3 Patterns That Helped Me Thrive In My Career

Ever wondered how some people breeze through their careers, while others struggle to even get a hold of their footing? Me too. When I first started out my career, I didn’t know a clue to how corporate companies function, let alone understand how to survive or thrive for that matter. Along the way, as you progress into the years of work, you start to pick up patterns. What are they and why are they any useful? Here’re a few patterns that I’ve picked up along the way that has thankfully helped me create a path (to hopefully success!) in whatever career paths get paved in front of me.

Autonomy… with a safety net

Often enough, when you’re starting out, you wouldn’t have the courage to take on more than what you think you can handle. Here’s where the ‘safety net’ comes into the picture. I’ve had the privilege to have had some great managers that allowed a newbie like me to handle and experience projects that were way out of my league at that time, but they were there to support from the back. This opened up my perspective of managerial skills at that time where I’ve quickly learnt that one of the ways to push or challenge your members beyond what they think they can do is to provide them a ‘safety net’ while pushing them to the forefront to gain massive exposure fast. Allow them to fail, to feel challenged and at times, fearful of the decision that they will make, but not to demotivate or ruin their potential of becoming better than they were. I’ve had managers dictate each and every step of the way, and this results in nothing but cultivating a pure follower mentality where ‘my boss said so’. However, when you give autonomy to a member and tell them that you trust them to pick up the ropes, you create an environment where they take ownership and autonomy of the work. Granted the level of support is there, of course. Your members can swim with the sharks, but you need to be there with a guard ready to save them when the time arises. You’d be pleasantly surprised at what may come out from that!

Use aspiration to drive motivation

And this takes time. Most graduates would come and tell you, “i’ve no idea what I want to be in my working career”. That’s perfectly normal. However, if that remains status quo 5 years later, you have a problem. Aspiration is having the ability to project your vision, no matter how many years later, and having a plan to get there eventually. And aspirations change, with time. But does that mean you shouldn’t have one? Nope. In fact, you need to keep up with your changing aspirations, evaluate them and continue to iterate as you learn. My eventual goal is to start my own business(es). Yes, whether be it doing fractional work, or running a few of my own ideas in different industries. Am I there yet? Far from it. But I’ve plotted it on a timeline that helps me project what I want to achieve in the future, and how I can get there in my journey. That’s how I’ve managed to also stay motivated the way I have been, because I know my eventual aspiration and I need to do XYZ to get there at some point. And I do encourage everyone to have an aspiration in mind because that’s your anchor to motivate yourself further. Remember the times where you’d say “I want to be an astronaut when I grow up” as a kid? Exactly that.

Acceptance is key to survival

Now, what do I mean by this statement? It’s nothing negative, that I can most certainly vouch for. What I mean is that in every work environment you’re in, you’re bound to face challenges that make you feel like it’s not worth it. Let me tell you this: It’s not worth it. But does that mean you simply say I’m done? What I’ve learnt about tougher situations is that you adapt through it and that first starts with acknowledgement of whatever issue it may be. After that, put it into a positive / negative perspective, and decide if its something that you can adapt to in order to make life a little easier. Be it work dynamics, politics, I don’t know, bad toilets even, all these are but attributes that you can take in and decide for yourself if it’s even worth giving it a shot. And if it does, you accept it, find methods and ways to live through it, and guess what? You’ve just leveled up as an individual. There are so many things that I’ve had to accept along the course of my 10 year career so far, but they’ve been proven to be helpful to my journey, one way or another because I don’t simply give it up.

I hope that these few patterns can resonate and will help you continue to grow in your stage of career, whatever it may be, because these have now transformed into my principles in life :)