What if your career isn’t the problem?

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Hi, friend!

An unexpected thing happened last spring when I re-opened my career coaching business.

I welcomed in dream clients—creative, ambitious people who saw career potential everywhere. Some were considering entrepreneurship in the form of consulting, others were shaping multi-path careers, and a few were returning clients—people I had coached a year or two earlier to land what they believed was a perfect job.

That’s what got my attention first.

These repeat clients had already done the work to find something that fit them (strengths, priorities, lifestyle, etc.). But now, here they were again, feeling stuck, restless, and ready to make another leap.

Then I started noticing similar patterns in my new clients.

At first, they were energized by possibility. But as work stress mounted, as layoff fears loomed, as big decisions had to be made, confidence wavered. The dream of building something for themselves, or putting themselves “out there” in a new way, started to feel risky. The safer choice—a stable* job, benefits, a predictable path—became the obvious one.

I understood their decisions completely. But I also felt a wave of something—disappointment? Not in my clients themselves, but in that I could sense most of them weren’t going to find what they were looking for.

Because these weren’t isolated cases. They were signs of something deeper.

And I was paying attention.

*These days, sadly, a W2 job is definitely not stable. I know people feel this, which is why my messaging to help people “bet on yourself since you’re your most stable asset” worked when I was marketing the coaching program.

The Bookmarks

• What I uncovered behind the tension

• How Creative Foresight is evolving

I had spent years helping creative generalists land better jobs, believing that alignment between work and strengths was the key to fulfillment. But the patterns I saw told me that that approach wasn’t quite hitting the nail on the head anymore.

I had grown. I had learned more. And I was starting to see things like work, security, lifestyle, and creativity in a far more nuanced way.

So I did what I always encourage my clients to do: I followed the tension.

And here’s what I uncovered.

What I uncovered behind the tension

Creative generalists—people like you and me—aren’t just looking for a better job. We’re looking for an outlet. A way to fully express our creativity, our ideas, and our problem-solving instincts in a way that actually feels like us.

And here’s the hard truth: Most jobs don’t give us that.

That realization changed everything for me.

If I were to sum it up, I’d say: I no longer believe that career strategy should come first for creative generalists. The real foundation is creative investment.

When we prioritize our creativity—our own ideas, our own work—we stop getting caught in the endless cycle of job-hopping, hoping this one will finally be the answer. Instead, we build something sustainable for ourselves. And our career becomes a tool we can use, rather than our identity.

How Creative Foresight is evolving

That’s why Creative Foresight is evolving. It started at the end of last summer when I changed my business name from Career Foresight to Creative Foresight. And more is thoughtfully going on behind the scenes.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been:

• Building a new newsletter welcome experience for newcomers

• Re-editing past posts to align with this deeper focus

• Expanding my decision-making resources to help creative generalists navigate uncertainty with more confidence

This is just the (new) beginning, but I wanted to bring you along for the ride. If this resonates, stay tuned. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, I’d love for you to share it with them.

Thank you for reading!

Warmly,
Jennifer