Abstract
A sustainable career is one in which individuals enjoy at least a moderate degree of productivity, health, and happiness across their lifespan. To elucidate what people might need to learn to enhance their career sustainability, we depict a wide range of typical career- and home-realm challenges. Being in learning mode is proposed as a self-regulatory meta-competency that shapes self-directed learning regarding how to tackle sustainable career challenges. People are in learning mode when they hold a growth mindset as they cycle through relevant approach, action, and reflection experiential learning processes. Given the relative stability yet plasticity of mindsets, we offer a dual-process model of mindsets that highlights how people may be nudged in and out of learning mode, both momentarily and over longer time frames. We outline implications for sustainable careers and mindsets theory and research, as well as practical implications for organizations, management education, vocational counseling and peer coaching, and those striving to forge a more sustainable career.