About

From all outward appearances, we fit the stereotype of successful professionals. We went to college, may have advanced degrees, command respectable—and sometimes bewilderingly large—salaries, and are building careers much to our parents’ delight and our friends’ envy.

So why are we so unhappy?

For some of us, it’s the startling realization that our career has been built upon “shoulds” rather than authentic “wants” – We should take this job, we should climb the career ladder, and, in the spirit of “normalization of deviance,” we should work ourselves to the bone (and sleep with our BlackBerries) to achieve success because that’s what everyone around us is doing. Success has come at the price of giving up pieces of ourselves–and even our good judgment.

For others of us, it’s the shock of the down economy, which has rippled through businesses large and small and resulted in layoffs and downsizing, prompting many of us to question our professional direction, our value, our purpose, and what in the world to do next.

And for still others of us, a once enjoyable and interesting job has now become just one variable in a daily and never-ending slog  of work obligations, family duties, chores and the minutia of “daily life” resulting in exhaustion and depletion.    

If you peel away appearances, the fact of the matter is that the homes and highways of small towns and large metropolises are filled with young professionals seeking more in their lives – not material “more” but spiritual “more” filled with purpose, equilibrium and joy.

So, what to do with these feelings of professional contemplation and turbulence?
Among many of us, these feelings are usually expressed by friends over happy hour, in rants on Facebook status updates and personal blogs, and in the weepy dialogues whispered in a sympathetic colleague’s office. And, while the periodic ranting might fill a cathartic need in the moment, how do we ultimately move ourselves forward, productively and authentically? What comes next? And how? And with whom?

Tripping on the Ladder — and Stumbling On Purpose
This is precisely the space that Tripping on the Ladder—the premier online learning community for professionals in career contemplation, transition or turmoil—seeks to fill. This structured, one-stop resource is not about the “ranting” (although some of that is unavoidable) but more importantly about the “moving forward.”

Our name, Tripping on the Ladder, reflects the sometimes messy way in which we all “trip” into new ventures–and new ways of thinking. Professionally speaking, some of us have “tripped” when we found themselves in a job that wasn’t what we thought it was going to be and ultimately choose to remove ourselves from a bad situation–oftentimes stepping “down” a rung on the career ladder as a result. Others of us have “tripped” when jobs were eliminated, or when we suddenly realize how far removed from our true selves and interests we have become.

Tripping on the Ladder seeks to give you the tools–in an informative, off-beat way–to help you move “forward” toward a life of joy and flow, in whatever that means for you.