Q. I'm very good at what I do, but I've been in the same field for about three decades. Everything I read, think and do revolves around my career. I like what I do but feel like I'm stagnating. Do I have to change careers to feel creative again?

A. No, but you have to find out who you are when you aren't your job description.

If we like our work, it's tempting to throw ourselves body and soul into our profession. We can end up eating, sleeping and breathing our career. Even if we don't become workaholics, we begin to forget that we are more than our job.

When I work with mature clients who are talented and passionate about their work, I can see they feel more like a human doing than a human being. Right about 50, they start to wonder if there is more to life than work. Right about 50, the career they love starts to feel stale around the edges -- and so do they.

I ask these clients to remember who they were before they went to work. What did they daydream about when they were younger? What were their hobbies? When they were children and time stretched out luxuriously in front of them, how do they spend that time?

Next I ask them what hobbies or interests fell away when they traded their toys for a BlackBerry. They are surprised to notice that, even when they like their work, they've had to significantly narrow themselves to fit into their job description.

Career stagnation can create an extraordinary career opportunity, if we let it motivate us to bring more of ourselves to our work. The restlessness we feel and the distracting thoughts about roads not traveled can give us a second wind. Continued...