His comment made me laugh – and startled me out of the frame that was still shaping my thoughts, even after my unpredictable career moves, development of coaching skills, insights from the world of NLP into the impact of limiting beliefs… yes even after all that one powerful metaphor still had a hold on me, namely that a career can only go one of two ways, up, or down. 

How about a new, and more resourceful frame, that frees us to make career choices based on what we love, what we’re good at, the way we want to live, the contribution we want to make, the patterns we discern about our purpose in life, rather than bumping up and down in a metaphorical elevator created by other people. 

A different narrative that frees us to discover what happens when you step out of the lift and set off on a different
path, taking a spiral staircase maybe, or a flying carpet to adventures new…