For me it was two things. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired of it running my life. The second is I realized that if you want a higher paying job or a nice career with ladder moves every 3-5 years with large jumps in salary, you will need to be in a management role. As bad as it sounds, it was kind of driven by money. I want to provide my wife and I a nice life where we can enjoy things. I went from working at KFC/interning at IT firms where I didn’t talk much to federal project management where all I do is talk in about 9 years. Find out where you want to be in life and work it backwards taking small baby steps. It’s taken me a long time to get where I’m at but that’s because I recognize that it takes me forever to get comfortable in any new environments. I’ve been at my current job for 2 years and am just starting to get comfortable leading my big meetings.