The Hidden Cost of Staying Stuck in Your Career in Midlife

Every year you wait for things to change, the price rises — not just in money, but in confidence, health, and joy.

When I talk to women in midlife who feel stuck, one of the first questions I ask is this:

What is staying where you are costing you?

Because the thing about inertia is — every year, every month, every day you stay stuck, you pay.

It’s not always obvious. It isn’t always loud. But it’s there. The cost of staying stuck shows itself in energy drained, dreams deferred, confidence chipped away, and a subtle whisper that maybe you weren’t meant for more.

1. The Energy Toll

Let’s start with something entirely physical: your energy.

When you sit in a job or life situation that no longer fits, everything takes more effort — getting out of bed, showing up for work, even caring. That’s your body telling you something’s off.

Over time, the fatigue accumulates. It seeps into your weekends, your relationships, your ability to find joy. You start measuring life in survival, not possibility.

One of my clients told me she’d wake on Monday morning and just feel tired. Before she even poured her coffee. That, to me, is one of the clearest signs something’s wrong.

2. Confidence Erosion

Confidence is rarely destroyed in a single moment. It fades slowly, subtly — through repeated small “no’s” to yourself.

Each time you don’t speak up, each time you don’t lean in, each time you tell yourself “I’ll wait,” that confidence—and the trust you have in your own voice—shrinks a little more.

Staying stuck is like saying to your inner self:

“You can’t trust your instincts.

You can’t count on your dreams.

Stay small because that’s safer.”

And over time, you forget the version of you that believed you could be more.

3. Opportunity Lost

One of the greatest silent costs is what you don’t do — the opportunities you never explore because they feel too big, too risky, too “later.”

Maybe there was a course, a pivot, a project you shelved.

Maybe there was a different version of your life that you glimpsed in a book, a whisper during a walk, a daydream when the sun hit your window just so.

Each small “later” is a deferral of possibility. And over years, those deferred possibilities stack into regret.

4. Relationships & Identity Decay

Staying stuck is not just a career problem — it’s a life problem. Because your work (and the feeling of achievement, purpose, alignment) feeds your sense of identity and confidence.

When your work doesn’t reflect who you are now — your values, your energy, your vision — you start living a life out of alignment. That dissonance trickles into your relationships, your sense of self, your joy. You become a shell of someone else’s expectations.

I’ve seen women come into the Creating the Career You Want programme who, on paper, “should be happy” — but they feel disconnected, almost hollow. Because the cost of staying stuck isn’t just in what you lose outside — it’s in what you lose inside.

5. The Emotional Weight

And there’s a cost to your heart, too. The cost of weariness, of quiet grief over what never was, of that lonely ache that maybe time is running out.

We whisper to ourselves, maybe this was it. That we missed our chance. That we’re not enough. Midlife can intensify these internal monologues.

But here’s something you deserve to hear: Those thoughts aren’t your truth. They’re fear talking. The cost lies in believing them.

Reframing the Cost of Staying Stuck: A Different Lens

Now, the point isn’t to scare you.

It’s not to convince you through guilt.

You’ve probably heard that story a thousand times and it doesn’t move you anymore.

What I want you to see is this:

You’re already paying this cost 

— invisibly, quietly.

What would it feel like to redirect that cost into growth, possibility, forward motion?

Imagine this:

• That energy you lose becomes fuel for what you love.

• Those old “stories you tell yourself” transform into the rewrite you’ve been waiting for.

• The version of you that’s been buried beneath obligation, fear, and survival — she steps forward again.

Practical Next Step (for this week)

Here’s a simple exercise you can do right now:

1. Take a blank sheet of paper (or open your Notes app).

2. Title it: “The Cost I Can’t Afford Anymore”

3. Under it, list three real costs you feel today because of staying stuck. (Could be energy, identity, confidence, relationships, lost dreams.)

4. Under each cost, write one small action you could take this week that begins to shift that cost into movement or inquiry.

It might be journaling for clarity or simply saying “no” to something that drains

you.

5. Keep that note somewhere visible — your desk, your journal, your phone wallpaper — to remind you small movements create momentum.

Your Future Is Waiting

If this resonates — it’s time to take the next step

If you’ve been feeling this quiet restlessness…

If you’ve been saying, “Something has to change,” but you’re not sure where to start…

Then this is your moment to stop waiting and start moving.

Because the cost of staying stuck is too high — and the life you want is closer than you think.

That’s exactly why I created Creating the Career You Want™, a 12-month journey designed to help women in midlife rediscover their confidence, direction, and sense of purpose — and build a career and life that finally fits who they are now.

You don’t have to do it alone.

You just have to decide you’re ready to begin.

👉 Join the waitlist today to be the first to know when enrolment opens for the final live round of the programme — and take your first step out of “stuck.”