Why You're Feeling Stuck in Your Career or Business (And What to Do About It)

In this episode of This Rad Life Unfiltered, I dive into that "meh" feeling so many of us experience in midlife—the sense that something's missing but you can't quite put your finger on what. On a recent surf trip to Maine I discovered what might be causing that “void.”

Why Does Life Feel So “Meh”?

If you're in your late thirties, forties, or early fifties and feeling a sense of disconnection, lack of belonging, or just wondering "what's next?"—you're not alone. I call this feeling the void.

It's that liminal space where you're yearning to:

• Find your people

• Discover your purpose or next chapter

• Feel like you belong somewhere

• Reconnect with meaning in your work and life

The void isn't depression (though it can feel adjacent). It's more like a creative restlessness—a sense that there's something more, but you don't have the answers yet.

After 17+ years of coaching unconventional entrepreneurs and creatives, going through countless pivots myself, and recently returning from an eye-opening surf trip to Maine, I've identified what's actually missing when you're feeling this way.

The 2 Keys to Filling the Void

Here's my theory based on years of working with clients in this exact space: when you're feeling the void, you're missing two essential ingredients—community and conviction.

Conviction: The Fire That Fuels Your Path

Conviction is that deep sense of purpose or mission that drives you forward. It doesn't have to be world-changing or grandiose—it just needs to be true for you.

My husband John had conviction over 12 years ago when we started our nonprofit tool lending library and makerspace (before makerspaces were even a thing). He was teaching sculpture at a university, coming home downtrodden every day because his undergraduate students—mostly there for finance degrees—couldn't care less about working with their hands.

Meanwhile, I was working with National Geographic's Photo Camp, teaching refugee youth photographic storytelling. When John would attend their final slide shows and see how stoked these kids were to learn, he'd say: "I’d love to be teaching people who WANT what’s in my brain."

For him, that was how to make, fix, build, create just about anything with one’s own hands.

That was his conviction. Simple. Clear. Powerful.

How Conviction Creates Your Path

Here's what happened when John started sharing his conviction: he put himself out there, told people about his idea, and started getting responses.

Someone suggested: "You should start a tool library."

We didn't know what that was, but it sparked curiosity. So when I had a photography job on the West Coast with gaps in my schedule, we rode motorcycles across the country visiting tool libraries to see how they worked.

Each conversation shaped the idea a little more. Each exchange created what I call the tight spiral upward—where sharing your energy and ideas leads to information, which refines your vision, which you then share again in an evolved form.

This is how ideas become reality. This is how you move from the void to your next chapter.

The Cycle of Change

In my alumni coaching group, one of my clients, Julie, was saying: "I feel like I'm still in the spark phase. I have ideas but I'm not taking full action yet. I don't feel that conviction."

I told her: "That's because you haven't been shopping the idea around. You've got to talk to people. Give them information so they can respond, then you respond to their response."

This creates the evolution from void to vision:

1. The Void - Feeling stuck, blank, wondering what's next

2. Creating Space - Making room for possibility

3. Listening for Sparks - Noticing what lights you up

4. Pulling Threads - Exploring ideas with curiosity

5. Finding Lighthouse People - Connecting with those who show you pieces of the path

6. Shopping Your Conviction - Sharing your ideas and getting feedback

7. Building the Spiral - Refining and evolving through iteration

8. Taking Action - Making a concrete plan and moving forward

The key insight: You don't need the complete picture before you start. The process of figuring out what’s next, or your way out of the void IS iterative. Some people have a clear vision they work toward. Others discover the vision through the process. Both are valid.

The Antidote to "Meh"

The other thing I see when people are feeling the void? They're missing their people. They haven't found community and connection.

I hear this constantly. During a recent macrodosing journey with local women (I've been microdosing psilocybin for years), every single participant said the same thing: "I've been missing community. I've been wanting this type of gathering with women interested in the things I'm interested in. It just doesn't exist here."

I had to laugh because we were all in the same room, and most of us lived in the same area. The community existed—we just hadn't created an opportunity to find each other yet.

What a Surf Trip Taught Me About Building Community

Last weekend, my husband and I went to Maine for a surf trip. John wanted to take a wooden surfboard shaping workshop at Green Surfboards—a place we've known about for years but never visited.

They happened to be hosting this big event with local vendors, surfboard shapers from around the globe, speakers on sustainability, and even Cliff Kapono (a well-known big wave surfer who's also an environmental scientist).

What struck me wasn't just the quality of the event—it was the community. People had been coming for a decade. Others had just heard about it for the first time. Locals and travelers alike, all gathering around shared values and interests.

These friendships and relationships—this sense of belonging—all came from someone deciding to build something and share it with the world.

It reminded me of the nonprofit John and I started. We were at the nucleus of that community for years. The quality and quantity of friendships that were created because of the tool library are still thriving—people in each other's weddings, godparents to each other's kids—and I had nothing to do with creating those specific connections. I just helped create the organization that became a beacon where people could find each other.

Your Three Options When You're Feeling the Void

If you're feeling this disconnection, this lack of community or conviction, you have three choices:

Option 1: Cross Your Fingers and Wait You can hope community and purpose land in your lap. Spoiler: this never happens.

Option 2: Build It Yourself Share your conviction. Put your ideas out there. Become the lighthouse. If you build it, they will come.

Option 3: Find and Join Go out and find like-minded communities to insert yourself into. Use the internet. Ask friends. Get coaching if you need help figuring out how to actually do the thing.

You might be a natural community builder, or you might not be. That's okay. You can create community by sharing your ideas and conviction, letting that draw people to you. Or you can let that guide you to find the communities you want to belong to.

The Missing Piece: How You're Wired

Here's where I'm going to take a bit of a left turn (but stay with me).

A lot of my clients are feeling the void not just because they lack community or conviction, but because they don't know how they're wired.

How they’re wired for a purpose, how they’re wired to work or be in the world.

For example. We're so indoctrinated into the Monday-Friday, 9-to-5, 40-hour workweek—which is just a product of the Industrial Revolution, by the way. It's made up. You don't have to operate that way.

Many people on this planet are not designed to work in that fashion, but they carry guilt and shame because they can't make that structure work for them. They think: "What's wrong with me that I can't just work in a structured way?"

Nothing is wrong with you. You just don't know how you're designed, so you're living and working in a way someone else prescribed that doesn't fit how you're wired.

This is where tools like astrology and Human Design come in. I've been using both personally for about 20 years, and I've found massive insight, validation, and affirmation through understanding my birth chart and Human Design type.

Knowing how you're wired to work, AND what your right work is gives you clarity and direction. It's a faster, more impactful jumping-off point when you’re feeling stuck in the current shape of your life.

Ready to Get Out of the Void?

If you're asking yourself:

• Where's my community?

• What's next for me?

• Why does my business feel misaligned?

• Why am I so disorganized or unproductive?

The answer might be simpler than you think: you need conviction to pull you forward and community to support you along the way.

Start by:

1. Identifying a conviction - What do you care deeply about? What would you share for free just because you believe in it?

2. Shopping your ideas - Talk to people. Share your energy. Find your lighthouse people.

3. Seeking or building community - Stop waiting for it to find you. Either create it or intentionally join it.

4. Understanding how you're wired - Learn what you’re wired for in this life!

You don't have to stay in the void. And you don't have to figure it all out alone.

Want to explore how you're uniquely wired and what your right path might be? I'm currently offering beta sessions combining astrology and Human Design—a comprehensive reading and mini-coaching session that helps you understand your design, working style, and how to magnetize the resources you want in your life. Link in show notes to grab one of the three remaining October slots.

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