As I continue to meditate on change, I find myself hearing more and more about the changes people are experiencing. Life changes, address changes, career changes.

Whether we chose change or it chooses us, the process is full of challenges.

It seems easier to postpone, watch more TV, make what is sort of working continue to sort of work.

In short, not change.

But, really, change is going to happen anyway.

September is upon us for real, now that we are past Labor Day.

Time to get serious.

It’s no longer about the school supplies and all about the schooling.

In the case of career, it might not seem like it—the year doesn’t have those kinds of cut-offs. But our buried memory of starting a fresh school year can be a reminder that it’s time to get ready to be ready.

Having a chance to remember both Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem so clearly in the last couple of weeks is a reminder of how much has already changed—and how little.

I treated myself to a re-watching of 9 to 5—what a clever, tight, well-told movie that is!

And yet it’s impossible to miss that so much of what Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton’s characters were wrestling with is still the case—the frustration of doing the essential work as well as the strategic thinking and yet not being recognized for it, the resentment of not being paid accordingly, and the confusion and loneliness of having no clear path forward and having to carve it for ourselves.

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking,” Dolly Parton tells us, “start paving another one.”

Easy for you to say, Dolly! You were born paving new roads.

For the rest of us, the change can be hard, even when it is desired. Even when it is greatly desired.

And even when it is designed.

Yes, we can follow all the steps of creating career change—a new job, a promotion, a switch in career—and it can still come out…not so great.

Because what got us here will not necessarily get us where we want to go.

The truth is that the standard tools of job change have lost a lot of traction in the age of AI resumes and AI review of those AI resumes. The ability to create content easily does not mean that content is created well.

Even expertise will not necessarily get us there. The women in 9 to 5—well, a couple of them, anyway—were already expert at their jobs.

Career change, like any life change, is hard. Ask Dolly how hard she worked at paving those roads! Her work ethic is legendary.

The problem is that change itself is hard. And most change doesn’t turn out well—it often doesn’t stick or mean that things got a lot better. Part of the problem is that much of the literature about change is actually about not changing—about managing the risks of change so that not that much happens.

Like writing a book, career change is a process. It has stages. For it to work out well, it has to be thought through well. Not just have all the resumes in the world thrown at it, all the networking events attended, all the random connections made.

It takes, first, a decision.

Are you ready to change your career trajectory? Are you tired enough of the frustration, resentment, and confusion of your current position to do something about it?

Like, really ready?

Tomlin, Parton, and Fonda’s characters made that decision.

And so can you.

But first you need to understand the process of change.

What actually goes into paving that new road?

That is what we will be exploring over the next few weeks.