When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

Maybe it's because of HR. Every year when I get to gold, silver, and silver, there are always some friends around me who come to me to inquire about work problems.

Among them, there is a friend named A Liang, 35 years old, his problem is actually very common, many people have it.

A Liang said that he was preparing to change jobs recently due to the poor management of the company. He submitted dozens of resumes and interviewed several companies, but the results were unsatisfactory.

I didn’t like the interviews, either because the company was small, or because the development prospects were mediocre; and those who wanted to go were either rejected directly or waited for a long time for notification…

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve a high level and a low level. Aliang feels very uncomfortable and at a loss, and does not know where his career will go.

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

01 What kind of occupational state is "high or low"?

We often say that someone is not good enough, but what kind of professional status is this?

I think the popular understanding is to take one's own ability as the basis, to be unwilling to do things that are lower than one's own ability, and to be unable to do things that are beyond one's ability, thus making one's choice in a dilemma. level.

People who are not high enough and not low enough, mainly have the following manifestations:

1. Very ambitious

This realistic society is getting more and more impetuous, and few people can calm down and fulfill their dreams.

I have interviewed many newcomers in the workplace. Their expectations for entering the company are that it is best to do big projects and move to key positions as soon as they come up. But for some tedious, daily, and boring work, I never look down on it, as if this is not what I should do.

A person who is accustomed to lofty ambitions has no future at all.

2. Covet comfort

A friend who is in the venture capital circle has read countless people and has opened more than a dozen large and small companies. As long as they can make money, they will do small businesses such as fast food delivery.

He has also seen many entrepreneurs who are not so fast, but they can be successful even if they are diligent. So he has a principle for recruiting people: you can be stupid, but you can't be lazy.

Covetousness will destroy a person, and we often don't want to think about or dare not think about our future, just because we don't want to admit it, continue to be lazy, and what awaits us will be a poor and sad life.

3. Mental imbalance

There is often such a person around who thinks that other people's promotion and salary increase are due to the favoritism and personal friendship of the company's leaders, rather than fairness.

There is always a kind of hatred for those around who are worse than you; but for those who are not as good as yourself, there is a arrogant sense of superiority.

4. There is no clear career plan

A 25-year follow-up study shows that 3% of people with clear and long-term career plans have made unremitting efforts to become the top successful people from all walks of life according to the plan; 10% of people with clear and short-term plans live in the middle and upper classes of society, 60% of people with vague plans live in the middle and lower classes of society, and 27% of people with no plans at all live at the bottom of society.

Of course, there are factors such as opportunities and resources that cause this so-called class distinction, but a more important factor is personal career planning.

If you don't know where you're going, usually you're not going anywhere, and a life without design is a discounted life.

Five, do things for three minutes of heat

Jack Ma said: "Today is cruel, tomorrow is even more cruel, the day after tomorrow is beautiful, but the vast majority of people die tomorrow night without seeing the sun of the day after tomorrow!"

On the first day, you will happily say that you like the job and want to stick to it; on the second day, you may say that the job is not good or bad, and so on, and so on. I would like to ask, where did the persistence you want go?

6. Refuse to study

From childhood to adulthood, from ignorance to wisdom, from being a person to doing things, there are things that people can't learn in their entire life.

But there are always some people in the workplace who refuse to learn new things in the society, refuse to learn knowledge outside the post, and refuse to learn the experience of excellent people... And this has nothing to do with age, position, or origin.

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

02 Why do you fall into the vicious circle of "doing too much"

Many middle-aged people in the workplace like A Liang are still throbbing with their youthful dreams, but they are confused about their future development.

"I want to be my own boss!"

"I want to achieve financial freedom!"

"If I had money now, what would I do..."

Everything does not conform to reality but is constantly fantasizing, so it is so bumpy, working and living in contradictions, the so-called "experience" is only an increase in age, looking back, those who you originally dismissed People have lived better than you, but they have become a situation where they are too high or too low.

So, why do you fall into the vicious circle of "no high or low"?

American psychologists proposed the "Johari Window" which seems to explain this phenomenon (see Figure 1):

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

figure 1

The Johari window divides human cognition into four windows:

The first window is called the open area, which refers to the part that we know and others know, that is, the self-side with consistent and transparent internal and external knowledge, such as education, height, appearance, place of origin, or some more prominent personality expressions.

The second window is called the blind area, which refers to the part that we do not know, but others understand, such as some of our unconscious actions, habits, and mantras. People are in a specific environment, and their self-awareness is largely restricted by the environment, so people's self-awareness has limitations, such as some advantages and disadvantages, they are not fully aware of, but others are clear saw.

The third window is called the secret area, which refers to the part that we know but others don't know, such as some thoughts and opinions that we don't express, or the privacy and weaknesses that we don't want to let others know.

The fourth window is called the unknown area, which refers to the part that is not clear to others and is not clear to oneself. It belongs to the subconscious part, and its size is difficult to determine. For example, your potential, some people do not stand on the podium, may never know that they can be a trainer.

These four windows are dynamic, and usually the window in the open area is the smallest. That is to say, what we really know about ourselves is far less than the unknown part, which is why many people actually don’t really know what they can do, leading to biased self-perception.

"It's too good to be too good", it may be that there are too many hidden areas, and many good ideas are not shown in action, so others don't know how powerful you are; or they overestimate their own strength, others see your Blind area, and you don't notice it yourself.

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

03 What to do with people who are "high and low"

"Yue Fu Song" says: "You can't come from high, you can't come from low."

Those who are underachieving and underachieving are always looking forward to better opportunities, but they don’t know that they can’t seize the good ones, and even those opportunities that were underachieving once were lost.

In the workplace, most of the successful people you envy have come over step by step, with grassroots experience, and no one can reach the sky in one step.

In today's era of quick success and quick success, how should people who "do not succeed if they do not succeed" change their destiny?

1. Know yourself correctly

"Know thyself" was originally the motto on the lintel of the temple of Delphi in Greece, and Socrates took it as a declaration of his philosophical principles.

Whether you can truly know yourself, understand what you are suitable for, and discover a certain talent that you may have hidden for many years, in my opinion, may be more important than dogmatic learning.

To better understand yourself, you can use a “SWOT” analysis (see Figure 2):

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

figure 2

Through SWOT tools, you can help yourself analyze internal strengths and weaknesses and external environmental factors. Based on the clarification of this information, you can focus on improving your strengths, improving weaknesses, reducing the risk of threats, and taking advantage of various opportunities for maximum benefit.

2. Clarify your career goals

We often say, have a purpose in life. However, the vast majority of people, after entering the workplace, will not do this.

People with clear goals are more determined, they are less disturbed in the development process, they are very clear about what they want, and when faced with choices, they will be more effective in making more correct choices for themselves.

How to set goals:

1. List goals that meet the SMART criteria.

2. List the benefits of the above goals.

3. Possible difficulties and obstacles, and corresponding solutions.

4. Required skills and knowledge.

5. Objects who must cooperate in order to achieve their goals.

6. The target completion date.

What I need to emphasize here is the "SMART" principle (see Figure 3). Only by properly setting and managing goals can we move closer to our dreams.

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

image 3

3. Improve your practical ability

In today's society, the high level is not enough, and it has gradually become an excuse for some people who do not go to work. But I don't think the word itself has any derogatory connotations. I just want to tell you that you can either put down your body or improve yourself.

Here, share the working method of "PDCA" (see Figure 4):

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

Figure 4

Phase P: the target planning phase, including the determination of policies and objectives and the formulation of activity plans. It should be noted that no matter what the plan is, there must be a backup plan, which is what we often call Plan B.

Stage D: It belongs to the implementation stage, and the main test is your execution ability. According to the action plan and layout, take effective actions and strive to achieve the desired goals.

Stage C: It belongs to the effect inspection stage, that is, to confirm whether the implementation plan has achieved the goal. If the expected results do not occur, it should be confirmed whether the countermeasures are implemented strictly according to the plan.

Stage A: It belongs to the adjustment stage, processing the results of the summary inspection, affirming and standardizing the successful experience; summarizing the lessons of failure and attracting attention.

PDCA is like climbing stairs. Every time a cycle is performed, a part of the problem is solved, the work is advanced one step, and the practical ability is improved one step.

When a person reaches middle age, it is difficult to achieve high or low: what is the way out for your career?

write at the end

I remember that in the recent popular TV series "Everything is Good", there is such a plot:

After Su Mingzhe encountered the sudden change of unemployment, this middle-aged man, old and young, was completely incapable of coping. He was immersed in the blind self-confidence that he had successfully built up in the past, unable to extricate himself, unable to let go of the figure of a graduate of a famous school, and putting himself in an increasingly embarrassing and passive situation...

I think Su Mingzhe is a microcosm of the workplace. When a person reaches middle age, it is impossible to achieve a high level or a low level. If you don’t change yourself, no one can change you. Once a person is willing to fall, all misfortunes will follow.

So, find the right direction, then keep working hard on the path that suits you, and make a little progress every day. After a few years, you can walk in front of others with confidence.