take roost.

• Resist the temptation to turn on the tube or block the stirrings in some other way.

• Listen, without judgment, to what your heart is telling you.

• Wait, and give your inner wisdom time to emerge.

• Write in a journal about what you are experiencing so that you can capture your thoughts and feelings.

• Take inventory of the specifics that may be emerging as areas for you to investigate.

• Call in the troops to help you determine the best way to move forward — a good friend, a coach, a trusted adviser.

• Decide on a course of action only after you have done all of the above.

What is stirring inside of you? Pay attention to this rich source of guidance. It’s your heart and soul talking, and they won’t steer you wrong.

Barbara Poole is a leadership and career development coach with Charleston-based Success Builders Inc. She can be reached at CoachBarbara@SuccessBuildersInc.com.

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