that’s interesting

It was about 7 years in when I had the same feelings. I’d worked for an agency for 5 years before going solo. At around that 2 year mark of being self employed I was SURE SEO was dead or dying.

That was almost 14 years ago. I now know that is not the case. But it did take quite a few months for me to realize this and get over my doom and gloom mentality.

If you are working for a firm, maybe look at going out on your own?

If you are just looking for another skillset, maybe web design? I started building sites about 10 years ago because I found it was cheaper for the client to get a brand new responsive website (back then hardly anyone was building responsive but I knew it was the next big thing). I’ve passed that part of the business off to my son because the SEO has really taken off the past year. But honestly I hadn’t been building many sites over the past couple of years because of the time involved. With the SEO business growing I was finding I didn’t have enough time for both.

Web design helped me to realize that I needed to change gears in my mind. Change from that technical/analytical mindset to a more creative one.

And that’s something else I’ve found helps – do something different when you aren’t working. You need something to help change your POV. Whether that’s a hobby, home renovations, gaming whatever.

For me, home repairs, painting, remodelling etc all help my brain switch from “work” to other stuff.