6 Keys to Unlocking a Fulfilling Career
When most people think about making a career change, the first question they ask themselves is: “What skills do I have?”
It makes sense, skills are tangible. They show up on resumes, in job descriptions, and in LinkedIn profiles. They’re easy to list and easy to measure. But here’s the truth: when we base a career decision only on skills, we risk ending up in another role that looks good on paper but feels misaligned in practice.
I know this because I’ve made this mistake myself. Last year, I had to look for a job to supplement my income. And as someone who had been self-employed for a long time, I turned to what I knew - HR. I found jobs that aligned with my skills, my personality, and even my values. But something was off. No matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, it just didn’t feel right.
A fulfilling and sustainable career change doesn’t come from your skills alone; it comes from engaging the whole self.
The Whole-Self Approach
So, what is the Whole-Self Approach, exactly? It’s a way of looking at six key elements of yourself to guide you through career transitions.
Personality (Head): The way we think, perceive, and process the world.
Values (Heart): What truly matters to us, what we care about, and what lights us up.
Strengths (Backbone): The reliable qualities and talents that support us when things get tough.
Skills (Hands): The practical tools and abilities we’ve developed through experience.
Human Design (Core): The inner blueprint of how we’re naturally wired to operate in flow.
Environment (Space Around You): The external conditions: physical setting, culture, pace, and energy that either nourish or drain you.
When we bring all of these together, career change stops being about “fitting into a role” and starts being about designing a role around your authentic self.
Why Skills Alone Aren’t Enough
Here’s the trap: if you only chase the roles that match your current skills, you might still feel:
Unfulfilled, because the work doesn’t align with your values.
Burned out, because the environment doesn’t suit your personality or energy blueprint.
Unsupported, because you’re not leaning into your true strengths.
I see this with clients all the time. One woman I worked with had a long and successful career in one industry. She even tried to make a career change by moving to a different company, still doing the same kind of work, and yet she felt dissatisfied and unfulfilled. When we looked at her whole self, we discovered she had been focusing only on her skills and values, but her design and environment were completely out of alignment.
She said in one of our sessions: “Just because I CAN do something or because I have always done something doesn’t mean it’s what I SHOULD be doing.” It was such a big ah-ha moment and a turning point in her journey.
The Power of the Whole Self
When you align your career change with your head, heart, backbone, hands, core, and environment, you:
Make decisions with clarity because you know who you are beyond your resume.
Find roles that energize you, not just roles you can tolerate.
Build resilience, because you’re standing on your authentic foundation, not forcing yourself into someone else’s mold.
Create long-term alignment, so you don’t just “escape” one job, only to end up in another misfit.
I experienced this firsthand when I leaned into my missing piece – my Human Design profile. When I was struggling to find alignment with my supplemental job, I decided to incorporate Human Design into the process. And my friend, Wow! Did that crack my world wide open! I finally understood why traditional 9–5 jobs had never felt right for me. I’m designed to thrive with expansion and white space, without repetitive work and rigid schedules. My ideal work style highlighted that I do better in project-based, flexible work, allowing me to lead with creativity, inspire through expression, and support through strategy + presence. Being seen as a trusted voice of depth + clarity who helps others see themselves clearly was the element that helped me step into alignment and release the guilt of not fitting into someone else’s structure.
Your Career Is Too Big for Just Your Hands
Your career is not just a list of what you can do; it’s an expression of who you are. When you bring your whole self into the process, your head, heart, backbone, hands, core, and environment, you move beyond survival and into fulfillment.
So next time you catch yourself asking only, “What skills do I have?” try also asking:
What do I value most?
What energizes me?
What strengths can I lean on?
What is my natural design?
What kind of environment helps me thrive?
Because the most powerful career changes don’t come from just the hands, they come from the whole self.
Do you want to explore your whole self to help pursue a career change? Reply where you are reading this or click here to schedule a free consultation call! I would love to chat and learn more about you and how I can help.