More than two-thirds of Americans aren’t feeling engaged with their work, according to a recent Gallup poll, and job unhappiness is at a record high. But how do you figure out what’s next? In the popular imagination, reinvention requires some kind of abrupt transformation or sudden epiphany, a metamorphosis from ugly duckling to swan. Vera Wang from figure skater to bridal designer. It seems unattainable to the rest of us—a big disincentive to even try.

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