The key lessons I wish I had been given earlier on.
I've been working for over 15 years now.
Mainly in the world of corporate HR, and more recently as a Career Coach.
I've done well, and enjoyed it (mostly), but there have been times of struggle along the way. Moments of doubt, of burnout, of confidence crises and what-ifing myself into a pit of rumination.
And perhaps a lot of that could have been avoided, if I knew then what I know now.
Some things have slowly dawned on me, and it's been a revelation in how I think about careers and work in general.
I'd love to share with you the career lessons which I wish someone had told me when I was just starting out.
Career Lesson 1: The 80% rule
Perfectionism is so, so exhausting.
So many of us fall into it, and it's so pointless and futile. There's no such thing as perfect, and keeping working on something until it's faultless is a waste of time and energy.
It's also just incredibly boring.
When something is 80% done, it's fine. Stop tweaking it, it's FINE. I promise.
Career Lesson 2: The Law of 5
Failure is just data acquisition. By doing something badly, you've figured out how to do it better next time.
I know, this isn't earth-shattering, yet so many clients come to me feeling like failures because one or two things haven't gone well in their careers.
A project was disappointing, or a relationship didn't work out as they had hoped.
Here's the benchmark I worked to in order to alleviate the suffering of perceived failures:
Will anyone remember this in 5 days?
Will anyone remember this in 5 weeks?
Will anyone remember this in 5 months?
Will anyone remember this in 5 years?
Many things may fall in the first category, but people forget, because they are worried about themselves, not about you.
The failure that you're bashing yourself over the head with, is ancient history, sooner than you think.
Career Lesson 3: You'll Like It Until You Don't
You won't like the thing you're doing forever.
OK, maybe a handful of people will, but it's pretty frickin' rare.
And that makes sense, doesn't it? Because we're asked to choose a career path at 22, when we're practically still babies, so of course we have no idea what we'll want in the years to come.
You are allowed to pivot, to change, to try new things, to outgrow old things, and to shift in what matters to you.
You aren't static, or carved in ice, and evolving is not only natural, it's right.
So if you enjoyed a career for 10 years and then start to feel bored, and disengaged - there is nothing wrong with you, and you're allowed to try on something else and see how it fits.
I made my change from HR to Career Coaching, and it just fits this chapter of life I'm in. It's been the best decision I could have made.
Career Lesson 4: Don't Measure Your Success Against The Wrong Yardstick
I wish someone had told me when I was just starting out, that everyone is on their own journey.
Some people will shoot off into upper management, like, FAST. You'll have whiplash, and a little bit of jealousy.
But you know what? I would have hated their jobs.
Slowly figuring out what you enjoy, what you hate, what you never want to do again, is a process of experimentation and discovery. You can't follow someone else's blueprint for 'success', because what matters to them might not matter to you.
We're given such a limited frame for what a 'good' career looks like and it's so incredibly narrow: money, status, seniority, prestige.
But DO YOU ACTUALLY LIKE THE WORK? Because if you don't, all of that 'success' will make precisely zero difference to your long-term happiness.
If you're unhappy in the day to day mechanics of what you have to do for a living, that unhappiness will bleed into everything else in your life, and you'll be miserable.
You have to actually like it. So don't follow someone else's script, figure out what you want.
By The Way, You're Doing Great
We have a negativity bias in our brains, and tend to focus on everything that has gone wrong. So let me just say, you're doing so much better than you think, and if there's any help you want to figure out your next steps, I'd love to help.
Why not set up a free call here, and let's chat.
Always on your side.
Louise
CEO and Founder, Clarity Coaching with Louise
