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Is Doing Nothing Safer Than Failing?

by Nathalie Blais, MCC10 min read
A woman in a dark blazer sits at a desk with a laptop, one hand on her forehead and the other on her chest, looking overwhelmed.

Doing nothing feels safer because it shields you from failure. It is still a choice, and it costs you time, growth and opportunity. Fear usually points to what you value most. People who make successful career changes act, learn from the feedback, and try again. For many midlife leaders, ICF-accredited coach training is a credible way to start.

You’ve heard it so many times, “You would make a great coach.”

Your curiosity is piqued. At night you search for coach certification programs, and by morning the tabs have piled up. You’re not sure which ones to bookmark and which ones to close.

Then your mind starts to churn. “Am I too old? Do I really have what it takes to pivot my career right now? Is it selfish to pursue my dream?”

That pause feels responsible. You have income to protect, a reputation you’ve built over decades, and people who count on you. But what if the choice that feels safest because it’s familiar is actually the one that puts your potential at the greatest risk?

On the other side of fear is what you really care about

We treat fear like a stop sign.

Psychologist Steven Hayes, a co-founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an extensively researched approach in behavioural psychology developed over more than four decades, suggests we can hold fear and still take action toward what we want. He calls this psychological flexibility. Hayes says look at where it hurts, then flip it over, and you will find your values: what is most important to you.

When we ACT, we make room for fear, grief or uncertainty while choosing actions that reflect what matters most to us. We become more able to take a meaningful step while discomfort is still present.

Acceptance makes room for our experience. Commitment helps us move toward what we value. Together, they expand our choices.

Redefining your career in midlife can be both scary and exhilarating. Both can be true at once, and yet most of us treat fear as a sign that something is wrong. But what if it is a sign that something is right? That is where your judgment kicks in.

When your life is in danger, fear protects you. That is a survival response you want to pay attention to. Fear can also set off an automatic response that is reactive instead of thoughtful, or even logical, when it comes to taking risks that are not life-threatening and may, in fact, open doors.

Try flipping your own hesitation right now. Worried about your income? Celebrate your commitment to caring for the people who rely on you. Worried about starting over? That means you value the expertise you spent decades earning. Worried about being selfish? That is a sign you want to live a meaningful life, one where you feel you are making a difference.

Fear is information, and what it tells you is that this matters. Embrace it with your eyes open, and ground your next moves in data instead of what feels comfortable, safe and familiar.

Stopping and starting is normal

A career change can sometimes feel like a failure. “Why didn’t I get this right the first time?”

In real life, change looks more like a heart monitor. Richard Boyatzis, who earned his doctorate in social psychology from Harvard University, is a leading researcher in lasting behavioural change. His studies draw on more than 30 years of longitudinal research to describe sustained, desired change as discontinuous, arriving in bursts, plateaus and tipping points. Change is not steady. It’s unpredictable, and that is normal.

Life hands us competing commitments every day: tuition bills, an aging parent, a new project, competing deadlines. These shift our priorities and values. A sudden death in the family, an illness or a layoff can repurpose or reinforce what feels most important at any stage of life. Even people sincerely committed to the status quo get derailed when the unpredictable happens. Our ability to adapt, stay flexible and pivot is what psychologists call psychological flexibility.

Each time you come back to a goal after a pause or an interruption, you choose it again, and that choice is what builds momentum. Angela Duckworth calls it grit. Duckworth’s research defines it as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. In her studies of adults, Ivy League students and West Point cadets, grit predicted success over and above IQ. Grit makes room for breaks in the pursuit of a goal. It lives in the decision to pick a dream back up after life gets in the way. Grit is what happens when you stop and restart, sometimes again and again. When you keep coming back to a goal, you recommit and reinforce your desire to pursue it. It is gritty to keep trying.

Safety is a myth

Many of us think, “If I don’t act, I can’t fail.”

Safety is an illusion. It’s only safe until it’s not. My job is secure until market conditions change and layoffs appear on the horizon. At the time of writing this article, Microsoft offered voluntary exit packages to 60,000 staff. What we think is safe is actually temporary.

Have you heard the expression “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”? Warren Buffett says the best thing you can do when uncertainty arises is to invest in yourself. Your growth and development are the only things you can control, and they are what will open doors when the time is right. Relying on external factors to keep us safe is unpredictable and often the riskiest option.

When you are not taking steps toward what you want because staying the same seems like the smartest path, what most people miss is what they are giving up: the opportunities that slip by while they protect the status quo.

William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser observed in their studies that most decisions include a do-nothing option, and people pick “do nothing” far more often than the situation justifies. They called it status quo bias. Samuelson and Zeckhauser also found that the pull toward maintaining the status quo grows stronger as your options increase! Too many options means too many choices. People freeze, and staying put feels like making no decision at all, which carries the illusion of safety. Your current job, your current routine, even your current uncertainty become the default, and defaults are easy to defend because they ask nothing new of you. The status quo is a choice, and it may be costing you more than you realize.

Still staring at all those coaching tabs open on your computer? At midlife, the currency is time. Each year of waiting is a year you could have spent building a practice, a client base and a body of work. It’s a year of missed opportunities to help others in need, and one more year you put off what you want.

Every action has a reaction

Newton’s third law tells us that every action meets an equal and opposite reaction. Stillness gets a reaction too. Skills you stopped using begin to fade, the network you built over decades thins as people move on, and the tools of your industry keep changing whether you engage with them or not. Confidence follows the same curve, because confidence grows from trying, doing and feedback: evidence that you are capable, resilient and making progress. The longer you stay still by waiting or hesitating, the louder the questions get. Am I too old for this? Is it too late to make a change?

There is always a win for staying the same. Maybe the win is never having to face the vulnerability that comes with starting something new. Or maybe it’s the win of familiar expertise, the “everyone comes to me, which means I am needed” syndrome. The win feels real in the moment, and over time, it reveals itself as a mirage. Nothing stays the same. Change is constant.

Try, fail, learn and try again

Every attempt gives you feedback you could never get from the sidelines.

In our classrooms, the first practice sessions are clumsy for almost everyone. Seasoned leaders, professionals, experts and academics come to our programs for change. They want to invest in themselves, open doors to new opportunities and pivot their careers, and that can feel vulnerable, unfamiliar and challenging. They are used to being the person with the answer, the knowledge, the expertise. Stepping into the discomfort zone means exposing yourself to something new, and that brings growth, awareness and new experiences.

Why so many midlife people are choosing coaching

The profession is growing. The ICF Global Coaching Study reports a 15% rise in the number of coaches since 2023, with the profession generating an estimated US$5.34 billion in 2025. In the 2023 edition, almost half of all coaches (48%) were Generation X.

Coaching also answers many of the hopes people bring to a second career. You can build a practice over time, often alongside consulting or part-time work, so income doesn’t hinge on a single leap. You can work for yourself, set your own schedule and coach clients over video from almost anywhere. And you get to pay forward what you spent years learning, in a new way. Coaching asks you to exercise different muscles, unlearn patterned ways of being and doing, and learn to empower and connect with others.

Look for ICF accreditation, an evidence-based curriculum, live practice with feedback, and faculty who hold ICF credentials. At Coach Academy, every program is ICF-accredited and built around live, experiential cohorts, because coaching skills are connection skills, and connection is learned by doing.

Try this!

Don’t take my word for it. Use your own life as an experiment this week.

Write down the career move you keep circling. Then ask yourself three questions, and give each one a full minute of silence before you answer.

  • What is my fear trying to protect?
  • What has waiting already cost me?
  • What would I try if I knew failure was part of the experiment?

Then take one small step within 48 hours. Book a conversation with a certified coach, attend an information session, or ask a coach you admire how they started. Notice what happens.

Fear means it matters.

Frequently asked questions

Is doing nothing safer than failing?

Doing nothing protects you from visible failure, and it still carries a cost. Research on status quo bias and opportunity cost shows people overvalue the do-nothing option and overlook what it gives up. Over time, regrets about inaction also tend to last longer than regrets about action.

How do I get over the fear of changing careers at 50?

Treat fear as information about what you value, then act in small, low-risk steps. Psychologist Steven Hayes suggests looking at what hurts and flipping it over to find your values. Short experiments, like a conversation with a working coach, give you feedback that waiting never will.

Is it too late to become a coach in midlife?

Almost half the profession is at that stage. In the 2023 ICF Global Coaching Study, 48% of coach practitioners were Generation X, and the 2025 study counted a record 122,974 coaches worldwide.

Is coaching a good second career?

For many experienced professionals, yes. Coaching lets you build a practice over time, work for yourself, set your own schedule, work remotely and share your experience by helping others find their own answers.

How do I choose a credible coach training program?

Look for ICF accreditation, an evidence-based curriculum, live practice with feedback, mentor coaching and faculty who hold ICF credentials. These signal training that meets the profession’s global standards.

References

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