Want to know what you’re supposed to do with the rest of your career from here on in?

If I was going to give my younger self any career advice now, it would be to follow these two mantras.

The pandemic has stopped a lot of us in our tracks for sure, with many people asking some tough questions of themselves about what’s really important and where they want to head to in the future.

The saying goes “You should only look back if you want to go” there but sometimes reflecting on the past helps put the present in perspective and can act as the foundation on which to design your better future.

Reflecting on my career, I’ve worked hard (most of the time), led, worked with or for some great people, have challenged them and been challenged myself to be the best I could be.

For the most part, I’ve succeeded in this, being recognised with multiple ‘Distinguished Achievement’ and “Outstanding Business Contribution Awards’ for consistent top-tier leadership performances over a 25-year period, written and published my first book, created some online courses, and retired early from full-time business.

This is a tightly edited version however because isn’t it how many of us tell our story to others and come to believe it ourselves, a life full of success and achievement, we highlight and sometimes even embellish the positives?

We conveniently leave out the mistakes and stomach-churning-failures that have the power to teach us so much about ourselves.

It’s with this in mind, I wish someone had taken me aside when I was younger and advised me to embrace the mistakes and the failures because you learn so much about yourself that success will never teach you. All success does is beef you up and confirm how brilliant you are, it doesn’t reveal your true character, only tough times do this.

In hindsight, I can see where I strayed from being true to myself, following the dollar so to speak when money was never my main motivator, doing work that I was good at but hated, working with clients that didn’t match my values, working for companies that had the wrong leadership culture… and a few more too many to mention.

Looking back though, if I was to give myself any career advice now, it would be to follow two key mantras;

1. Be True To Who You Really Are!

Your nature is your nature and the older you get, the more you become who you truly are. Sure, your ambitions, needs, desires and skills may change but who you are inside will not. This won’t mean that you can’t improve your skills or modify your behaviours but your core personality will remain the same.

We can spend so much time trying to be what we think others expect us to be that we lose ourselves in a world of virtual reality, a pretend world rather than the world we want and being who we really are deep down inside.

This is why so many people try to change who they are and fail, leaving a trail of frustration behind and false hope ahead. You know who you are so BE YOU and shine for who you are and not because you want to be someone else!

This doesn’t mean you can’t improve who you are and the next point plays on this.

2. Always Play To & Add To Your Strengths!

To be clear, a strength is not just something you’re good at, maybe much better than others even but something you’re good at AND enjoy doing too. If you’re doing something you’re good at but hate, it will drain you of all your energy. Doing something you’re good at and that you like doing is a powerful combination for success. Counter-intuitively, it will also be where you will learn the most, grow the most, achieve the most and importantly, be most resilient in if or when things get tough. Playing to your strengths is what will make you stand out amongst the crowded world of average people producing average results because they don’t understand this principle.

A word of warning about moving outside of your comfort zone — There’s a lot said about taking people out of their comfort zones and sure, there’s a time and place to do this but a comfort zone can also provide significant advantages, i.e. it becomes a place where people who are brilliant at something and love doing it get into ‘the zone’ and deliver outstanding results.

For example; I led a team of Account Directors in the Advertising & Media industry for 7 years who were all good at and enjoyed what they were doing. They not only stayed in their comfort zones (played to their strengths) but collectively achieved some outstanding results, including being top-performing sales channel for 6 of these 7 years.

Even taking my own advice, I’m sure I would still have made some mistakes in life but firmly believe they would have been far less damaging because I would have stayed on the paths that were true to me a lot more often.

We’re all unique individuals and so each of our paths will be different but when you come to a crossroads, be sure to follow the path that suits you and your uniqueness rather than what others tell you it should be. Now is a perfect time to reflect and reset the paths you will follow.

Best,

Reece

Founder & Chief Strategist at RPA | Strategic Leadership Coach & Facilitator

PS. You can see more detailed information about my Strong Minds book HERE and my Personal Leadership Mastery online course HERE.