Twenty - Twenty

Twenty - Twenty

While you mostly would have started thinking about a cricket match, its not about cricket but for sure about your innings in your professional career. Let me start with 3 basic question for you -

# How long is your professional Career ? 

# Where do you see yourself when you have 30+ years of experience ? 

# What is the high hanging fruit you have been targeting, have you found one 😏 ? 

I am sure it must have already triggered your #thinkingcap and also may be you just said to yourself, "Shit, i never thought of them" 😃

Well, that's what happened to me a few months back as well and when i answered them i realized ones professional career has always to be planned in two innings, the first half (first 20 years) and the 2nd half (next 20 years); That's how I started calling it the twenty-twenty career planning ! 

I remember when i started my career as an engineering graduate and in interviews if someone asked me,  "Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line ?",  it really stood a tall question to answer back then. The best i could get to answer this question was, "I see myself as a Manager, an Architect etc.". I am pretty sure your story must have been similar and probably your answers were similar too. But wonder if someone would have asked you then "Where do you see yourself 30 years down the line ?",  what would you have thought, probably  it was too early then to answer the question, but the real question is do you have the answer now ?

Anyone's professional career is roughly 40 years long, however very less people plan for the 40 years. Most of us, really don't even realize that our professional career is 40 years long and we keep running after the low hanging goals which will give us what we think "Success" for the first 20 years. This is also one of the key reasons why lot of people get more dissatisfied, feel downplayed, dip passion for their work in the later part of the first 20 years of their career. The real gap is, we keep focusing on the low hanging goals and look for high satisfaction / reward of them.  As you already realize there is a miss match of the input and the output, hence we are bound to feel downplayed and not feel content. 

Well, if you are already in near 20s for your career or even further, its never late - start planning now for your 2nd innings; The reason why i call it the 2nd innings (i.e. the 2nd 20 years of your career) is because you need to plan and approach it very differently that your first innings. The first 20 years are going to be about going and achieving low hanging goals, which you will be able to see ahead of you, be able to meet them in 1-2 years of a time lap & feel rewarded for achieving them. Not to demean your effort of achieving these goals, they will be complex and hard to achieve but will be low hanging. You will need to identify high hanging goals for your career for your 2nd innings; These goals will be ambiguous, will require multi facet skills to achieve, will take long time lap - 3-5 years to achieve and be differently rewarded (e.g. may not be a promotion but a bigger responsibility). 

Talking through lot of people who are in their 2nd innings of their career, what i realized is really 2nd innings is going to be the game play you will be know For & As;  Your grand children are not going to know you as a Software Engineer you were when you started your career in XX company.  So its really worth planning for your 2nd innings.

Thinking Cap ?

I don't think its hard to plan for your 2nd innings, my mantra to get started is asking some questions on an ongoing basis to yourself -

a) What is the high hanging goal I want to target next, how long will it take (should not be promotion, salary hike etc.) ?

b) What is the growth I want to see in myself in next 5 years (should be something like a qualification, new leadership persona for your self, new professional dimension etc.)?

c) What are the things I need to do in a phased manner to achieve my goal ? 

I guess one should ask these questions once every year to themselves and retrospect as they move along playing their 2nd innings. 

                              

                                 Whats in your Thinking Cap on this topic, do share / comment ?