“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire” (Thomas Merton).

Ever since I made my own career pivot in 2018, poring over career transition stories has become a bit of a pastime for me. I’m fascinated by people who end up in careers that look dramatically different from their first post-college job or who find unconventional and fulfilling ways to use their professional degree. Such moves can seem audacious and inspiring; sometimes, hearing about them can even catalyze positive shifts in our own career path.

The current generation is a generation of pivoters. According to one source, the average number of jobs in a lifetime is 12. While some members of previous generations might take this trend as evidence of flakiness or indecisiveness, I think it shows quite the opposite: It signals that we’re collectively and individually adaptable and flexible, willing and able to shift and change with our life stage, familial or societal needs, or evolving interests and skills.

Pivoting can take many shapes and forms: from one niche to another, one service or product to another, or one business model to a different one. The Catholic Women in Business community is rich with women who have executed their own beautiful and inspiring career pivots. Here is just a sampling:

• Music ministry to health coaching.

• Interior architecture to financial planning.

• HGTV design services to Catholic business and life coaching.

• Life coaching to copywriting.

• Law to entrepreneurship.

• Teaching to coaching.

• Medicine to content creation.

• Marketing to writing and fertility awareness coaching.

Pivoting From a Place of Faith

Executing a professional pivot through the lens of faith, rather than following a secular cultural trend, is about what fuels the pivot. We should not make seismic career shifts from a place of fear or scarcity. It’s not about believing that finding “the right thing” will fulfill us or that financial success is our chief goal in life. Of course, personal fulfillment and wealth are not inherently negative, but should they be ends in themselves? No; they are all paths to one ultimate goal, greater and grander than any other: our sanctification.

We can find inspiration in the saints who made spectacular pivots for the kingdom of God, ultimately leading them to be celebrated as great heroes of the Church:

• St. Clare gave up wealth and worldly pleasure for a life of quiet contemplation, writing, and prayer.

• St. Francis left military service for mission work, following the Lord’s call to build up the local Church.

• St. Augustine swapped wealth and a thriving career for a religious vocation.

• St Francis de Sales was a nobleman who studied law but became a priest and missionary.

• St. Rita was married with two sons, but after the tragic untimely deaths of all three, she fulfilled her lifelong dream and call to join a monastery.

It is unlikely that these great men and women sat down to map out a 30-year career plan or create a vision board. In fact, so much of their greatness stemmed from deep suffering. St. Francis was a prisoner of war when he felt God’s call to build the Church. St. Rita endured the loss of her entire nuclear family before she joined the monastery. Neither story would necessarily pique the interest of the modern secular entrepreneur.

Yet, viewing pivots through a saintly lens is freeing. A world that offers us so many options, so much rhetoric about personal fulfillment, and so much pressure to strive and achieve, can feel a bit stifling. In this worldly construct, if we don’t start rapidly ascending to the heights of professional success, we’re behind, or not worthy, or doing it all wrong.

What if there’s another way? A way that’s less self-driven and more focused on curiosity? On constantly asking, “Why, Lord? Why is this particular path intriguing me? Why do I keep reading articles about this same topic? Why do I keep landing clients who want this particular service? Why do I get the most engagement online when I write about this certain topic?”

If a door opens, we can step through cautiously and curiously.

Granted, clarity stems from action. We need to do some legwork, even if we aren’t sure where our steps will ultimately take us. But it’s this combination of prayer and action, of curiosity and flexibility, that enables us to pivot into those spaces where we feel a bit of traction.

Jesus, I Trust in You

There is no “hacking” your way to a fulfilling career. It comes down to trust. You may feel pulled to pivot, but you might not know why. You might not even necessarily want to, or it may not impress the outside world. But, inexplicably, it may be exactly what God is calling you to do—and it’s based on his agenda, not yours.

As HGTV-designer-turned-coach Lisa Canning said so well, “You can run, but you cannot hide from the Lord. Trust him, even when you cannot see where you are going. Trust him, even when it doesn’t make sense to you. Trust him, because this pivot might be for your sanctification.”

My generation’s proclivity to pivot may be symptomatic of a deep longing that this world simply cannot fulfill: a searching, a yearning, to feel valuable and worthy. Yet we will never find absolute fulfillment in this life—and certainly not from our careers. Nonetheless, there are times when our passions and skills align with our calling and, if we’re lucky, with what the world needs. When this alignment happens, it is undeniably beautiful.

Alexandra Macey Davis is a wife, mother, and writer who shares her take on issues at the intersection of faith, culture, and family life. Her work has been published in Verily Magazine, Coffee + Crumbs, Public Discourse, FemCatholic, Everyday Mamas, She is Kindred, and many more. By day, she runs Davis Legal Media - a ghostwriting service for lawyers - and in the margins, you can find her wheeling her double stroller through vintage furniture stores, hoarding her favorite recipes, or writing at coffee shops. You can connect with Alex on her website, on Instagram, or by joining her monthly newsletter, where she encourages working moms to pursue goodness, truth, and beauty in their vocations.