Why Getting Clear on Your Career Direction is the Only Thing That Actually Moves You Forward
Updated: Jul 23
Anne-Sophie Gossan, founder of Inner Spark Coaching, supports individuals going through career transitions so they find meaningful direction, reignite their spark, and thrive. She brings calm, clarity, and deep empathy and asks the questions that unlock their truths while holding space for both vulnerability and growth.
You're not stuck because you lack options. You have too many and no clear way to choose between them. Here's how to get clear, get moving, and build a second half of the year that actually counts.
A client I'll call Sarah had been in career disruption for eight months when she sent me a message, 'I thought I’d done everything right. Updated my CV. Networked. Applied for roles I actually want. I feel like I'm going nowhere.
Sarah wasn't doing anything wrong. What she was missing wasn't effort, experience, or qualifications. She was missing clarity, a clear sense of what she was moving toward, not just what she was escaping from. It's in July, the halfway point, when that gap tends to hit hardest.
What career disruption does to your sense of direction
Career disruption is not just a practical event. It's an identity event. Research by Harvard Business School professor Herminia Ibarra shows that when our professional role disappears, we don't just lose a job. We lose the story we've been telling ourselves about who we are.
Ibarra's data found something that most career advice gets backward, clarity comes from doing, not from thinking more. The people who recover fastest from career disruption are not the most organised. They're the ones who experiment, take small steps in different directions, and use the feedback to refine where they're heading.
For women, this is more acute. The 2024 Women in the Workplace report found that six in ten senior-level women report burnout, higher than at any point in the study's decade-long history. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 40% of employers expect to reduce workforces where AI can automate tasks, including middle management roles that disproportionately affect experienced women.
"If you don't address the identity gap underneath the career gap, you'll keep applying for roles that don't fit and wondering why nothing is working."
Direction is not the same as destination
The biggest obstacle to getting clear is the belief that you need to know exactly what you want before you can act. This is the most common piece of career advice given to women in transition, and it creates paralysis, not progress.
Direction is different from destination. Direction means I know what I'm moving toward, even if I can't see the full path yet. The kind of work. The kind of contribution. The kind of environment.
Destination thinking ('I need to figure it all out first') keeps you stuck. Direction thinking ('what's one move this week that takes me somewhere real?') builds momentum.
"Clarity is not a lightbulb moment. It's built incrementally through action, through small decisions, through noticing what feels right and what doesn't."
I had a client (I'll call her Niamh) who spent five months post-redundancy applying for versions of her old role. Senior operations, financial services, same sector, same level. Every interview left her flat. In July, she finally asked the question she'd been avoiding, "What did she actually want?" The answer surprised her, sustainability consulting, something she'd dismissed as 'not serious enough.' By September, she had her first client. By December, she turned down the financial services job she'd finally been offered.
Niamh's story isn't about everything working out. It's about what happened when she stopped running toward the familiar and asked a harder question.
Four moves that actually work in the second half of the year
Do a half-year audit, and make it useful, not punishing: The point is not to measure how far behind you are. It's to understand what you now know that you didn't in January. What's clearer? What surprised you? What have you learned about what you do and don't want? That's the data that matters.
Make one directional decision this week: Not a big one. One that takes you toward something rather than away from something. Send the email. Apply for the thing. Use the response as data, not a verdict on your worth.
Rebuild your network around your future, not your past: Ibarra's research is detailed on this, the network that helped you succeed in your previous role is rarely the one that will help you succeed in what comes next. Getting direction also means getting around different people.
Use the summer slowdown deliberately: When inboxes go quiet, most people in career disruption panic. The women who use this period well treat it differently, as time for thinking and exploring that gets crowded out in busier months. September comes fast. Use July to arrive at it pointed in the right direction.
"If you spend July measuring your progress against everyone else's highlight reel, you'll arrive at September feeling like you've failed. If you spend it getting deliberate, you'll arrive ready to move."
The bottom line
We're at the halfway point. Six months of learning, adjusting, sometimes struggling. Six months ahead. The question isn't how far you've come since January. The question is, what direction are you pointed in now? If you know the answer, July is your moment to act on it. If you don't, July is your moment to find it.
Ready for your next step?
If this has resonated and you're ready to get clear on your next move, not in theory, but in practice, get in touch and tell me where you're at.
Read more from Anne-Sophie Gossan
Anne-Sophie Gossan, Transformational Career Coach
Anne-Sophie Gossan spent 25+ years in the corporate world navigating high-stakes environments and career transitions. She spent years building a career and a home, juggling the demands of raising two boys while holding down a very demanding job. When redundancy struck, it shook her confidence and identity in ways she hadn’t anticipated. She decided to qualify as a coach and to create Inner Spark Coaching: Reimagine Your Story, a safe space where her clients can reclaim the unstoppable version of themselves that’s always been there. Through coaching, conversation, and deep transformation, she guides individuals into their next chapter with clarity, confidence, alignment, and renewed purpose.
Sources:
Ibarra, H. — Working Identity
Lean In C McKinsey — Women in the Workplace 2024
World Economic Forum — Future of Jobs Report 2025
