One of the most transformative career alignment tools I’ve found?

Impermanence.

Realizing our time is limited—that we never know how many healthy years we or those we love have left—creates clarity.

When we embrace impermanence, we’re no longer willing to trade our precious time and energy for things that drain us or don’t matter to us.

For me, this realization hit home when I turned the age my mom was when she was diagnosed with the cancer that took her life in her 40s.

One choice at a time, I began the lifelong process of aligning my career, my relationships, and my life with what matters most to me. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

The Most Common Regrets—and How to Avoid Them

Bronnie Ware, nurse and author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, spent years listening to the regrets of people at the end of their lives.

The most common?

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

We can allow this regret to wake us up.

We don’t have to wait until later to live in alignment. We can start now. One courageous choice at a time.

Feeling Stuck? It Might Be a Signal.

If you’re feeling conflicted or restless in your current role, it might be a signal—an invitation toward deeper alignment.

While choosing to change comes with trade-offs, choosing to stay the same comes with trade-offs too.

And if we’re making career choices based on others’ expectations, if our current role doesn’t feel true to who we are, or if we’re working more than we’d like, we may be heading toward regret.

As philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre suggested, it can feel easier to believe we’re trapped than to face the responsibility of our freedom.

But we have options.

By clarifying our strengths and what’s most important to us, we can create a career that honors who we are. This may involve modifying our current role or transitioning to something new.