uncertainty and impasse

April 27, 2007 by  

I enjoyed reading about this new book, Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths, related to career and life change. Its about why and how we can cross into new frontiers, leaving behind the comfort of what is known and familiar. I like the way the author refers to artists and musicians, like Bob Dylan and D.H. Lawrence, as examples of how continually shifting identity is core to artistic and creative integrity. In this view, how you live and craft your life, “is” the desired outcome. Resisting this desire, or hunger, can lead to a great deal of suffering, described as ‘impasse crises’.

One of the most typically resisted steps in breaking the impasse and shifting beliefs is accepting uncertainty. I think of Bob Dylan who once said: “I accept chaos”. I often see clients, in their attempt to avoid the discomfort of uncertainty, be continually drawn back to the things that keep them stuck: jobs they hate, friends, family and peers who feel threatened by their change and so manipulatively hold them back, and the lure of mass market media promising easy answers. That leads to diminished self-trust and a lot of “I must work and push harder to make it happen” combined with impatience to see results.

But as I learned from one of my teachers, effort and fulfillment inversely correlate and shifting to a desired better version of oneself is largely built on the foundation of willingness to “not know”.

effort_results.jpg

Feeling Stuck? Getting Past Impasse:
by Martha Lagace

Most people at one time or another feel as if they are just spinning their wheels, unable to gain traction either in career or in life. This feeling of being stuck in one place, while troubling, is part of a necessary crisis leading to personal growth, says Dr. Timothy Butler, Senior Fellow and Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School.

‘Without it we cannot grow, change, and—eventually—live more fully in a larger world,’ Butler writes in his new book, Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths (Harvard Business School Press).

Butler, a psychologist, psychotherapist, and career development counselor for over 25 years, is also a researcher on career decision making generally and the relationship between personality structure and work satisfaction in particular. He met recently with HBS Working Knowledge to discuss how commonly business professionals may be confronted with a sense of psychological impasse and how they can free themselves.

(Via HBS Working Knowledge.)

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