From “stuck” to clear, confident, and intentionally moving forward
The first days of the year often arrive quietly. Emails begin to return. Meetings reappear in calendars. Work slowly returns to its familiar rhythm. And with that rhythm, a familiar inner question may surface:
“Is this the year things finally feel clearer for me?”
If 2025 left you feeling uncertain, less confident than you expected to be at this stage of your career, or quietly questioning your direction, you are not behind. You are at a threshold.
What you achieved so far (even if it doesn’t feel like it)
Mid-career expats often underestimate their progress, especially in highly competitive, intellectually demanding environments like Brussels. Achievement here is not only about promotions or titles.
In 2025, you likely:
- Sustained performance in complex, political, multicultural systems,
- Navigated ambiguity, shifting priorities, and unspoken expectations,
- Adapted – again – to change, pressure, and high standards,
- Continued showing up despite self-doubt or fatigue.
And perhaps most importantly: You learned something essential about yourself.
Maybe you discovered that the path you’ve been following no longer fits your values. Maybe you realised that external validation has quietly replaced your inner compass. Or maybe you simply noticed that being capable is no longer enough – you want your work to mean something.
These are not failures. They are signals.
Normalising the “stuck” phase
Feeling stuck is not a lack of ambition or ability. For many expats, it’s the natural outcome of years spent adapting, proving, and delivering, often at the expense of reflection.
You’ve been successful at fitting into systems. Now your system is asking for you.
This moment of uncertainty is not about doing more. It’s about realignment.
Entering the New Year with clarity
Clarity doesn’t come from forcing a five-year plan. It comes from reconnecting with what actually matters to you now – not who you were when you accepted your role in Brussels.
As you step into 2026, consider:
- Which parts of my work energise me and which drain me?
- What values do I compromise most often to “be professional”?
- If my career were truly aligned, what would feel different day-to-day?
Clarity begins when you allow yourself to ask honest questions, without immediately needing perfect answers.
Rebuilding confidence where it truly belongs
Confidence for expats is often misplaced. It becomes tied to performance, contracts, or external approval, all unstable foundations.
Real confidence comes from:
- Trusting your worth, not just your output,
- Recognising the strategic advantage of your cultural background, perspective, and lived experience,
- Understanding that your value is not interchangeable.
Your international profile is not something to downplay or “neutralise.” It is a unique professional asset when you learn how to own it.
From goals to vision
Goals answer the question “What should I achieve?” Vision answers “Who do I want to become while achieving it?”
As you look ahead, ask yourself:
- What kind of person do I want to be known as?
- What do I want my work to support in my life, not replace?
- What would success look like if it were defined on my terms?
A clear vision doesn’t narrow your options. It filters distractions.
A different way to start the New Year
You don’t need to have everything figured out before the year begins for good. You don’t need a perfect plan or a definitive answer to where your career is going.
What matters is how you step into the new year.
With avoidance or with intention? With habit or with choice? With inherited expectations or with a clearer sense of what truly matters to you now?
The transition between years offers a rare pause. A moment to listen more carefully to what your life is asking of you next, and what you are asking of it.
As 2026 begins, perhaps the most meaningful question isn’t “What should I do next?” , but rather:
“What would it look like to move forward with clarity, confidence, and a vision that actually feels like mine?”
And if you were to answer that question honestly, what might change?
