5 Essential Steps to Reclaim Your Career After a Pause: Overcoming Overwhelm and Achieving Success

Returning to a project after a career pause can be overwhelming. Whether you’ve left paid work for mental health reasons, raising children and managing a home, or being the primary caregiver for a parent or family member, it’s natural to feel anxious about adding paid work into your life.

Whether it’s part time, contract or a full time role, it’s a shift. It can be overwhelming and often that overwhelm can keep us stuck. You are worth the effort, if it’s something you want. Think about the small steps you can take, no need to figure out everything right away. Once you begin, you will find you continue to move forward, but we won’t go anywhere unless we start.

Resuming something you have paused can feel scary, but there is a reason you took the break. So, first things first, celebrate that you did what you needed to do. Without the career pause, there would be no opportunity to take inventory of what is working, what’s making you happy and what is not. So, yes, returning from the time away from paid work can be intimidating. I know from experience. It changes your confidence and alters how you feel about your skills. We have to work through it and overcome it. 

To make the transition back as smooth as possible, take these five steps:

Acknowledge that putting things on pause to address other important areas of your life is OK: It can be easy to get lost in the idea that we should always be pushing forward and never stop. Realistically though, taking some time for yourself is essential for sustained productivity and overall wellbeing. Taking as little as 15 minutes out of your day to recharge can be enough to make all the difference when it comes to getting back on track.

Set Realistic Goals: Setting unrealistic goals is one of the surefire ways to become overwhelmed quickly and stop progress. Instead, create smaller objectives that are achievable and will help you stay motivated even when things get tough. Recognize that progress takes time but celebrate each milestone along the way so you can continue to build your confidence and excitement.

Take Advantage of Helpful Resources: We all need support sometimes so don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help on your return journey. Whether it’s advice from coaches, mentors, peers, or just moral support from friends and family- having someone in your corner who understands what you’re trying through will do wonders for your morale! 

Create an Actionable Plan: Once you have identified your main goal, break it down into manageable tasks that will enable you to make steady progress towards achieving that goal over time. This will help keep distractions at bay by ensuring each step has clear objectives with tangible results. Seeing those successes add up can be incredibly rewarding!

An example is everyday, decide on three things you will do. You don’t have to do any more, but don’t do any less. If after those three tasks you feel like doing more, great. If not, that’s perfect because you have committed to those three. So you have done what you need to for the day. Start small, even with one. Build from there. Consistency is what is most important. Set yourself up for a sustainable plan, by starting small and growing from there. 

Celebrate Each Milestone: Progress takes time and effort so don’t forget to take a moment every now and then to appreciate how far you’ve come! Celebrating each milestone may seem like a small gesture but it helps reinforce positive thinking which in turn affects our attitude towards our work positively – making us more productive in the long run! 

By following these five simple steps when returning from a career pause, we can set the stage for a sustainable approach, one that brings us happiness and excitement and perhaps will keep us from needing a break in the future. Be kind to yourself and give yourself what you need. It’s very helpful to pause if you’re feeling overwhelmed or aren’t sure you are headed in the right direction. Remember that taking care of yourself is just as important as reaching your end goal.

Have you recently returned to a project, paid work or business after putting your career on pause? 

If so, I would love to hear your story!