Transforming Yourself: Finding The Career Signals In Your Labyrinth

Recently we came across this small labyrinth in Charlottesville, VA. It is an Eagle Scout project by Carys Smith of Boy Scout Troop 1029 that was completed in May 2023 -- congratulations, by the way!

Most of the time we don't think of the difference between a labyrinth and a maze. This sign helps us get our bearings on the distinction, quoting in full:

A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is designed for you to lose your way, a labyrinth is designed for you to find your way.

I couldn't find this quote on the Internet, so -- double congratulations, Carys!

Our brief series on transformation and change management comes to this point:

In your cybersecurity career, you may feel that you are in a maze. But it's not a maze because no one is trying to make you lose your way. It is a labyrinth where you need to reflect, reorient, and choose your next step, one step after another.

Your cybersecurity career is a process of continually finding your way.

Our former colleague Adam Dickson recently posted a thought on LinkedIn about career transitions using the example of Star Wars -- the original one, regardless of what it was later rebranded. Here is the part Adam noted (quoting at length):

It’s the moment Obi-Wan lowers the blast shield over Luke’s eyes and tells him:

“Let go your conscious self… and act on instinct.”

“Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.”

Luke panics… “I can’t even see! How am I supposed to fight?”

What struck me about the scene is this:

Luke isn’t struggling because he’s unskilled. He’s struggling because he’s using the wrong guidance system for the moment he’s in.

That’s exactly what happens during a career pivot:

Your analytical mind — brilliant in high-pressure, high-stakes environments — tries to “logic” your way into a new chapter:

- “Which jobs match my experience?”
- “What’s the safest next step?”
- “How do I choose without messing it up?”

But transitions aren’t tactical problems.

They’re sensory ones.

The next direction doesn’t appear because you think harder.

It appears because you learn to hear the signal underneath the noise.

That’s what Obi-Wan was teaching:

When the old inputs stop working, you must switch to a different form of intelligence.

Career transitions aren’t about “figuring out the future.”

They’re about learning how to detect the subtle pull toward what’s already aligned.

Most people interpret that discomfort as failure.

It’s not.

It’s what it feels like to operate with the blast shield down while a new sense turns on.

If you’re in that phase: overwhelmed, disoriented, or doubting everything…you’re not off track.

You’re developing the internal guidance system your next chapter actually requires.

Your career transition is about tuning to new signals in your labyrinth. Sure, it can be disorienting. But as Adam notes:

It’s what it feels like to operate with the blast shield down while a new sense turns on.

If you’re in that phase: overwhelmed, disoriented, or doubting everything…you’re not off track.

You’re developing the internal guidance system your next chapter actually requires.

Ask us how you can prepare your career transformation to be the cybersecurity expert you want/need to be within your labyrinth.