This past summer, I realized I had been working professionally for 30 years. For weeks before and after, I’d find myself reflecting on the journey. I’d also look forward to what I wanted to say about the next 30.
It is hard to believe I started this road so long ago. Bright-eyed and full of piss and vinegar at 19. No one told me there were boxes I’d be expected to fit into, and promptly smash because I had no awareness at first, or interest later.
Those early years are both crisp and a blur. I would spend my days learning and leading, with my evenings in school and sometimes a second job. The military provided me with excellent growth opportunities and education, but not always enough to pay for rent, gas, and food.
Later, I’d leave the military to discover whether my abilities would transition to the world at large. Having grown up in that environment, I didn’t know what else was out there. Turns out it was more of the same, just with less camouflage and no obvious signs like rank on collars.
The lessons were endless about work and life, relationships and personal ethic, when to bend and when to stand firm. Turns out, they were all inner lessons, no matter the outer environment or people in it.
As I look back on those lesson-filled years, and ahead to some of the most powerful of my career (I refuse to let anyone tell me any different), I’ve realized there are phases our careers go through. Seasons we experience, maybe once and maybe again and again, based on our unique journey.
They are Foundation, Exploration, and Wisdom.
Foundation
We all begin by building a foundation for our careers. Everyone comes from different circumstances, so maybe some walk into a family job with set expectations. Others begin joining the military or cleaning houses. It doesn’t matter where we start, just that we do.
It is during this Foundation phase that we are establishing and finding ourselves. Realizing what it takes to pay the bills and hopefully be independent. What we are capable of doing and maybe what we like and don’t like to do.
This is the time of guidance. We usually work for someone else that gives us direction. Hopefully invests in us to determine what we can do. Push us to new limits we might be afraid to try ourselves.
This phase may look different for everyone, but it’s where we all start. Some may even stay here. If work is necessary to pay bills, and it’s enough to come in each day and do the job to afford a life outside of it, maybe this is the one and only season. There’s no shame or judgment in that – it’s a reality for many.
Sometimes, we even come back here. If we decide to change careers at mid-life or as a result of a major life event. Illness, caring for a loved one, or just because we discover that our work doesn’t bring joy or purpose and we want to try something that does.
Building a strong foundation is necessary for any kind of career or life. We can live in this season, or revisit it, based on our unique journeys. For some of us, internal or external drivers help us move into the next phase of exploration.
Exploration
With a strong foundation, we can lean into our growth. We shift from others directing us and helping us discover our abilities to pushing ourselves.
In the earlier phase, we may develop a skill or set of skills that pay the bills. Once we can do that safely, there’s an opportunity to take risks. Maybe try something new. Go beyond what we were taught to teach ourselves, experiment, and maybe lead.
Exploration is where we discover and test out our power. Where we might have been a tool deployed by others’ hands in our earliest work, we better know our capabilities in this phase and can be intentional about what we do and how we do it. About how our skills can best be utilized in a team or organization.
We become our own advocates and drive our own growth during Exploration.
This is also where there is more risk. As we explore and try new things, it’s a time for awareness and intention. What has been modeled that we’re modeling to others? What are we pursuing? It’s one thing to want to pay the bills and have the financial freedom to choose our path. It’s another to pursue power and position for personal gain.
Ideally, our Foundation included strong role models. Even if it did not, our Exploration should include choosing for ourselves how we want to show up in the world and at work. Rejecting that which doesn’t serve us and developing behaviors that do.
This may be where our journey remains. We can also come back here as we shift careers. For some of us, we move on to the place of Wisdom.
Wisdom
Wisdom is a place of knowing.
The knowing looks different for everyone. For me, it’s the realization that all of this is fleeting. Much of what we create or do in life is finite. The impact we have on people, for good or for ill, tends to last.
Wisdom is getting to a place where we ask ourselves “what do I want to be able to say at the end of my journey?”
This phase isn’t about us, but what we want to leave behind. About coming fully into our power as mentors, coaches, leaders. Of being the ones that help guide and develop those in Foundation, and act as role models for those in Exploration.
Whether we are intentional about it or not, Wisdom is about legacy. We may have made a name for ourselves during Foundation, or wealth in Exploration, but what did it all mean? In Wisdom, we realize our true power isn’t in wealth or influence or degrees or titles.
It’s within us. It’s in knowing that what we do is far less important than how we do it. That sitting in the C-suite means nothing if we are alone when surrounded, unseen for who we really are, with an inability to really see and value others.
Power, position, and money won’t be what we wish to cling to at the end. But loved ones, or memories of connection and joy. The positive change we brought into the world.
That’s a legacy.
It doesn’t matter what work we do. We ALL have a legacy we can leave behind. The stay-at-home parent, the housekeeper, the barista. The middle manager, the under-challenged developer, the stymied inventor. It matters that we were here.
It’s your journey, in every phase and season
We are all called to do different work. Maybe our day jobs pay the bills and our passion is for community or our homes and families. There’s no one way to live or to move through the phases of our lives and careers.
There’s also no timeline. As we discover more about ourselves, we can stay in one phase or revisit one. There’s no rush to Wisdom, and for some that may not be appealing or feasible.
I’m finding Wisdom to be a place of peace. Work frustrations are easier to manage when I put them in the context of a 30-year career. Of lessons that I can take and pass on to others. So much easier to step back from the moment and see it for the fleeting irritation it is. To not take things so personally.
Maybe some of you found these lessons and Wisdom much earlier in your journey. Maybe Wisdom looks different for you. With a pandemic under our belts and constant change ever on the horizon, there are new lessons to be learned for all of us. For the generations coming behind us.
I’ll continue to be here, open to learning and helping others along their journey. Doing the work to keep things in perspective when I’m tempted to get sucked into the chaos. Whatever phase you’re finding yourself in, do your best to enjoy the journey. We only get one.
