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Don’t have the right level of qualification? What if that level wasn’t justified?

You are considering changing careers, but a voice inside you holds you back: ‘I don’t have the qualifications’, ‘I don’t have the necessary experience’, ‘I’ll never be able to convince a recruiter’. These phrases, repeated silently, end up shaping a damaged self-image. However, this doubt is not a reflection of a real shortcoming. It is the product of a system: what sociologists call degree inflation.

The inflation of qualifications: a mechanism that raises requirements without reason.

Randall Collins, an American sociologist, has highlighted a subtle but fundamental phenomenon in modern societies: the higher the average level of education, the more employers demand it. Even when the skills required have not changed. This constant escalation transforms what was supposed to guarantee access to employment — qualifications — into yet another barrier. And this phenomenon is particularly pronounced in France, where the symbolic value of qualifications remains stronger than elsewhere, even in professions where experience should take precedence.

What you are feeling is not a personal weakness. It is a reaction to a dominant mindset that values standardised career paths more than real-world experience. You are not incompetent. You are being judged on criteria that say nothing about what you already know how to do.

When your skills are never recognised, you end up believing that they don’t matter.

This doubt is not merely intellectual. It is personal. It arises when you have learned on the job, exercised responsibilities without title, taken invisible initiatives. And when you have never been recognised for them. Over time, the lack of validation becomes an internalised disqualification.

Julie, a former cashier who became a care assistant, says: ‘I learned on the job. But since I don’t have a degree, I feel like I have to prove myself three times over… and sometimes I don’t even dare to apply.’

Marc, who is self-taught in IT, also shares his experience: ‘I know how to do it. I’ve done it before. But every time I read “bachelor’s degree required”, I close the page. It’s as if a voice inside me is saying, “don’t even think about it”.’

What you know how to do exists. But it is not written anywhere. So you start to believe that it is worthless. That is what the prevailing norm tells you, not what you are.

It is not you who needs to change, it is the way people see you.

The prevailing logic would have it that everyone should prove their worth through certifications, labels and standardised pathways. But this logic is running out of steam. More and more companies are realising that competence is not always academic. It can be experiential, self-taught, built up through action.

Changing careers does not mean being recognised by yesterday’s criteria. It means claiming what you have learned in other ways. And showing what it is worth. And seeking out places — human or professional — that are capable of recognising it.

What standard criteria fail to reveal, your spontaneous actions, desires, or mannerisms may. These often subtle characteristics can pave the way for a new career path. This is precisely what an aptitude test assesses: what you enjoy doing, even without formal qualifications, can become a catalyst for career change.

Three practical ways to add value to what you know how to do:

Make a list of what you really know how to do, even if it is not written down anywhere.

Ask someone who knows you well to tell you what they admire about the way you work.

Identify a skill you have acquired without a formal qualification. Give it a name. Explain how you learned it.

What you know how to do exists. It just has never been valued by the right people. But that perception is changing. And the more you show what you know how to do differently, the more the framework opens up to other paths. You are no less valuable. You have just grown outside the box.

👉 Not sure where to start? Take our aptitude test to get your thoughts flowing on what gives you the most pleasure at work.

Do you doubt your abilities? What if the real obstacle is what you believe about yourself?

You are considering changing careers, but one thought keeps coming back to you: ‘I’ll give up after two weeks,’ ‘I won’t be able to do it.’ You don’t question your desire, but you doubt your ability to see it through. You anticipate failure before you even begin.

This barrier has nothing to do with your actual skills. It has to do with how you perceive your ability to use them in a new environment. And this barrier has a name: self-efficacy.

Le sentiment d’auto-efficacité : croire qu’on peut y arriver change tout

Psychologist Albert Bandura has shown that it is not only what we know how to do that counts, but what we believe we can achieve with what we know. This sense of self-efficacy directly influences how we approach a career change: if you believe you are going to fail, you hesitate, procrastinate, or give up too soon.

What Bandura highlights is that between two people with the same skills, the one who believes in their ability to use them will progress further. Not because they know more, but because they dare to persevere longer.

And this feeling is not innate. It is built up. Or it erodes. Through past experiences, the gaze of others, constant comparisons, poorly digested failures.

To doubt oneself is sometimes to have placed too much credence in the opinions of others.

Luc, 39, wants to retrain in IT maintenance. He confides: ‘I’ve always been good with computers. But as soon as someone mentions training, I feel like my brain is going to shut down. I feel like it’s not the right world for me.’

Anaïs, 46, started training to become a nursing assistant, but she was hesitant: ‘I was never good at school. The word “lessons” makes me feel suffocated. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up.’

These fears are not about competence. They are about conditioning. Phrases heard too often: ‘You’re not cut out for this,’ ‘You’re not very academic,’ ‘You’re going to fail.’ And eventually, they take the place of your own voice.

What Bandura shows is that failure rarely stems from a lack of ability. It stems from giving up too soon, caused by a lack of confidence in one’s ability to learn, progress and persevere.

It is not your image that needs to change, it is your perspective on effort.

Regaining confidence is not about convincing yourself that you are talented. It is about getting used to effort, mistakes and the discomfort of learning again. It is not your desire that needs to be validated. It is your ability to keep going even when things get unsettling.

Changing careers is not about succeeding on the first try. It’s about relearning not to judge yourself too quickly. It’s about moving from the need to succeed to the desire to move forward, without having to master everything right away.

Self-efficacy can be rebuilt. By taking simple actions. By achieving small successes. By receiving positive feedback. By seeing that we can hold out longer than expected.

This is what a well-supported career change allows you to do: put progress back at the centre. Regain confidence in your learning process. And stop deciding for yourself what you are capable of trying.

Three ways to rebuild your sense of self-efficacy

Take on a simple task that you haven’t done in a long time. Do it all the way through, without rushing.
Write down a difficulty you overcame last year. Ask yourself what you learned from it.
Take concrete action towards your project: make a call, sign up, request information. Don’t aim to succeed, aim to get started.

You are capable of more than you think. But you have to dare to discover it, not want to prove it at all costs. Your journey can still be written differently, as long as you dare to begin with humility and perseverance.

👉 Do you doubt your worth? Try the aptitude test to see what your desires say about your abilities.

What if your brain wasn’t too old to learn?

You are considering changing careers, but one thought keeps coming back: ‘At my age, I won’t be able to learn anything new,’ ‘I’m too old to train,’ ‘I’ll fall behind.’ Many people over 50 share this doubt. It is understandable. But it is not based on biological truth: it is an old belief that neuroscience has long since disproved. The adult brain is neuroplastic: it can still learn, reconfigure itself and create new circuits, even after the age of 40, 50 or 60.

It is possible to learn at any age!

Researchers Michael Merzenich and William Jenkins have shown that the brain retains its ability to adapt throughout life. When confronted with something new, it creates new connections, strengthens some and allows others to disappear. This process, known as neuroplasticity, enables learning at any age. It works after 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Your brain is not a fixed machine. It is a living organism that learns when it is regularly nourished. The more you repeat a task, the more fluid it becomes. What seemed difficult becomes familiar.

That’s why what you enjoy doing matters so much. An activity that comes naturally to you will be easier to repeat. This is what the theory of appetence shows: the pleasure you derive from an activity promotes memorisation, automation and progress.

If you doubt your ability to learn, don’t focus on your age. Instead, ask yourself what really interests you. Attention, curiosity and consistency matter much more than biological age. What revives learning is not your initial level, but your commitment to what you do.

It is not a machine that wears out: it is a living network that reconfigures itself according to the efforts you put into it.

What is holding you back is not so much your age as your exposure to cognitive effort.

Claude, 57, said he was incapable of retraining in accounting. ‘I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. But I started with simple exercises, and to my surprise, I made progress. It came more slowly, but it came.’

Denise, 63, had never dared to take a course before: ‘I thought I was too old to start over. But session after session, I saw that I was learning, in my own way. It was my fear, not my age, that was holding me back.’

These experiences show that the obstacle is not in the material to be learned. It is in the idea you have of your ability to relearn. And you can challenge that idea.

Changing careers is not about wondering whether you are still capable. It is about deciding to give your brain another chance to start afresh.

Three practical ways to boost your brain power

Learn for 10 minutes a day, without pressure. Consistency is more important than intensity.
Train your memory with simple tasks: naming, classifying, summarising.
Look at a current difficulty as a muscle that needs retraining. It’s not ‘I‘m not cut out for this,’ it’s ‘I need to warm up.’

You are not behind. You are ready to start afresh in a different way. And that is enough to reactivate what your brain knows how to do.

👉 Take the aptitude test to find out what will be easiest for you to learn.

Changing careers: what if your abilities weren’t set in stone?

You are considering changing careers, but one thought keeps coming back to you: ‘I’ve never been good at this,’ or ‘I’m not going to become someone else at my age.’ That voice is not talking about skill. It is talking about your perception of your abilities. And that perception is not neutral: it influences the way you act.

Psychologist Carol Dweck has highlighted two fundamental ways of viewing one’s abilities: fixed mindset and growth mindset.

What you believe is possible determines what you dare to do.

The fixed mindset is based on the idea that skills are innate and define once and for all what you are capable of doing. If you have succeeded, it is because you are talented. If you have failed, it is because it was not meant for you.

In this mindset, every difficulty becomes a challenge to your abilities. So you hesitate to try, or you give up quickly to avoid being judged. The blockage does not come from a lack of desire, but from a fear of being permanently disqualified.

The growth mindset, on the other hand, is based on the idea that any skill can be developed. That mistakes are part of the journey. That nothing is set in stone. And that what you are capable of doing tomorrow depends on what you dare to try today.

This simple shift in the way we talk to each other transforms the approach to retraining. It does not eliminate difficulties. But it does create space to learn, test and progress.

It’s not that retraining is impossible. It’s that you believe it’s impossible.

Nora, 27, thought she was incapable of speaking in public: ‘I avoided meetings and blushed at the slightest thing. Now I train my colleagues. I thought that was just the way I was. In fact, I had never practised.’

Delphine, 44: ‘I was afraid of looking ridiculous in interviews. But by practising over and over again, I gained confidence. I thought I was too shy. In fact, I just never had the opportunity to prepare myself.’

It wasn’t their personalities that changed. It was their perception of what they could still become.

Changing careers does not mean transforming yourself. It means stopping being stuck in a rut.

Three levers to activate a growth mindset

Replace ‘I’m not cut out for this’ with: ‘I haven’t learnt how to do it yet’.
Take a past difficulty and reframe it as progress. What can you do today that you couldn’t do yesterday?
LList three things you never thought possible five years ago that you have now achieved. You have just demonstrated that you are changing.

It’s not a character trait. It’s a perspective you can choose to adopt. And it’s this perspective that will open or close your next professional door.

👉 Try the aptitude test to explore what you may not have dared to look at yet.

What if your confidence did not come from yourself, but from those around you?

You are considering changing careers, but you have doubts. Not about your skills. Not about your value. You wonder if anyone will trust you, if a recruiter will take you seriously, if you will be given a second chance. You believe these doubts are rational. They are often relational.

When changing careers, other people’s perceptions act as a filter. They can amplify your strengths or extinguish them. This is described by two opposing psychological effects: the Pygmalion effect and the Golem effect.

Pygmalion or Golem: what others expect of you impacts your ambitions

In 1968, psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson highlighted a silent but powerful phenomenon: our performance is influenced by the expectations that others project onto us.

When a teacher believes that a student will succeed, without even saying so, they unconsciously adapt their posture, attention and encouragement. And the student, even without realising it, stops making progress. This is known as the Pygmalion effect: positive expectations improve performance.

Conversely, when people doubt your abilities, and that doubt is palpable even without words, you limit yourself, you hesitate, you lose confidence. This is the Golem effect: negative expectations weaken performance.

These effects are widely documented in social psychology. They are not based on conscious intentions. They are triggered by gestures, glances, silences, and signs of tension. They have a profound effect on self-esteem and level of commitment.

In the context of a career change, these mechanisms are amplified. Why? Because you are entering a new world, without any reference points. Because you feel observed, evaluated, and often compared. Because you are much more dependent on the outside view than in a job you already master.

A Pygmalion effect in this context can change the course of a career. A simple validation (‘You have a really clear way of explaining that,’ ‘I feel you could go further in this area’) reignites the internal drive. Conversely, a repeated Golem effect (‘You know, it’s not for everyone,’ ‘You need a lot of background knowledge for that’) sets off a downward spiral.

We do not move forward or backward because we are incapable, but because the gaze of the other weakens or strengthens the signal to move forward.

Let us consider two concrete examples of retraining:

👉 Pygmalion effect: Alice, 38, is hesitant about becoming a trainer. During a workshop, a speaker tells her, ‘You ask very structured questions; we can tell you have a talent for teaching.’ This simple sentence triggers a feeling in her that she can do it. She enrols in training, applies for jobs, and moves forward.

👉 Golem effect: Jean, 52, a former sales representative, is aiming for a position as a mediator. During a career change interview, he is told: ‘You need a master’s degree for that, and it’s very technical.’ Nothing is said explicitly, but doubt is sown. Jean stops applying. He accepts that he doesn’t belong, without even trying.

These two examples show that it is not intention that changes everything. It is the silent projection of a possibility or a limitation. And in career change, these projections take on disproportionate weight.

We do not always doubt because we are weak. We doubt because we have been looked at with reserve for too long.

Sometimes all it takes is a glance to make you feel that you have the right to try.

Karim, 45, former delivery driver turned customer advisor: ‘When someone told me I had a natural gift for talking on the phone, I started to believe it. Before that, I’d never imagined I could do anything else. But someone made me feel like it was possible.’

Claire, 51, a nursing assistant who retrained as an activity coordinator: ‘They let me try. Just try. And that supportive attitude changed everything. I finally dared to do it.’

Their competence has not changed. What has changed is that it has been ‘seen’. Valuing someone is not about paying them compliments. It is about believing, even silently, that they have the resources to succeed.

Three levers to reinforce the Pygmalion effect

* Surround yourself with people who genuinely encourage you. Their confidence acts as a subtle but decisive trigger.

* Make a list of your past successes, even informal ones. Read them over as if you were your own coach.

* Dare to ask for feedback: a quality, a skill that people recognise in you. Bring it to life through their words.

Changing careers is not about convincing yourself. Sometimes it’s about receiving a subtle signal that reactivates what you could no longer see.

👉 Explore your appetences: pursuing your interests means entering into a Pygmalion framework. What you enjoy doing does not need to be justified. Pleasure is enough to make you who you are, without waiting for someone to give you permission.

What if it wasn’t a lack of competence, but an excess of doubt?

You are considering changing jobs, but you are tired. Not physically. Tired of being vigilant, of feeling like you are playing a role, of waiting for the moment when people will discover that you do not really belong. A voice inside you whispers: ‘I am going to be exposed,’ ‘They are going to realise that I am not legitimate.’ This isn’t honesty. It’s not lucidity. It’s what’s known as imposter syndrome.

This feeling affects competent, committed people who are often demanding of themselves. And paradoxically, the further you progress, the more intense it can become. Because the stakes of disappointment grow. Because new experiences expose you. Because success does not calm doubt: it merely shifts it.

Impostor syndrome: a major obstacle to career change

Psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes defined this mechanism in 1978. It becomes a major obstacle when it blocks access to a new career: not because you are incompetent, but because you doubt your very right to pursue something else. You don’t dare apply, or you over-control yourself in interviews. You interpret every silence as a rejection, every validation as a mistake. And you end up sabotaging your own efforts through excessive self-criticism. You attribute your successes to luck, misunderstanding, or the kindness of a recruiter. Rarely to your skills.

It is not a question of modesty or objectivity. It is a deep-seated doubt, often long-standing, that causes you to question the legitimacy of your position, even in the face of concrete evidence of competence.

Several factors contribute to this syndrome:

* You were raised in an environment where success had to be exceptional to be recognised.

* You come from an unconventional or self-taught background, which makes you more vulnerable to “official” criteria of legitimacy.

* You are a perfectionist, and therefore very demanding of yourself.

* You are moving into a new professional environment (career change, promotion, change of sector).

These contexts foster a form of constant self-monitoring: you feel like you got there by mistake, and that you have to prove, day after day, that you deserve to be there. It’s not that you’re less competent. It’s that no one has taught you how to fully take your place. Imposter syndrome describes a gap between what you achieve and what you think you deserve. You attribute your successes to luck, misunderstanding, or the kindness of a recruiter. Rarely to your skills.

This feeling of illegitimacy persists even when evidence to the contrary accumulates. And it is not resolved by performance: it sometimes grows stronger as you progress. Because the more you enter a new world, the more you fear that you will not live up to the image others have of you.

It is not your position that is being questioned. It is you who are not granting it to yourself.

Jean, 48, a former technical agent who retrained as a trainer: ‘I knew how to explain things, I got positive feedback, but I felt like an intruder. I kept thinking: when are they going to realise that I’m not a real trainer?’

Mina, 39, former assistant turned HR manager: ‘I tick all the boxes, but I still feel like I’m being tested. It’s as if I have to prove every day that I’m not a casting mistake.’

Martine, 54, an engineer who became a project manager, confides: ‘Every time someone congratulates me, I smile, but I grit my teeth. I tell myself that one day they will see that I am not as competent as they think I am.’

These voices are not talking about a lack of competence. They are talking about a discrepancy between your reality and your view of yourself. What you do exists. What you feel comes from elsewhere.

Three ways to dispel doubt

* Write down what you have achieved without external validation. A situation, a gesture, a transformation.

* Ask two people you trust what they consider to be natural about you that you tend to downplay.

* Stop trying to persuade. Focus on what you bring to the table here and now.

Changing careers does not mean taking someone else’s place. It means taking your place in a space that you have already begun to build.

👉 Identify your appetences: your appetites do not judge what you know how to do, they reveal what you enjoy doing. It is by refocusing on this enjoyment that you will rediscover your inner legitimacy, free from any external judgement.

What if you weren’t looking for a job, but an emotional state?

You are hesitant to change careers. You are afraid of making a mistake, of not being able to cope, of losing your footing. You doubt your ability to remain focused, committed and motivated over the long term.

But you have probably found yourself absorbed in an activity at some point. Time flew by. You were completely immersed in it. Without even trying.

It was neither willpower nor discipline. It was something else. What psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi called Flow: a state of fluid concentration and deep satisfaction during a stimulating activity.

The Flow: seven signs to recognise it

Flow is an optimal state, both absorbing, fluid and satisfying. It does not declare itself, it settles in. You do not decide to enter Flow: you realise that you are already there.

Imagine yourself focused, without tension. Your hands move almost on their own. The silence around you becomes pleasant. Time becomes blurred, but your perception is clearer than ever. These are signs that you are in the Flow.

It can be identified by seven key characteristics:

Intense, effortless concentration. You are absorbed, without distraction.
Clear objectives. You know what you need to do at each stage.
Retour immédiat. Vous percevez si vous avancez ou non.
Immediate return. You can tell whether you are moving forward or not.
Loss of self-awareness. You are not observing yourself.
Time distortion. An hour passes like ten minutes.
Feeling of alignment. You feel at home, in the moment.

Flow is not a luxury or an extra. It is a valuable indicator: it signals that you are exactly where your energy flows freely.

Appetence + competence: the path to Flow

Flow cannot be decided upon. It must be prepared for. And it all starts with appetite. This is the starting point, the internal signal. It is what draws your attention to an activity, without effort or justification. But appetite alone is not enough. For flow to occur, the activity must also demand something of you: a little more than usual, but not too much.

Flow occurs when a deep desire meets a well-balanced challenge. You enjoy doing it, you have the basics, and the activity pushes you just enough to lose yourself in it — without drowning.

Flow is a compass for reorienting yourself.

Not sure where to start? Think about where you have already experienced this feeling:

Quelles activités vous ont fait oublier le temps ?
What activities made you forget the time?
In what contexts did you feel engaged without having to concentrate?

These are valuable clues. Flow is a subjective phenomenon, but deeply reliable. It speaks to you without resorting to logic or discourse. It reconnects you to an embodied experience.

Three ways to find your flow

Identify the activities where you lose track of time.
Identify the moments when you are focused without forcing yourself.
Observe the areas of activity that help you progress without mental fatigue.

The Flow does not lie

When you are in Flow, you feel it immediately: your attention is fluid, your movements flow, the outside world is suspended. You are not forcing anything, but everything moves forward. What you are doing makes sense, without needing to be justified.

Don’t look for what you can endure. Look for what absorbs you. Flow is a reliable benchmark. It shows you the path to work that suits you.

👉 Identify your appetences: that’s where Flow begins. You will identify activities where time slips away, where you are fully present, and jobs where this feeling lasts all day long.

Luck is not a roll of the dice. It is capital that you can develop.

When it comes to changing careers, many people say, ‘I haven’t been lucky,’ as if the future were decided by chance. But the work of British psychologist Richard Wiseman has proven the opposite. After ten years of research on people who described themselves as ‘lucky’, he shows that luck is not a matter of chance: it is a behavioural skill, a mental attitude, an ability to create opportunities.

According to Wiseman, lucky people don’t succeed because they wait. They create favourable circumstances by exposing themselves more, talking more about what they love, following their curiosity, and welcoming unexpected twists and turns.

And that is exactly what working on your appetites allows you to do. What you enjoy doing becomes a concrete lever for activating the mechanisms of luck. Because appetences makes you more attentive, more open, and more readable to others. Working on your appetites means actively increasing your luck capital. This is not positive psychology. It is a strategic choice.

Ce que dit Richard Wiseman sur les gens “chanceux”

What Richard Wiseman says about “lucky” people

They are open to the unexpected: they step outside their routine, try things without guarantees, expose themselves without total control.
They cultivate contacts: they talk about what they like, ask questions, and share their curiosity.
They follow their intuition: they listen to what attracts them, even when it is not yet rationally clear.
They know how to turn failures into turning points: they reinterpret obstacles as changes of direction.

Wiseman goes further: he suggests developing your ‘surface area for encountering luck’ by broadening your exposure to new situations, paying attention to small signals, and daring to express your desires, even if they are vague.

These behaviours are difficult to force. But they become natural when you connect with your appetites. Because what you love to do makes you more attentive, more daring, more visible. This is how appetite acts as a multiplier of luck.

Appetences creates the conditions for luck.

Your appetences are the activities you enjoy doing over the long term, without any effort of will. When you reconnect with them, you become more:

Visible (because you dare to talk about it),
Attentive (you notice what resembles you),
Active (you search without forcing yourself),
Aligned (and therefore more serious, more credible).

In this sense, working on your appetences is not about indulging yourself. It’s about making yourself findable. It’s about becoming someone who can be spotted, recommended and sought after.

What Wiseman calls ‘the posture of luck’ is naturally facilitated by appetites.

Three triggers for professional luck

Talk about what you enjoy doing, even if you don’t know where it will lead. You will become noticeable.
Follow what draws you, even if it doesn’t fit into any box. You will meet people who are already on this path.
Take detours seriously: if something excites you, even briefly, listen to it. It’s not a distraction, it may be a key.

Luck is a consequence, not a favour.

Those who appear to be “lucky” were not born different. They just moved forward before they had all the answers. They followed a hook. An interest. An appetence.

👉 Select your appetences: your interests do not limit you, they open doors. They increase your chances of finding an unexpected career, one that suits you and was waiting for you without you even knowing it.

What if the real driving force wasn’t motivation, but pleasure?

You are considering changing careers, but you are hesitant. You tell yourself: “I’m not motivated enough,” “I’m not cut out for training,” “I never stick with things for long.” What if the problem is misidentified?

It’s not about motivation in general. It’s about the pleasure felt in the action. What neuroscience describes as activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic circuit, often referred to as the reward circuit.

The reward circuit: why your pleasure is your best guide

The brain is well designed. When an action makes you feel good, it lets you know. It rewards you. It reinforces the activated neural pathways, helping you to remember, concentrate, and repeat. This circuit—dopaminergic, deep, powerful—is designed to encourage you to continue doing what is good for you.

When pleasure is present, your brain releases dopamine, particularly in the mesolimbic circuit. This release encourages the repetition of behaviors associated with a positive experience, supports attentional engagement, and facilitates learning consolidation.

Steve Jobs put it another way: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” This isn’t just a quote from an inspired entrepreneur. It’s a neurological principle.

This pleasure can be immediate (creating, passing on knowledge, repairing) or deferred (being able to buy a watch). But when it is based solely on future gratification (salary, promotion, purchase), it quickly wears off. The reward circuit only consolidates if the activity itself provides modest but constant pleasure.

In other words, you can endure a job that promises you a reward. But you will only persevere if you find pleasure in what you do, not just in what it brings you. This is where your ability to learn without wearing yourself out comes into play.

In a career change project, this circuit acts as a compass. It shows you less what is valued externally and more what is sustainable internally. And that may be your true driving force for the future.

It’s not that you lack desire. It’s that the activity produces nothing in return.

Appetence refers to what you enjoy doing over the long term, without depending on external rewards. What we refer to here as appetence corresponds, in scientific terms, to a stable form of intrinsic motivation: a source of engagement that supports learning and attention over time.

It is clearly distinct from what is often confused with it:

The Competence: it is what you know how to do, but not necessarily what you like to do.
Need: this is what you are seeking to fulfil or escape. Appetite, on the other hand, stems from a free attraction, not a lack.
Motivation: it drives us towards a goal. Appetence acts without an explicit goal: it arises naturally, out of pleasure.
Satisfaction: it disappears once achieved. Appetence, on the other hand, returns. It reignites action, with no defined end.
Desire: often impulsive or fleeting. Appetite is stable, repeatable, reliable.
Passion: intense and sometimes destructive. Appetite is modest, but sustainable. It does not exclude everything else: it integrates.

Appetence engages attention effortlessly, activates memory without constraint, and makes you want to do it again without being pushed. It doesn’t tell you what you ‘have’ to do, but what you can do for a long time without wearing yourself out. It naturally activates the reward circuit because it makes the effort desirable in itself.

Élodie, 44, has changed careers twice: ‘I used to think I was unstable, that I got bored easily. But one day, I realised that the problem was what I was doing, not who I was. When I found a job where I could see the results of my work, I finally stuck with it.’

Nicolas, 53, left logistics for social mediation: ‘Before, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t concentrate. I was good at my job, but I felt numb. Now, I’m tired, but alive. I feel useful, and my brain is working for me.’

What changes everything is not the difficulty of the activity, but how you feel in the moment you are doing it. Pleasure is information. A direction.

Think of a day when you felt absorbed in what you were doing. What tasks attracted you? What kept you going without being asked? And in your past experiences: what activities did you seek out on your own, even outside of your job?

Changing careers is not about finding the right box. It’s about finding the right circuit. The one that gives you energy, focus and endurance.

👉 Identify your appetences: they will enable you to become aware of the activities that produce dopamine, thereby creating a feeling of professional pleasure.