Embrace the space this summer

Tired and wondering if you’ll have the energy to keep doing what you’re doing in 2026?

You are not alone.

Job searches in Australia typically peak in the first quarter of the year, particularly in January, when 25-30 percent of workers are actively looking for new jobs, while at other times the rate rises to 20-22 percent.

As an executive coach, my clients arrive at our final sessions of the year with nothing left in their tanks. They focus on their upcoming well-deserved vacation as time off to pause and evaluate the year ahead.

Some will conclude that they cannot handle another year like last year and will resign when they return to work.

The pattern I see in my coaching practice is consistent: People stay in roles that drain them for too long, waiting for the next ‘right’ thing to come along. They think they need to know what’s next before letting go of what’s wrong.

But transformation doesn’t work that way; You can’t become anything new by holding on to what tires you out.

The period when you let go without knowing all the answers is what academics call the ‘limit space’, the in-between state where you can let go of one thing and not quite get to the other. It comes from the Latin word ‘limen’, meaning threshold. Research on career transitions tells us that this discomfort is not only normal, but necessary.

Identity transformation occurs in the liminal space that provides time to explore possibilities without the pressure of immediate answers. Intentionality in the liminal domain is something like this: not always knowing where you’re going, but being careful about what you’re abandoning and why.

Over the summer holidays, many of you will enter your own liminal space and question whether the year ahead will hold more of what is draining you, or whether it is time for something different.

I could write another article about new year’s resolutions or setting goals for the future. Instead, I want you to embrace the space at the boundary and try sizing it up.

Here’s how: Write a letter to your future self. Where are you? What are you doing? How are you feeling? Who supports you? What have you accomplished that gives you true happiness? What trades did you make? What were the non-negotiables?

Don’t censor yourself. Write what you hope is true, not what you think should be true. The space between these two versions is where your real work begins.

This is not goal setting. You are allowed to dream without committing. It is to use the border space efficiently.

When my clients do this exercise, a job title rarely comes up. A clear and compelling vision of what could be.

When assessing the difference between now and then, this shows compromised values, wasted time and energy spent on the wrong things, as the letter becomes a mirror, showing a reflection of what has been gained as well as what has been lost.

The most surprising thing my clients discover when doing this exercise is that what they want is not a new job, but a different relationship with work. They see that they are trying to solve for the wrong variable: switching roles when what needs to change is how much of themselves they are willing to sacrifice or distort for success.

The question is not just how many writings we have left, but what we are prepared to let go of, reshape or reframe to make room for the future version of ourselves, as I pondered at the end of last year in my column titled ‘The predictable journey will one day stop’ (December 9, 2024).

For some, this means giving up a role that no longer fits. For some, it means giving up the behavior that comes with it. And for some, this eliminates the need to have all the answers before moving on to the next step; swinging between trapezes, so to speak.

For those of you who will spend this summer deciding whether or not to return to something that no longer fits, trust the discomfort. The border area is doing its job. Have the courage to write to your future self and then make a plan to embrace the new you.

I will do the same.

• Marion Fulker is president of Perth Zoo, executive coach and WA state president of Smartgroup