Stagnating on the job? Try these strategies

Starting a new job is exhilarating and exhausting. Exhilarating, because you’re trying new things, meeting new people, and picking up new skills. Exhausting, because all of those activities tax your brain, so that by the end of the day, you just want a nap.

Over time, though, some of the things you’re doing become routine. You know the general tasks that drive your workday, and you can solve most of the problems that come up on most days. Once that happens, you go from being exhausted to being bored. Ultimately, your brain craves a middle-ground in which your world is generally predictable, but there are enough novel situations that you have to pay attention, think a bit, and learn some new things.

So, if you feel like you’re running in place at work, then you have to take responsibility for learning new things. You have to decide what you ought to learn and how to learn it. Here are three approaches that can motivate you to get out of your rut.

1. Plan your next move

Where do you want to be in five years? Have you got an answer to that question? You might have a sense of the next role or two you’d like to take. If not, chat with more senior colleagues to get a sense of how your career might progress. You might even think about working with a career coach to get some ideas.

Then, take a hard look at your current skills. How do they match up with what is required to take on the next role? You should focus both on the skills you don’t have that are a big part of a new role, but also on leveling up some of your existing skills where you may need even greater proficiency when you move up.

It is a natural first step to pick up a book on one of these topics. That is a good start, because it gives you a lay of the land of what needs to be learned to gain competence in an area. But, active practice is an important part of skill development. Seek opportunities that will teach you and also enable you to practice those skills. That might involve taking a class in which you work to hone your new abilities. There are also an increasing number of online platforms that use structured lessons incorporating AI that enable you to try new things and get personalized feedback.  

2. Try new things

You may not be so sure what you want to do next. Even if you have a clue, that doesn’t mean you have to direct your study just at skills that will get you to the next rung of the ladder.

Learning itself is invigorating. When you take up a new topic, it often lets you notice things you haven’t seen before. Even picking up a new hobby can change the way you engage with the world. I have written a lot about how I took up the saxophone in my mid-thirties. Not only did it lead to some new skills and the chance to play in some bands, but it also gave me unexpected insights into education and leadership.

After all, you never know where your next great idea might come from. The more you know, the more likely you will be to see a professional situation in a way that is different from how those around you view it.

3. Consider a deep dive or a pivot

A lot of the work-related training people do is cursory. You read a book (or perhaps two). You take a seminar (or two) online or at a local university. Those classes open up some new vistas and can often jolt you out of the rut that drives your daily routine.

But, if you really want to transform yourself, you need a much deeper dive in either a topic you’re familiar with, or perhaps you want to switch to something completely different. That is where a degree program can be a huge benefit. Most universities have realized that master’s programs are an important part of people’s career paths. An increasing number of those programs are tailored to working professionals who can retain their jobs while doing the program. In some fields (like computer science, data science, and AI), these programs are also structured to enable a large number of people to take these programs so that the cost is low.

One advantage to a master’s program is that you often get to know a cohort of fellow students who are pursuing the same degree. That enables you to meet new people with similar goals (and often at a similar point in their careers). These individuals can often give you insight into how you can think differently about your own career. Not only do you leave a degree program with a greatly enhanced bag of tools, you also have a fresh perspective that can drive the next decade of your career.