Have you ever hit the top of your career only to realise... this isn’t the mountain you wanted to climb?

In this episode, I respond to a listener who’s built an enviable career, but now finds themselves utterly done with the job—yet far from done with working. We explore what it means to reach the peak and feel empty, the risks of early retirement, and the real work that begins once the big job ends.

If you’re staring down your next chapter and wondering what truly fulfilling work could look like now, I walk you through the first steps of career redesign—including how to identify your Superpowers and choose work that feels fierce, meaningful, and yours.

🎯 Download The Superpowers Starter worksheet now:

💬 Mentioned in This Episode:

• Join the Midlife Unstuck Community
• Dana’s Story: A Case Study in Midlife Redesign

This is the Joy At Work podcast, and I'm Lucia Knight.

Here's this week's question from a listener.

Hey, Lucia, I've hit the top of a career that doesn't

actually fit me anymore.

I'm chief people officer and a big energy company, and I'm good at it,

but I don't want to do it anymore.

Technically, I could retire.

Money's not the issue, but the thought of that, honestly, it fills me with dread.

We've got a new CEO now and.

Let's just say I don't agree with how he leads people or

how he's trying to lead me.

What I really want is to do work that's interesting where I've got the

freedom to use my experience and where that experience is actually valued.

So what do you do when you are done with the job but not done with working?

Ooh, I love this question because you've reached

the top of a career mountain.

You've discovered it's not the view you've signed up for, and you are not alone.

We've had so many questions on this topic in the inbox.

A cross roads like this happens to a lot of us.

Here's what's great about your situation.

You've built your financial freedom fund, and that means you don't have to stay

doing work that no longer feels good.

That's powerful.

Now, you might not expect me to say this, but based on what you've

shared, I actually would encourage you to stay a little longer, not

forever, but just until you're clearer on what you truly want next.

Retirement isn't right for many of us, and from what I've seen.

When you don't have something compelling to run towards, the risk is you flounder.

I've seen the lack of structure, the lack of purpose, and the potential for extreme

loneliness increase in early retirement.

I've seen it send smart, high energy people into a tailspin,

and I don't want that for you.

This stage of your journey, it's not about climbing higher, it's

about going somewhere where all that insight and experience and hard

earned wisdom finally gets to breathe.

You are not done.

You are just done playing a part that no longer fits.

So let's take stock.

You've built a career, not just any career, but one where you've

guided people, culture and strategy.

You've probably carried a lot of others across the finishing line, and now it's

time to carry yourself somewhere new.

And retirement.

That's clearly not the answer.

How do I know?

Because you've posted a question to me in a podcast called Joy at

Work that tells me you are not ready to settle down or slow down.

You are ready to set your gaze on a new mountain, and this time it doesn't need

to be as tall, and the climb doesn't need to be as arduous because your backpack

is stuffed to the brim with experience.

Your boots are broken in.

And you know how to climb very well.

All you need now is a destination and a path.

So here's what I recommend.

Figure out where you are right now at exactly this moment, at exactly this age.

Decide what you've got to offer the world that's unique and what you want

to offer the world that's unique.

In my method, your superpowers are your uniqueness, and when I say

superpowers, I mean the four things you do better, faster, easier, and more

lightly than almost everyone, you know.

And when you get to do these things, you feel deep satisfaction in your

belly and more energy than is normal for people of your or our age.

And when you get to use them, people get to see you at your best, doing your

most brilliant, energizing work lightly.

It just feels good.

Then decide which problems in the world that will get you jumping out

of bed to solve or to be part of a team that contributes to solving it.

This is where we align the things that are important to you, and you get to decide

where to invest your precious moments.

This is a choice, a deliberate choice, a narrowing of all the options on how to

invest your experience and wisdom into something that you give a monkey's about.

Because even when you don't need to work for money, you

do need to work for something.

It's the purpose in your work life.

Now, what I'm about to say may ruffle your feathers, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

I've seen so many midlife professionals who retired early try frustratingly

hard to keep themselves busy, socially engaged, and frankly happy.

But the truth, as I see it, it doesn't often work not for our generation

where work has become such a central part of our lives and our identities.

But I do see early retirement working if you've got a very

particular set of circumstances.

You need to be strongly introverted or very flexible on

who you spend your time with.

You need to be deeply, intrinsically motivated.

You need to have a solo hobby you can do for hours alone and a wide

network of humans you actually like who can regularly take time off to

do this hobby with you on weekdays.

That, in my experience, is a rare combo.

I get it when you say retirement fills you with dread, honestly, me too.

I'll pop a link in the show notes to a case study on Dana.

A client who tried early retirement, hit a wall after one long, dark

winter, and came to me to deliberately design her new work life on her terms

and that made all the difference.

I'll also include a link to a free resource from the never too old,

never too late community to help you begin to discover your uniqueness.

It's called your Superpower Starter.

You've done the big job.

Now maybe it's time for the true work.

The interesting work, the you work, I call this fierce work, the kind

that's designed around who you really are and what you really want to

offer the world and to whom, and then it's just a question of packaging.

Thank you for your question and for reminding us all that the first

mountain we climb isn't always our last.