Milestone Motivation

I've got one of those r0und birthdays coming up. I am 40 in May.

Now, I am OK with that, I know that 40 isn't old, I am not worried about my own mortality, that comes to us all and, if related to age, then we are one of the lucky ones.

It is just that as soon as we ticked over into 2016 and the phrase I am 40 next year entered my inner monologue, I have been in a state of evaluation.

As I say, this isn't about age and death, but about landmarks and measuring myself against my own expectations. Now that I am approaching it I don't feel that 40 is at all old but when I left university and entered the workforce in 1999, where did I expect to be come 2017?

I've always been keen to move up the ranks and progress at work but more from a point of being ready to take on a new challenge, having mastered the last one, as opposed to outright ambition.

In my company I have had a number of long-term colleagues who are the same age as me, against whom I have been able to measure my progression. For many years our trajectories were similar but a couple of years ago I paused and realised that my own route had stalled whilst theirs taken them to more senior positions at our plc.

So why had my progress paused? What was holding me back? And, what was (am) I going to do about it?

Unsurprisingly I found most of my answers from within the Salesforce community.

With the advice and encouragement of my WiT co-leaders, the lovely ladies of the Women Who Salesforce Mentoring Circle I am lucky to be a member of, and some very wise heads in the London Salesforce community, I have never felt so supported.

• Why had my journey paused? What was holding me back?

This took some soul searching. The easy (lazy) answer would be to blame my employer for not appreciating the work I do, for not giving me the opportunity to progress more than I had, etc etc. 

By doing that I could blame someone else and sit back and bemoan my lot (which incidentally really isn't that shoddy), absolving myself of any responsibility in the matter.

This wasn't the answer.

Just one of many great sessions I attended at Dreamforce drummed it home to me. It was a Women in Leadership session in which the speaker talked about how we can't just work hard and expect to be noticed. I immediately realised that this is what I had been doing, I assumed that my work spoke for itself and was enough to see me keep moving up the corporate ladder.

To hear this was a 'thing' hit me like a thunder bolt (or should that be Lightning strike?). A light bulb went off in my brain and, as with so many things, recognising and acknowledging a mindset really is half the battle to turning it around.

I took a long hard look at myself. I realised that I was being naive to expect promotion and an ever elevated status to keep falling in my lap.

The same Dreamforce session spoke to our technical skills only taking us so far, that we will hit a blocker and that soft 'people' skills become more important as we progress in our careers. This also resonated with me and set my mind to work.

• What was (am) I going to do about it?

I analysed my strengths and then identified my weaknesses. This isn't always easy but this is a good thing about being 39 and a half, I know myself quite well (warts and all). I know the things I don't do as well as I could, or should, or the things I admire in successful colleagues. Acknowledging a weakness is one thing, correcting it is quite another.

With just 5 months before I hit 40, the clock is ticking and though I feel like I have made positive changes already this year, I still find myself falling into the same habits and reactions at times and this is something I need to counter.

So this is my project for the next few months, to work on each of my identified weaknesses and hit 40 a more r0under and polished version of myself.

Wish me luck.....