The Arrival Fallacy: Redefining Success When Your Career Feels Hollow
- Ginger Menown
- Oct 24, 2025
- 2 min read
Insights & Inspiration
For many high-achievers, the most disorienting professional moment is not a failure, but a success. You arrive at the goal you've been striving toward for years—the title, the salary, the recognition—only to be met with a quiet, persistent feeling of "Is this all there is?"
This experience is known as the "arrival fallacy": the mistaken belief that achieving a certain milestone will bring lasting fulfillment. It is a powerful signal that your definition of success has evolved beyond what your current career path can offer. This isn't a crisis to be feared; it is an invitation to redefine your terms.
Realigning your career is less about finding a new job and more about finding a new "why." It's an internal process of recalibrating your personal definition of a life well-lived.
A Guide to Your Personal Recalibration
Listen to Your Curiosity, Not Your Resume: Your experience is your foundation, not your cage. What topics, skills, or problems are you drawn to in your free time, outside the confines of your job description? These curiosities are the compass pointing toward your next chapter.
Define Your "Enough" Point: A hollow career often stems from a relentless pursuit of "more." Take the time to define what "enough" looks like for you—in terms of income, impact, and energy. This clarity allows you to make choices from a place of sufficiency, not ambition.
Move from "What Do I Want to Do?" to "Who Do I Want to Be?": The most meaningful careers are an expression of identity. Consider the qualities of the person you want to become—more creative, more impactful, more present? The right career is simply the one that provides the best environment to cultivate those qualities.
Test Your Hypotheses with Small Bets: A career shift doesn't require a blind leap. Treat your new interests like a scientist. Take a small course, start a side project, or have coffee with someone in a field that intrigues you. These "small bets" provide real-world data with low risk.
This journey is not about discarding your past success. It is about integrating your experience with a renewed sense of purpose. It’s about having the courage to honor the person you've become and intentionally designing a profession that fits.