Changing Goals: Why The Hell Not?
Changing your goals isn't quitting
Scott Galloway's writing in Algebra of Wealth inspired me “It’s okay to say, I’ve changed, this isn’t my goal anymore”
Lately, I've been rethinking my career priorities after exiting my last role. A growing sense of unease prompted this. I worried that my technical skills were stagnating. As a director, I've enjoyed managing and leading teams, but I've realised that my passion for management needs a refresh on top of being a relatively new dad and working at startups can be an emotional rollercoaster; in one of my previous roles, I had 5 managers in 2 years; this meant as a leader, I had to adapt to these person expectations constantly; some I hit off the park, some managers couldn’t give a fig about data engineering or care to understand it and somewhere just too busy. Sometimes, it felt natural; sometimes, it felt like paddling with a single paddle, mostly in circles.
I long for a place to seamlessly blend my technical skills with leadership, although I’m starting to feel that I’m more like Dorthy from The Wizard of Oz.
Rather than direct management, I've focused on my work's technical and leadership aspects. I'm looking more into data architecture with a new challenge, and I have done this several times in my roles. I lead a demanding project, which has renewed my sense of purpose. I love digging into challenging problems. My client is huge in finance—it deals in many billions. So, it's fun to learn and stretch this part of my brain.
Reassessing my career path and striving for continual improvement is crucial for me. I've always been driven to excel and rank myself among the top professionals in my field. I've understood that this demands my transformation, change, and stretching myself.
Management is undergoing rapid transformation ( see massive cuts). I must adapt to these changes to stay relevant, so my goals must change.
I’ve been doing some gnarly data modelling and system design for clients recently. This has reignited my passion for technical strategy, and I want to dedicate more time to this area. I've been reminded recently that career paths are rarely straight, and I've bounced around quite a few over the years.
It's okay to change goals as I grow and learn.
This new chapter in my career is not about giving up my management experience. It's about combining it with my technical skills. This will make me more well-rounded. By doing so, I'm confident that I'll stay competitive in my field and unlock new opportunities for growth and development.
To help me do this, I’ve recently been doing Josh Watzkin MIQ to help me focus on myself and the million things going on in my monkey brain.
1 – Find your MIQ. At the end of your day, reflect on what the ONE most important question is for you to answer in your life right now. What’s the question that, if answered, would create the most significant positive impact in your life? At any moment, only ONE question is essential for us to solve. Identifying it is half of the battle.
2—Write your MIQ down. I do this on my notion page, but you can use anything like paper; I do this when I’m too lazy to find my phone.
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3—Stop thinking about the question. Once you’ve written it down, you invite your mind to let go of wrestling with the challenge for the rest of the day. Do your best to stay present for the rest of your day's activities.
4 – After a night’s sleep, free-write your question first thing in the morning ( morning pages). Your mind is the sharpest and most precise. Do a brain dump after your subconscious has connected the dots about your MIQ. I often find a challenge that once felt intimidating, scary, or complex but now feels more simple and accessible to face.
5—Use your journaling to make a decision. If a decision needs to be made, use your journaling to inform it. Trust your gut. Most of the time, you can pick a path right then and there, and overthinking rarely does you any good.
Resources
Why not try MIQ's most important question; Journaling to Get Clarity on Your Most Vexing Challenges - Josh Watzkin