In the first two parts of the Internal Mobility Series, “Dominant attributes” and “Triggers of fulfillment,” we established an effective and reliable framework to screen any potential opportunity quickly and decisively, before the window closes.
The third part of the series, “Who is the future me?," is about determining if today’s tactical decisions are consistent with your long-term personal development aspirations. This article offers a simple method to create a vision of the type of person you want to become in 10, 15, and 20 years.
For over three decades, out of pure interest, I studied successful people at all levels of society in various capacities, and this I believe to be true:
Very few of them accurately predicted their actual career path from their early days in the workforce, even though they are excellent planners and goal oriented. All of them, however, accurately visualized the type of successful person they aspired to become. Most importantly, success is not about “what you get” from any job, but more about “who you become” on your career journey.
For example, banking is an expansive career field that offers a wide variety of attractive opportunities for talented professionals who are willing to take risk and seize them. Changing variables like market dynamics, geo-politics, monetary policy, investor psychology, emergence of new financial products, regulatory changes, and other large forces create career opportunities for the nimble, skilled, ambitious, and decisive professional.
For example, over the last 30 years, many career paths were altered by the following powerful forces:
- The 1994 Interstate banking legislation,
- the late 1990s dot.com boom,
- the horrible events of 9/11,
- the mid-2000s political focus on home ownership that led to the boom of Mortgage-Backed Securities (“MBS”),
- the 2008 financial collapse due to the failure of those very MBS securities,
- the follow-on Dodd-Frank legislation,
- the growing emphasis on Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG),
- the powerful evolution of financial technology,
- the COVID pandemic.
How many professionals calculated these game-changing events at the start of their careers before the events occurred? Maybe a few, but those that did are outliers and lionized as visionaries.
In addition to these earthquakes that trigger tsunamis of opportunities, we also experience a dynamic environment driven by our personal, family, and health decisions.
The point is that it is impossible to predict all the variables involved in the future, so it is less important to script out our exact career path, and more important to have a clear, long-term vision for who you want to become.
How?
Begin by identifying leaders, family members, historical figures...anyone you admire and respect, and identify what specific qualities they possess that you would like to emulate in your future self. To be clear, I am not suggesting that you want to become them, but instead develop their specific qualities important to your aspirational future self. For example, is it part of your future self to become a...
- subject matter expert?
- respected visionary?
- influential speaker?
- highly skilled technician?
- empathetic leader?
- skilled negotiator?
- excellent client manager?
Then add in elements from non-career related areas. For example:
- Loving and dependable family member?
- Fitness and wellness oriented?
- Financially secure?
For each of these specific qualities, make sure that you have an actual person identified who has demonstrated excellence.
Again, you do not have to know them; just have access to information to help you learn about their lives. For example, I studied the qualities of influential public speaking in Sir Winston Churchill, steely tenacity in Frederick Douglass, efficient professionalism in U.S. Secretary of State General Colin Powell, and positive energy and presence in Tony Robbins.
The goal is not to be them, but to improve yourself in these aspirational qualities: study excellence.
Once you have identified what qualities, skills, and behaviors you would like to emulate in 10, 15, or 20 years, and you know who sets the example of excellence, write a simple paragraph about who you will become. Post it in your closet, on your mirror, or wherever you can review it frequently.
You now have a blueprint to your “future me.”
Whenever an opportunity arises; a fork in the road that you have screened using the first two parts of the series about dominant attributes and triggers of fulfillment, then ask this vision related question:
Does this opportunity enhance my ability to advance towards the person I aspire to become in the future?
If this opportunity, this crack in the door, is consistent with these simple questions discovered in the three-part series, then kick the door open and go for it.
Even if you feel these potentially debilitating emotions, leave the regrets, anxiety, fear, doubts behind and just seize the moment. When you get to the next fork in the road: Rinse and repeat.
Next month, in the final installment in the four-part series, we will touch on a related subject of internal mobility and share practical steps to identify opportunities outside of your current work silo.