Work identity attachment creates career paralysis

People stay in jobs long after they've stopped growing because they've turned their job into their identity. Leaving doesn't feel like changing jobs—it feels like losing themselves. So they convince themselves they're being loyal or smart when they're actually just scared of not knowing who they'd be without that role.

What people usually get wrong:

• Believing commitment and identity are the same thing
• Assuming fear comes from risk rather than attachment
• Thinking fulfillment comes from staying loyal to one path & leaving means abandoning their professional identity
• Believing their skills only work in their current industry or company
• assuming a career change, as throwing away everything they've built, instead of taking their abilities somewhere new

What actually drives outcomes:

• Separating self-worth from roles and titles, & Letting identity stay stable while work changes
• Treating jobs as contexts, not definitions
• Recognition that jobs are temporary structures, not permanent identities
• Willingness to extract transferable capabilities from domain-specific experience
• Ability to separate professional competence from organizational affiliation
• Your skills aren't stuck in one industry—leadership is leadership, problem-solving is problem-solving, they work anywhere.

Why this matters:

• It explains why capable people stay stuck & why transitions feel heavier than they are
• Most career regret stems from staying too long in roles that stopped developing them years earlier
• The skills that make someone excellent in one domain rarely depend on that specific domain
• Most people who regret their career look back and realize they stayed  too long somewhere, mistaking comfort for fit
• Companies know this and use it—they give you fancy titles and make you feel special so you won't notice you've stopped growing

Transparency:

This insight is derived from the YouTube video "How To Chase Your Dreams Without Fear Holding You Back with Fran Millar" (https://youtu.be/Kj6ZssVhzW4?si=zEP2XnSN5z5qsPkO). The interpretation and conclusions are independently formed based on the content presented in that conversation.