"Look at your values and signature strengths to see if they're still aligned with your work."
According to the VIA Institute on Character: "Signature strengths refers to those character strengths that are most essential to who we are."
Sometimes people feel they have to move on simply because a colleague says: "Why have you been working here so long?"
Barhava-Monteith says maybe staying in one place and being settled is one of your core strengths, but having it questioned may make you feel there's something wrong with that and make you think you have to move on.
Barhava-Monteith says it's important for your work to be in alignment with your personal values.
If they're not, you're likely to feel unhappy.
"The first step is that your values are consistent with those of the workplace. Either can change in time - your workplace could have moved on and is no longer a good fit for you, or your values could have shifted."
Barhava-Monteith says working with a coach could help you develop self awareness: "After all, you don't want to go from one job to another and find nothing much has changed. It's important to look at what the new workplace will bring that's more enjoyable or more challenging, otherwise the risk is that you'll get to the same point of feeling bored/uninterested."
She says it's a good idea to ask colleagues and friends what they see as being your strengths, they may come up with things that you haven't thought about.
"When my partner and I developed Professionelle, we had a clear understanding of what motivated us and what we wanted to achieve.
"We wanted to use it as a way of sharing knowledge with women.
"When I began facilitation, I was teaching in a cognitive, facts-and-research orientation at workshops but later went to sharing wisdom and hard-won lessons. It's all about going from functioning to flourishing."
Career coach and consultant for The Career Specialists Kaye Avery says some people feel drawn to remain in a "comfort zone" but that's not the best idea.
"Many people are motivated to enjoy a 'comfort zone' situation, because their primary motivator might be security and permanent tenure.
"These days, this is a dangerous position as change can happen out of the blue and if a person is not demonstrating their competency and proactive career management skills, they could be at risk of change happening to them, rather than them creating the change they need to make."
She says that choosing the right next move requires self-awareness and self-reflection.
"I always get people to do some exercises around what motivates them most, identify both their work and their life values, along with completing an audit of the skills they enjoy using most.
Her advice in making the change is: "My preference is to suggest that career changers make change strategically.
"Do the self-assessment [ideally with coach] so that they can make conscious change having identified clear job criteria and objectives before setting off on a job search.
"Once having some clear "best job fit" criteria based on analysis and clear aspirations, then they have something to measure a role against. Everyone needs work that place to their strengths and provides the conditions to support them to do their best work."
