So, you’ve reached mid-career. How can you tell? I would say there are three signs: Your age is north of 40 but is less than 55; you have developed a substantial skill set in a particular field of expertise; and you have established a solid and growing base of enduring professional relationships. So now what? Engage in complacency? Cruise to retirement? Be satisfied with inertia?
Mid-career is actually a very good time to appraise where you have gotten to with your career and where you see yourself headed next. Most long journeys require a time or two to pause and reflect on how you are navigating things and calibrate as needed. Given that many careers are now approaching 40 years in length it certainly qualifies as an odyssey in need of careful attention.
Since we live in a time when there is always some new trend, phenomenon, practice, or competition coming down the pike we cannot risk becoming too smug with our career status or else we risk becoming outdated, irrelevant, and unemployed. It is probably best to have an advancement, expansion, or improvement plan of some sort. By this I mean a strategy designed to differentiate yourself from others in your field to leave you positioned for realizing outcomes of your own choosing.
Mid-career is a great time to set meaningful and achievable goals for yourself. Ambitions that take you in the direction of stimulating engrossment, a sense of purpose, continuous professional mastery, and durable autonomy. Your career objectives should move in the direction of capitalizing on your strengths and interests while accommodating your weaknesses. And they should have long-term prospects. If your career is headed for obsolescence, now is the time to plan for a more enduring future.
In general, you do not need to re-invent yourself or propel yourself on a course in which there is a lot of daylight between what you want to do and what you have done. Usually, the task before most mid-level careerists is simply to get especially good at what you do. Strive toward becoming a genuinely great mechanic or insurance executive or golf course superintendent. Be clear what passes for success and value in your industry and align your efforts and abilities with those indicators.
For those areas where you do not excel, find and utilize the people and resources that can help you compensate or counterbalance so that you are still coming out ahead.
It is worth evaluating how you are doing in the soft skills department as well when pondering your career at the mid-way point. You know what I mean by soft skills, that constellation of personal attributes like communication, social habits, friendliness, attitude, and so forth, which most people will remember you by. If pervasive anxiety makes you grouchy at work, or you wear your stress on your sleeve too often, or you are consistently misunderstood by co-workers, then work on remedying these inhibitors. Career progress is measured by hard and soft skills alike.
Among the relevant factors to accompanying your career refinement strategy is looking at how well you are taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Sound fitness, diet, sleep, and mindfulness practice can keep you energized for the career work ahead.
Since there really is not that much difference between work and life, maintaining health allows you to approach everything you do with vitality, confidence, and positivism. With these traits it becomes easier to learn new things, interact with other healthy people, and grow professionally.
Mid-career is a great time to take stock, plan for the times ahead, and make the moves that matter for your career. You make plans for most other things. Here is a plan worth making for yourself.
