Taking your foot off the pedal

Taking Your Foot Off the Pedal

For much of our working lives, particularly at senior levels, we’re conditioned to keep accelerating: driving performance, pursuing the next milestone, constantly proving value. The idea of easing off, even briefly, can feel alien, or worse, indulgent. Yet in a long career working with people in career change and from my own personal experience,  I’ve come to see that there are moments when slowing down is actually beneficial. Interestingly, I think younger generations are getting this right earlier than many of us did. They’re not waiting until mid-life to question the “always-on” model. They talk openly about boundaries, wellbeing, and purpose, and they design their careers accordingly.

Over the years, I’ve noticed three main points in a career where this can occur:

The life stage imposed go slow, The imposed pause and The deliberate stop to think.

1. The Deliberate Stop to Think.

Sometimes in our careers, we make the conscious choice to stop. A gap year no longer has to be confined to the period after university and before entering the real world. The mid-life gap year is becoming a thing and I’ve also known clients take a period of time off to build their own home, pursue a qualification or tackle a major renovation project and return to work the better for it.

My son and his wife,  both several years into successful careers, are currently negotiating six-month career sabbaticals in order  to travel. They haven’t lost ambition but see this as part of a wider career plan to expand their horizons before they settle down with children. They are part of a generation that understands that stepping off the treadmill can be strategic.

I’ve done something similar myself. Earlier in my career after a cancer diagnosis and treatment, I took a year out to study for an MSc in Creative Writing — a move that had nothing to do with my previous career path and everything to do with reconnecting to something that gave me joy. That period rebalanced me in ways I hadn’t anticipated. It deepened my empathy, creativity, and perspective and proved far more valuable than another year of relentless output would have done. So, if you are considering a similar break, embrace it.

2. The Imposed Pause

Sometimes, life makes the decision for us.

Redundancy, illness, or other curveballs can stop us in our tracks, often when we least expect it. The initial reaction is usually fear or loss  of identity, of purpose, of momentum. But in hindsight, many people I’ve coached tell me those “imposed pauses” became powerful turning points.

Redundancy, in particular, can create the breathing space to question long-held assumptions:

• Do I still find this work fulfilling?
• What kind of organisation aligns with my values?
• If I had the freedom to design my next chapter, what would it look like?

Once the shock subsides, redundancy can become an unlikely catalyst and a forced pivot that opens doors to new industries, self-employment, or portfolio careers. It invites experimentation and courage. Some rediscover long-buried passions; others use the opportunity to retrain, consult, or build something entirely new.

A pause imposed by circumstance can, in the long run, be the moment that restores alignment between what we do, who we are, and what we truly want to contribute.

3. The Life Stage ‘go slow’.

There are the times when careers slow down naturally — caused by the stages of life itself.

For many, parenthood is one of the most complex and transformative. It can feel, especially in high-pressure roles, as though the career temporarily slips into second gear. But in reality, this phase builds an extraordinary range of leadership skills: prioritisation, resilience, emotional intelligence, and the ability to manage competing demands with grace.

What I see, working with women returning to work after childbirth or juggling their growing families with increasingly demanding jobs, is that the outside noise can be huge.

I think this is an important stage to be able to tune in to ourselves and look again at what we value most and ask: What does success look like to me now? The clearer our sense of personal values becomes, the easier it is to make decisions that align with who we are, rather than who we think we’re supposed to be. If I had my time again I would be harder with my boundaries between work and home, but this is so much easier to appreciate with hindsight. When we are in the arena we are all just coping the best that we can.

I took a year out after my second child and I studied coaching and psychometric assessment. At the time, I saw it as a way to maintain professional engagement while focusing on family. Looking back, that “side-step” fundamentally enriched my later career because it helped me understand people more deeply, and it shaped the kind of work I now do. Don’t be afraid of such wiggles in the road.

Now, as retirement begins to come into view, a different kind of reflection emerges. Last year, I enrolled in a course at Henley Business School, deliberately easing back on my main professional responsibilities to create space for learning and exploration. That choice to slow down was my investment in what comes next. I see many of the clients I have worked alongside for years beginning to do the same, as we embrace not an ending but a new chapter

Reframing Success

For many in the C-suite, choosing or being unable to operate at full throttle can feel ‘less than’. But perhaps there’s something to learn here: that constant acceleration isn’t the only measure of progress, and that pausing or slowing down doesn’t mean losing momentum.

Looking back, the periods when I took my foot off the pedal, whether by choice or circumstance have been some of the most valuable in shaping who I am and how I work. They’ve given me space to think, to grow, and to reconnect with what truly matters.

So as this year draws to a close, if you feel the need to slow down, to breathe, to reset, to listen to yourself  then consider just allowing that to happen.

A fulfilling career doesn’t have to be a straight line. Sometimes, the smartest thing a leader can do is to lift their foot, change gear, and allow the next chapter to unfold in its own time. 

These ideas are explored more in The Squiggly Career, a book I’ll be reviewing this month. It challenges the old linear notion of success and celebrates careers that twist, pause, and pivot .