You "Run Away," Then What ... For Those Planning to Pull the Plug the Tuesday After Memorial Day

 This Memorial Day is the perfect timing for running-away fantasies. Evenually some of the dreamers will actually do it: Leave the whatevers that are causing the psychic pain. But, The Next on that one might not be something much better. The factors which drove the escape could continue to hang on.

Spoiler Alert. Essentially that's the message of 2021 novel "When I Ran Away" by IIona Bannister. An American lawyer married to a Brit and living in London Gigi Stanislawski unravels. As usual there's no one reason such as the difficult birth of her second child. Constant is the turbulence in her head - like a clothes dryer - of the death of her brother in America's 9/11 tragedy. In addtion, there is the confusion so many of us from blue collar backgrounds experience when we leave the reservation and worm our ways into other tribes.

For about 12 hours Gigi takes refuge in a hotel in London which had seen better days. On TV she watches American programming, eats pizza, and sips wine. Meanwhile her friends keep texting her and finally locate where she is. The equally unglued husband Harry, a finance executive whose career is in trouble, goes in search of her. 

Of course, in the afterward things "aren't the way the were before." But hope sprouts up. Caring between the couple has returned. They are able to talk and hear each other. The marriage has a shot. Gigi's parenting picks up some and she is sending out resumes to get back to work after blowing her previous job. Harry pitches in with domestic duties. There is a question if he too can get his professional life on-track.

In my career coaching I warn clients that pulling the plug may bring only temporary relief. The underlying problems usually persist. Professional anonymous networks such as Reddit and Fishbowl are full of pleas asking "permission" to flee that awful job or even an entire career path such as management consulting. However, there is no reflection as to what professionals can put together for a Next and if even that would solve relationship, parenting, and mood-disorder problems. 

Tomorrow most of us will come back. Those who leveraged the holiday time-off to make the decision about exiting could be opening the door to simply another set of difficulties. Those could be worse. 

Here is my article on the complexities of career change, published in O'Dwyer PR. 

What is your career story? Or, what do you assume it is? That narrative may be ot-of-date and holding you back.

Take advantage of a complimentary consultation. Please contact intuitive career coach Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579.