Career Versus Change-The-World Goals
As part of a recent personal development conversation, I was asked where I wanted to focus this year and what strengths I wanted to develop. I came up with a few ideas related to creativity, expertise, and coaching that align with my role. But when asked to connect these development interests to my larger career goals, I faltered.
Career Fueled By Evolving Interests
My career aspirations? I considered possible options but struggled to produce an answer that felt right.
To be fully transparent, I’m not early in my career. I’ve managed people, projects, and million-dollar budgets along my professional journey, and I’ve transformed into many versions of myself – from waitress to English teacher, communications manager to executive leader, novelist to corporate content creator. These pivots were fueled primarily by my evolving interests.
As a kid, I never questioned where my dreams came from, just leaned into them. Envisioning a new future self – moving, for example, from being a modern dancer to a writer – was easy. I was young, there were countless things I wanted to do and achieve, and an inner fire burned within me to become more than I was.
Career Fueled by Desired Impact
But somewhere along the way, things changed. My goals stopped centering around my next new self. My raison d'être began to revolve around figuring out how I could be part of efforts to make the world around me kinder, more human-centered and more equitable.
This is helpful self-knowledge. When climbing the corporate ladder stops holding interest, you feel less wedded to a traditional career path as a way of defining success. That’s very freeing. But it can make the personal development conversation more complicated.
Change The World Goals, Mobilized
If you feel similarly, I’m curious how you translate your change-the-world goals into tangible career and development goals. In my own reflection on ways to make my goals more concrete and actionable in preparation for my upcoming personal development discussion, here are a few draft bullets I’ve come up with for myself:
Help build a more honest, fearless, and caring company culture by writing informed, inclusive, bold, and creative company content.
Listen, learn, research, read, ask. Find ways to help improve ways of working.
Learn how to tackle team challenges without actually making the problems mine. Improve as a coach, encouraging colleagues and peer leaders.
Learning to be a Better Human
My focus on the influence I can have on the world doesn’t mean I am without personal ambition. On the contrary, building a better world involves first learning how to be a better human myself, and that takes a ton of drive and ongoing effort. It requires learning, growing, speaking up, and taking more uncomfortable personal risks than I have in the past.
How does this impact my career path? A decision to pursue a new role at my current company won’t be motivated by a desire to ascend or change my title. Instead, I’d pursue with grit and gusto a role that might better facilitate achieving my change-the-world goals.
If your motivations have similarly shifted, I’d love to hear how this has impacted your own career goals and personal development conversations.
