The career change happened. The new chapter is underway. And instead of the clarity or relief you expected, something quieter and more unsettling arrived:
The same emptiness followed you into the new role.
This is one of the most common experiences I encounter in coaching — and one of the most misunderstood. The problem is almost never the new career. The problem is that the question of purpose was never actually answered. The career change was made in search of an answer that only a deeper conversation can provide.
“Purpose is not something you find in a new job title. It is something you remember — and it has been there, underneath the career, the whole time.”
Why purpose is not found through career decisions alone
A career change addresses context. Purpose is not about context — it is about the essential nature of who you are and what you are here to contribute. You can change industry, function, sector, and title and still be separated from your purpose if the separation is internal rather than structural.
The Bhagavad Gita calls this svadharma — your essential nature, the current you were built to swim in. It is better, the Gita teaches, to follow your own dharma imperfectly than someone else’s dharma perfectly.
The question is not: what career should I have? The question is: what has always been true about me — even when I was too busy following the expected script to pay attention to it?
What purpose coaching actually does
- Looks at the original why — what drew you to this work before the pragmatic reasons accumulated
- Examines the gap between what you do and what you feel most alive doing
- Identifies the specific contribution you make that nobody else around you makes in quite the same way
- Distinguishes between the life you designed and the life that is actually yours
“The emptiness after a career change is not evidence of a purposeless life. It is evidence that your purpose has been patient — and is asking, very quietly, to be remembered.”
Where to begin before the next strategic move
Before updating the CV or researching the next sector — spend thirty minutes with this question: when have you felt most genuinely useful? Not most successful. Most useful.
The specific, personal, honest answer to that question is closer to your purpose than any job description you will find.
Episode 25 of The Kitchen Table Conference — ‘I feel like I’ve lost my purpose’ — explores svadharma and the rediscovery process. If you are ready to do this work, the 30-minute clarity call is the right next step. Book at appikshajain.com.