Enjoying Your Own Company is the Secret To Career Change
Why Enjoying Your Own Company is the Secret To Career Change
by Kate Maxwell
What if the 'hack' you've been looking for is to spend more time alone?
Today, I share why learning to enjoy your own company is a game-changer for life and career transitions.
You’ll hear how solo time helps you reconnect with passions, make clearer decisions, and build self-trust.
Two practical tools included, so you can start today!
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:35 Why Learn to Enjoy Your Own Company
02:34 Rediscovering Yourself Through Solitude
05:27 Practical Tips to Enjoy Your Own Company
07:34 Mental Health and Solitude
09:08 Conclusion and Next Steps
Mentioned In “Why Enjoying Your Own Company is the Secret To Career Change”
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Finding Water by Julia Cameron
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Full Transcript
What if one of the most underrated skills in life and in career change was just learning to enjoy your own company?
That’s what I want to talk about today.
I’m your host, Kate Maxwell. I’m an expert at coaching media and tech pros who want to find a new career direction. This show exists to give you that extra push as you take the leap—with pep talks, tools and techniques. Above all, I want to challenge the assumptions you have about what you can and can’t do, and who you can and can’t be.
This is Blueprints to Becoming.
Why Learning to Enjoy Your Own Company Matters
Today I basically want to convince you that you should learn to enjoy your own company post-haste—and how to go about doing it.
To start, two reasons why you should learn to enjoy your own company, and then two ways to go about doing it.
1. You Create Freedom from Constant Input
When you learn to enjoy your own company, you create freedom from constant input.
It gives you time and space to get to know your own thoughts better and come back to what’s truly important to you.
When we’re always around other people, it can cloud our self-perception and decision making because we’re constantly immersed in other people’s perspectives—and in the assumptions we make about how others perceive us.
It’s an unhelpful loop.
We ask for advice, over-share our stuckness, and go in circles. We can even start spending time with people who drain us, just to avoid being alone.
Space alone is space to get clearer on your sense of self—and to be less swayed by external approval.
“Space alone is space to get clearer on your sense of self.”
Being happy on your own means you make better choices about what you truly want, because you know the only person who has to live with that choice is you.
You don’t live in a vacuum—other people will be affected by your decisions—but you’re the one who has to be in that decision day in, day out.
Learning to enjoy your own company helps you rediscover yourself.
2. You Reconnect with Your Passions
So many of us forget what lights us up when we’re on the corporate treadmill.
Do you find you lie in bed at night thinking only about work?
What if there could be other things occupying your mind?
What did you used to think about or daydream about as a kid?
Finding your way back into those passions becomes possible when you want to spend time alone—because that time becomes just about you and what you love.
“Let’s stop trying to monetise our hobbies—just enjoy things.”
Enjoying your own company reconnects you with that younger, more curious self—the one who did things just for the shits and gigs.
What’s that thing you’d do purely for joy, with no outcome attached?
For me, that was dressmaking.
As a kid, I adored Horrible Histories spin-off books—especially the one about fashion. It was my bible.
As an adult, I found my way back to that love by taking up dressmaking. And honestly, it’s a terrible hobby for me—it requires enormous concentration on tiny details, and I’m a big-picture person!
But that’s exactly why I love it. The contrast and challenge are good for me.
FYI, I’m still broadly terrible at it and nothing I’ve made has ever fit—but I love it anyway.
That’s the point.
Your confidence grows when you can sit with yourself doing what you love—showing up alone at things you’re curious about, just for the joy of it.
Two Ways to Learn to Enjoy Your Own Company
Now that we’ve talked about why, here are two ways to go about it.
1. Recall Times of Past Enjoyment
Think back to a time when you really enjoyed your own company.
Where were you?
What were you doing?
Maybe you went for a coffee and had a few minutes to yourself. Maybe you were book shopping. Maybe you were reading in bed.
Those moments are your starting point—tiny glimpses of what it feels like to be happily alone.
2. Try an Artist Date
This one’s from Julia Cameron’s work (The Artist’s Way and Finding Water—which I adore).
The idea of the Artist Date is to go and do something that sparks childlike wonder—and it has to be alone.
“Sidebar: you are an artist. We all are. Art isn’t just for people who paint in oils.”
Her suggestions include visiting a toy shop, a florist, or a bakery—anything that gives you a sense of possibility.
It doesn’t have to be “artsy.” Just something that makes you feel alive and curious again.
So, recall past enjoyment. Experiment with an artist date.
And if you do it—tell me what you get up to. I’d love to hear.
When Your Mind Isn’t a Safe Place
Here’s something important: enjoying your own company is much harder when your mind doesn’t feel like a safe place to be.
I once heard a beautiful definition of good mental health: “It’s when your mind is a safe place to be.”
If your inner world feels critical, panicked, or catastrophising, sitting alone might not feel peaceful—it might feel punishing.
In that case, it might help to work with a therapist or coach, depending on the severity of your experience.
You might find that doing some of these things helps reconnect you with a kinder inner voice, but if your mind feels unsafe, start there first.
“Good mental health is when your mind is a safe place to be.”
Wrapping Up
Learning to enjoy your own company will build self-trust.
It’ll help you make better decisions, reduce the noise of constant input, and reconnect you with joy—just for the sake of joy.
You don’t need to fix yourself before you’re worth spending time with.
You are already worth spending time with.
If this episode was useful, share it with a friend who might need to hear it.
Don’t forget to rate or review the show—it helps it reach new people and lets me know I’m on the right track.
If you’re curious about coaching with me, you’ll find all the details and links in the episode description.
Next Tuesday’s episode: What to do when you feel you’re drifting in life and work.
I’ll see you there.
I’m in your corner. You’ve got this. 💙
* This blog post was co-created with AI, using my transcript. My aim is for the blog to be as verbatim as possible, so you’re in contact with me not the robots! Using AI means the blog can exist in the first place so it’s a use that works for me right now!
Any thoughts, let me know!
HEY THERE, I’M KATE!
I coach tech & media pros to create a new career direction.
