When people begin to think about changing something in their work, there’s often an immediate pushback.
A voice that says things like:
- Don’t be silly.
- It’s not that bad.
- You should just be grateful.
- Other people have it worse.
This voice can be surprisingly loud — and very convincing. It tends to show up early, often before you’ve even worked out what you want to change.
Rather than seeing this voice as a problem, it can be helpful to understand what it’s trying to do. In many cases, it’s there to protect you. It wants to keep things stable, predictable, and safe. Change, even positive change, carries uncertainty, and our brains are wired to seek patterns and the familiar. I wrote about The Voice of Resistance in this blog
The trouble starts when this voice becomes the only one you listen to.
If it goes unchecked, it can shut down reflection before it really begins. People tell themselves they shouldn’t be feeling this way, that they’re overreacting, or that now isn’t the right time — often for years.
Reorientation doesn’t mean silencing this voice or pushing past it. It means learning how to listen without letting it take over.
That starts with slowing things down. You don’t need to decide anything. You don’t need a plan. You don’t even need to know what “change” might look like. You’re simply creating space to notice what’s coming up.
Often, underneath the resistance is something more honest:
- A desire for work that fits better with life now
- A wish for more energy or time for those most important to us
- A longing to work in a way that feels sustainable again
These aren’t unreasonable or unrealistic. They’re signals.
Reorientation
Reorientation is about turning towards those signals with curiosity, rather than dismissing them. It’s a quiet shift in stance — from “Why can’t I just cope?” to “What might this be telling me?”
That shift alone can ease a lot of internal pressure.
A gentle reflection:
- What does the voice of resistance say to you?
- What might it be trying to protect you from?
