Will there be enough? Maybe we don’t use those exact words, but that is THE question all of us ask ourselves at some point, perhaps many times, during our lives.
The question can apply to the basic essentials: food, water, clothing, and shelter. Sadly, way too many people around the world are forced to confront “will there be enough” each day to survive. While that’s a heart-breaking tragedy, my purpose here is to explore the question from the perspective of our careers.
From a professional standpoint, “will there be enough” is about landing the job, getting the promotion, or closing the big deal. The question itself generates significant stress and anxiety because asking it is an inherent acknowledgement that there may not be enough. Often there is only that one job, promotion or deal. And if it goes to someone else, our suspicions are confirmed: there isn’t enough for us.
At its core it is a question of scarcity, doubt, and fear. There would be no reason to ask if we knew there was enough to go around. In one sense that’s a good thing. Negative emotions can be harnessed for positive ends. This idea that we are competing in a marketplace and that outcomes are not guaranteed incentivizes hard work, risk-taking, innovation, and creativity. It has for me, as I’m sure it has for you and many others.
No proponent of a free market system would want an all-powerful arbiter deciding what “enough” looks like for each of us professionally. We want the opportunity to define it for ourselves. This ability to choose cuts to the heart of what personal freedom is all about
A complicating factor of this freedom, however, is our tendency to define “enough” based on short term thinking. In the moment landing that job, getting that promotion, or closing that deal can feel all-or-nothing. We convince ourselves that if we don’t get what we want immediately, our hopes and dreams will be thwarted.
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The fear of missing out can be compounded by our nature as human beings to measure ourselves relative to others. Because there is always someone who has more than us it is easy to feel like what we have isn’t enough. Social media only pours gasoline on the FOMO
At a macro level, how we choose to answer the question reflects the stories we tell ourselves about our careers. “Will there be enough” is the very skeleton of our personal narratives. This is hugely important because the stories we tell ourselves drive our destinies.
Tell yourself that you aren’t management material, and you never will be. Tell yourself that your idea will never work, and you won’t have the guts to try. Tell yourself you won’t land that big deal, and no one will buy from you. Tell yourself the job you hate is the best you can do, and you’ll condemn yourself to years of misery.
So, while it’s true that feelings of scarcity and fear can fuel our ambition, looking at our career path as nothing more than a cut-throat, endless competition for finite rewards poses inherent dangers.
It is possible that we get so lost in the competition for our share of “enough” that we discount the power of creativity and imagination to expand our horizons. In the moment getting that job or promotion can feel like the only path forward, but such tunnel vision blinds us to other career possibilities we never considered. Maybe that job we covet isn’t all its cracked up to be. Maybe missing out on that deal opens the door to something better.
Moreover, scarcity mindsets are addicting. It’s very easy to go from thinking there isn’t enough in the moment to believing there’s never enough, period. When that takes hold, it only leads to dissatisfaction and misery. Eventually we become a shell of ourselves, our imaginations stunted and sapped, leaving us unable see any path to fulfillment or satisfaction in our work.
The inventors, entrepreneurs, business people, and creators we admire got there not by obsessing whether there was enough for them. They made a conscious decision to ignore the voices in their heads stoking their worst fears and chose instead to adopt an abundance mentality. Make no mistake, they embraced and welcomed competition, but considered themselves creators first. And one can’t create anything without an abundance mentality. You can’t make something that didn’t exist before without first being open to the idea that more is possible.
The famous George Bernard Shaw quote captures the spirit of abundant thinking perfectly: “Some see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.”
To be clear, being creative isn’t just for so-called creative people. To believe that is nothing more than a cop out. Creativity is a learned skill, a mindset that can be developed through practice. All of us have it in us to think abundantly and create no matter the type of work we do. There is no requirement to be an inventor or entrepreneur to approach your career with this mentality. It starts with taking ownership of our career narratives and a willingness to look beyond our immediate circumstances.
Ultimately, there’s no avoiding the “will there be enough” question. It’s survival instinct, hard-wired into the human brain from the dawn of humanity. But that doesn’t mean our careers need to be defined by it. The stories we write for ourselves will be much better if we learn to think abundantly and start asking the better question: how do I create something more?
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Welcome to Peak Years
Loyal readers of the previous iteration of this blog, For What It’s Worth, who missed my recent announcement on social media may be surprised by the new name and logo. After more than four years and hundreds of posts, I decided it was time to mix things up.
Over the past year or so I’ve written more about the opportunities and challenges of being a middle-aged professional. I’ve heard from so many people who, like me, are navigating the major personal and professional transitions that come during this period of our lives.
The emptying of the nest.
Taking care of aging parents.
Struggling to keep up with massive changes in the workplace.
And the lingering disenchantment (or sometimes outright hostility) towards us by our employers and industries.
It’s easy to lose sight of all we have going for us in middle age in the face of these challenges. Yet, these are our peak years, the time we can make our biggest impact. The peak years should be a time for optimism, trying new things, and leveraging our considerable strengths and networks to create compelling next acts in our lives.
I believe so strongly in this idea that I’ve decided to focus more on the topic and rename my blog Peak Years. (I hope you like my new AI-driven logo.) It’s a rich terrain to explore, one that I know so many of you think about every day. I hope my younger readers also find Peak Years to be a relevant, unfiltered glimpse into what lies ahead. And I will continue to include some random thoughts about the worlds of media and marketing.
Starting this week, I will publish every Thursday. But subscribers will get Peak Years delivered free to their inbox a day early, on Wednesdays.
My thanks to all my subscribers. Your support, feedback and encouragement means more than I can express. If you like Peak Years, please forward it to a friend or two when you get chance. Regardless, I look forward to sharing the journey with you.
Embrace the peak years!