You are concerned about your professional development. You are a successful professional with a solid career track record. You enjoy your job and your co-workers. Your workplace environment is comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable.
You have this nagging sense that there is “Something More” for you to do. You are just not quite sure what that “Something More” is. Well, not exactly.
You have a solid understanding that your professional development is your responsibility. In fact, it always has been your responsibility. You’ve managed things well.
It’s just that you have this nagging question that keeps bouncing around your head. The question is: “Is this all there is?” Am I short-selling myself? Am I settling, becoming complacent? Am I overlooking something?
You are the type of professional who is not content to ride out into the auto-pilot sunset years of your career. You see, you have always been about “Something More.”
Except this time, you can’t move yourself forward, upward or outward towards answering this question. You are sort of stuck. Stuck in your professional mindset.
You have been involved in the same professional skill set and mindset for so long that you have lost the capacity to generate innovative questions to catalyze you towards identifying “Something More.”
You have been so focused on professional achievements within a certain career path that you have lost sight of what other opportunities might be available to you.
You have a mortgage and bills to pay and self-doubts about whether changing lanes will compromise the security that your profession affords you and your family.
Yet you feel compelled to explore answers to the “Something More” question that calls to you. Because there is a whole lot more to you than what’s encompassed in your current job responsibilities.
Exploring those possibilities is risky thinking, for starters. You just might re-acquire some of that passion and sense of adventure which has been toned down over the years. You just might realize that you have also acquired wisdom during the course of your professional development, so that your sense of risk is tempered by your knowledge of and confidence in strategy, process and timeline.
You realize that wondering about “Something More” at this point in your career is, in fact, exactly where you should be as a Business Professional of Worth.
You are a lifelong learner and, therefore, a lifelong explorer of new ideas. You combine and recombine What’s Possible and apply to where you are today and where you might go tomorrow.
Now you have given yourself permission to ponder what “Something More” looks like; you are excited to start your journey. You aren’t sure where you will end up. You aren’t planning on quitting your day job. You have a sense that your “Something More” strategy might lead you right around your office door. You just aren’t sure where that leads.
The key to your professional development, and creating your “Something More” roadmap, has and always will remain in your more than capable hands. You won’t be making that journey alone, however. You will require input along the way, to avoid potholes in the road. You want to collaborate with a skilled professional to coach, mentor and guide.
Make this year the year that you gain clarity. Answer your “Something More” question. What are you waiting for? Reach out to me. Let’s begin.
Babette N. Ten Haken is a business and professional development strategist, analyst, author and speaker. She works with professionals, teams and companies in the technical and manufacturing sectors. Her Workshops target holistic professional development while seeking excellence in the execution of strategy. Her Playbook of collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Photo source: iStock
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