Mid-Career Journey — End of the year check-in
You are in your career for the long haul, and the mid-career point is an opportunity for growth and self-care. Learning to pace yourself is key to having enthusiasm for the final, most important, stretch.
Going all-in on your career for extended period is commendable but you also need to find balance to navigate the inevitable curves. Careers are never straight lines.
It is not surprising that, after years of pursuing excellence at top speed, you get tired, bored, or even cynical. The result is a mid-career danger zone of fatigue that can sap your enthusiasm, not just to the detriment of your morale, but with unfortunate consequences for your long-term job performance.
Feeling overwhelmed on your path, some might think quitting is the solution. And it is certainly one option. But jumping ship will not do much to fix the fatigue you are grappling with unless it delivers all the conditions necessary to replenish your energy levels, deliver work that is enjoyable and meaningful, offer schedules that match your personal life, and be completely absent of bias. Admittedly, that is a high bar, and, in real life, few options will measure up.
The better option is to race a different marathon — one that customizes the pace so you can keep going. Here’s a few strategies to consider:
Review the terrain.
Take a long, hard look at your work environment — the job role, expectations, culture, leadership, coworkers, growth opportunities and so on. Consider how you are feeling about those elements today, and try to remember how you felt about them before the mid-career fatigue set in? What’s different now? What’s changed? Looking back on your career, what element allowed you to express your best self? What aspects of your work gave you genuine enjoyment but have dwindled over the years?
Now ask yourself, what could be done to get them back? Time to shine a light on things that matter most to you. If you are feeling dissatisfied in your career, think about what’s missing.
● Did the work change?
● Are you working too many hours without either breaks or recognition?
● Are there challenging dynamics with your coworkers or boss?
● Is the firm’s culture less ambitious or supportive than it once seemed?
Whatever the issue is, how do you use the answers to identify what is important to you now? Pull out the potential enablers and blockers. Here’s what I mean, let’s say your schedule is packed with tasks you loathe and light on those you like, get the team together and divvy up the tasks based on unique strengths. As you redirect some of your work, you can explore new opportunities and leverage your underused strengths.
Take ownership and time to reflect.
An end of the year check-in is a good time to reevaluate your goals. You might start the year with a clear idea of what you want for your career. Caught up in the whirlwind of projects, it is easy to overlook your aspirations. While you keep working hard you might lose sight of your underlying motivations. Are you still chasing the same objectives you set out for the year, or even last year? Do these objectives still fire up your soul? If not, then it is time for some introspection about what direction you wish to steer your career.
Ownership and Reflection. As you think about the above questions, you’ll also want to check in on your personal life. We spend a lot of time talking about work-life balance but much less time acknowledging that our career and life demands are in constant flux, and that means our balance must be constantly renegotiated.
Look for meaning and purpose.
Everyone needs a little help to find meaning in a role — particularly if you have been doing that role for a long time. Sometimes, we get so bogged down in the daily details that we forget why the work was important to us in the first place. Time to get back to basics. Why does your job exist? Who relies on you to do it well? What difference does it make to your customers, clients, colleagues, or the community at large?
It is common for people at the midpoint to feel like they have hit a wall in their career. But maybe that next big role isn’t worth climbing? There are sideways opportunities like a secondment that may fit better. Identify what genuinely energizes your sense of purpose and let that guide your way forward.
Use your “time in the bank.”
In an actual marathon, banking time means running the first several miles faster than your goal pace, so you have some time in reserve for those tough later miles. Taking this idea into your career, time in the bank means cashing in on the reputation, skills, and connections you have built up so far in your career to help you move forward.
Start by making a rational assessment of your personal value proposition and use it to advocate for what you want. That can be as simple as creating a list of your “wins” over the past few years. Raising awareness of the many ways you have helped the team or organization can open doors for you, equally with your current employer or a potential future one.
Do not hold back! A sizable number of my mid-career coaching clients are reluctant when it comes to discussing their own achievements. Remember, it is not self-promotion; it is about highlighting the meaningful impact and reminding others of the exceptional work you and your team have accomplished. Emphasizing the impact, supported by solid data and testimonials, leaves an impression.
Try coaching for clarity and motivation.
If you find yourself navigating a significant slump it is unlikely you’re going to stumble upon a quick fix. But you do not have to go alone! A career coach can help you see through the fog and identify new directions. This work allows you to look back on your past experiences, gaining insights through a series of reflective questions, and using this insight to chart next steps with foresight. By looking back with hindsight and planning with foresight, you are creating space to clarify your thinking and uncover distant motivations to explore new opportunities. Just make sure you work with a coach who is trained, certified and has tons of experience in guiding through mid-career slumps.
Bottom line? If the mid-career journey feels like a marathon, it’s because it is one. But as every runner knows, the secret to going the distance is to keep the training varied and fun! There is no point exhausting yourself on a road that leads to nowhere if you are starting every day a spent force. Re-discovering joy in the process is the key to finishing your mid-career marathon in excellent shape.
