What to do when the work you’re great at no longer excites you

What do you do when your passions no longer align with the skills you’ve spent years developing?

When your experience points in one direction, but your curiosity pulls you somewhere new?

At some stage in our professional lives, we may notice a growing gap between what we’re good at and what actually interests us. And that disconnect can leave us feeling stagnant, unmotivated, or creatively drained.

It’s something we don’t talk about enough, yet so many of us go through it. I’ve wrestled with this myself more times than I can count over the past few years.

Cal Newport says the key to freedom and fulfillment is mastery. "Become so good they can’t ignore you," and fulfillment will follow.

But what happens when you’re tired of talking about the same things? When you’ve hit the “pinnacle” and there’s nothing left that excites you?

The advice we often hear doesn’t help much:

“List out all of your skills and expertise, then find roles that match.”

Here's the issue with that...

Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it energizes you, gets you into a flow state, or keeps you deeply engaged.

So what do you do when the things you're good at no longer fire you up?

Follow your curiosity.

What are you curious about right now in this stage of your life?

It might be something completely outside your usual interests or routine. Follow it. Explore it.

Don’t dismiss it just because it feels unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or “random.”

Many people get stuck here. They dismiss their curiosity the moment it doesn’t align with what they already know how to do.

This is usually when the “practical” part of our brain steps in, trying to convince us it’s not worth it. That learning something new will be too hard, too time-consuming, or too inconvenient.

News flash: you’re allowed to learn new things.

Because the alternative is staying stuck and calling it “practical.”

If you’ve been waiting for permission to explore something different, this is it.

What have you been curious about lately?