The age of permanent jobs is over. We live longer, so we will be working for far more than our predecessors, which means we’ll spend between 85,000 – if you’re lucky – and 100,000 hours at work!
If you realize the impact this makes in your life; you’d better make sure your work, personal interests, priorities, and values are in sync with every moment in your life.
Pursuing a career in one company is unrealistic unless the company acknowledges all the possible changes in your work-life you will encounter.
Different things can please you at any age; life seasons are not predefined. Although a sequence of life stages often experienced or desired is: first to be young and a socialite, then wanting flexibility because of family issues and finally stepping into maturity and earning deserved recognition. Again, it doesn’t mean that a mature person can’t have socializing and fame because they focus on taking care of the family or hobbies. You can do anything you please at any age!
Synchronicity and alignment might be hard to achieve by only working in one area and climbing the corporate ladder. Even by getting a job in the public administration!
At some point, it is likely that your position will change, some faster than others, due to different kinds of issues that are not totally under your control.
How to get organized then?
To be successful in this changing world is to follow your values, your priorities, what you love, and your talents. ✨
Evolving along your life phases doesn’t mean you switch work areas like you switch clothes every day. Instead, pick 1-3 capacities and stick to them for a stage of your life. Usual life seasons come and go between 5-7 years.
As there are personal life stages, there are also world stages. So, it’s best to match your steps with the worlds’ highs and lows!
Those usually have seasons, like sports, study periods, rest periods. Some say we’re in the winter season globally, with Covid (even if you live in a tropical climate).
What do we need in the winter season? Coziness, rest, strong walls, reassurances, protection.
❄☂❄ Winter isn’t here forever, but some jobs will remain in this season, as some belong to summer, like the ones related to travel and tourism .
Spring is when we usually come out of the hut and do the most challenging work as we enjoy nature alongside blooming our abilities.
Autumn is for reaping the rewards, changing routines, getting ordered and organized, and enjoying them with your beloved, as well as preparing for the next season!
A person who knows how to adjust to every season of life is an asset to every company because adaptability to the world’s seasons means a lot to companies!
What do you need in terms of skills to succeed in an unavoidably changing career path?
Mix entrepreneurship with highly specialized knowledge
Even if you’re not the CEO of a big company, entrepreneurship skills are helpful in every job, especially if you’re going to work with your mission and values as your compass. The entrepreneurial mindset is about growing step by step, using your skills to earn money and give a service to the world at the same time.
What are those skills? For one, the knack to figure out the product or service that the world needs at each moment. Also, expertise on how to market a product or service. Building and keeping meaningful relationships supporting your work. Last but not least, following a direction based on a mission and vision!
All those talents applied to a workplace, including being conscious about the mission and values and the company’s direction, are usually appreciated, whatever your position.
At the same time, the workforce is asking for specialized knowledge. Therefore, it would be best to focus on one area to succeed, most of the time. Of course, this can fluctuate between roles in different companies, but you need a set of skills to grow.
So, don’t forget to shape your unique skills!
Make sure you don’t get yourself distracted by shiny objects
When change is easy, it’s also easy to get a bunch of leads and offers and people to be dealt with.
Information has never been broader, but literacy and common sense might be some of the perfect ingredients to swim these waters and get your ship to some harbor.
Values define contributions; contributions define the people we trust and service areas. Those clarify the skills.
If you follow your values in each moment, you will find the necessary skills to make the most of those.
A constant revision of values is necessary, but updating your skills and contributions is even more essential.
Your values are the trunk, and leaves are the skills. Contributions are the life-juice that gets everything happening!
So, what are the roots?
Your priorities in each moment define your values. Having priorities helps us focus, and we become what we focus on!
Those priorities might change a lot over 50 years; your season of life, your needs, what you want, what makes you fulfilled. It is likely the same for a while but not likely to remain the same for 50 years.
I love the Ikigai concept to define something that can be relatively long term: the perfect spot with which you offer something you’re great at, your skills and talents, what you get paid from, what you love and enjoy doing, and sync all that with what the world needs in every moment. Then, when you find that spot, you’re in the right place!
If some of those things are not in alignment, you know it’s time to move on!
Find the right place and time to contribute to whatever the world needs in every season with everything you’ve got, using your values and priorities as a compass to navigate the change!
Editor’s Socials – Asha Atkins: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
