If job insecurity is the new normal, here's how to make it work for you

The Japanese have a phrase for it: playing ball on running water. It means staying nimble enough to win—and even have some fun—when the playing field under your feet is constantly shifting.

Does this sound familiar to your career?

“With technology advancing every minute, and buying habits changing on a dime, things have never been more uncertain, or the challenges greater,” says Robin Fisher Roffer, author of Your No Fear Career.

Intended to help readers “manage the chaos one step at a time, with elegance and grace,” Your No-Fear Career zeroes in on dealing with rapid change and uncertainty, including how to turn upheaval into an advantage, how to use your intuition to pick your next career move, and how to recognize what makes you unique—and make sure others see it, too.

“What I’ve found is that, from C-suite executives to the folks who answer their emails, no one is immune to fear,” Roffer says.

As the CEO of brand-strategy consulting powerhouse Big Fish Marketing, Roffer has launched or revamped more than a dozen household names in media, including A&E, Comedy Central, Food Network, and Sony Pictures. Monster recently spoke with Roffer about how you can move forward amid constant change.

Q. In Your No-Fear Career, you describe specific steps for dealing with career anxiety. Which is the hardest for most people?

A. By far, the most difficult is the first step, which is accepting the way things are. Our instinctive response to fear is “fight or flight,” so acceptance is hard because it requires us to do neither of these! But by not reacting right away when we’re faced with uncertainty, we can hear what our intuition is telling us. Before making a decision, it often helps to follow the old-fashioned advice to sleep on it.

Part of this is recognizing the things you can’t control or change. In my own career, I’ve had to walk away from jobs, clients, and business ideas that simply weren’t working out. Accepting that a certain project or business relationship is going nowhere is a sign of progress, not failure.

Q. Why do you see perfectionism as a problem? Isn’t perfection a good thing?

A. Working to do the very best you can is one thing. Striving for perfection is another. As a recovering perfectionist, I can see now that, early in my career, what held me back was, for example, rewriting things over and over, which made me seem to lack confidence in my own work. I was also seen as a worker bee, rather than as a leader.

Another problem is that perfectionism bogs you down in details so that you lose objectivity and miss the big picture, which can be disastrous. Striving for excellence is great, but it’s really only when we stop judging ourselves, listen to our gut, and let our creativity flow that we can be fearless and effective.

Q. You write about conquering fear by making an “anti-bucket list.” What is that?

A. Making peace with change requires letting go of the past, especially of what just isn’t working anymore. So, instead of a “bucket list” of things I want to do before I die, I keep a list of everything I never want to do again.

My anti-bucket list includes, for example, wearing stiletto heels to a lawn party. Or holding on to mediocre employees, hoping they’ll improve. Or working with a known misogynist. Or begging to stay in a relationship with a client, threatening to fire me. Next time, I’ll let them.

Q. Most people assume that, the more skills you have, the more employable you are. But you recommend specializing in just one thing. Why?

A. Focusing on what makes you exceptional is what makes you stand out from the crowd. It should be something you are really good at that you’re also passionate about. If you’re not sure what that is, think about what you’ve been most praised for, and what you want to be known for. Whatever that talent or achievement may be, research it, develop it, and declare it as your niche. You want to become known as the “go-to” person for the work you love doing.

The saddest thing—and it happens all the time—is when someone spends their whole career in the wrong pigeonhole, usually because they chose their line of work based on someone else’s expectations. But this is your life. Don’t miss it.

Anne Fisher has been writing about career and workplace trends and topics since 1996. She is the author of If My Career’s on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map?