Not only impact
Adding motivation to our career map
Have you ever reached a point in your career where you realized the next logical role just…wasn’t something you were interested in doing?
Or maybe you spent years climbing the ladder only to have your priorities shift, and suddenly the job you had worked so hard to get was no longer the right fit for your life.
When I first put together the map your career river exercise, I used impact as the measure of career growth. It’s clear, though, that impact is only part of the story. So let’s revamp our river maps by expanding our definition of progress.
It starts with getting in tune with our motivations using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Here’s how Indeed describes the theory first proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow:
This hierarchy—also referred to as Maslow’s theory of motivation—includes five levels of human needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
Within each level are specific needs that allow for an individual to feel fulfilled. The hierarchy is often depicted as a pyramid to represent the need to fulfill the lower levels before an individual can move up to the next level. Without fulfillment on the level below in the hierarchy, a person cannot progress because they will lack the motivation to do so.
What has professional advancement meant to you? In general terms, this can follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, advancing from meeting basic needs up to fulfillment. Perhaps initially you were concerned mostly with getting a paycheck, and once that need was met you became more interested in how your work contributed to your sense of purpose.
What you consider career progress will change over time. As you look at your career journey as a river, you’ll consider how each role fits within this hierarchy at that moment for you.
For instance, the map above shows how I moved from my entry-level job at Role 1, which fulfilled my basic requirements to get a paycheck, up to an editor-level role where I enjoyed the meaningful work of being part of the newsroom. My third role, however, saw me leaving that sense of belonging and purpose to step away from the grind and regain some control over how much time I was spending at work. I also, frankly, needed more safety in terms of job security, as I now had a growing family.
What each of these needs looks like will change over time. This is what we’re so often missing when we focus merely on climbing the ladder. Belonging, success, self-fulfillment — that may mean something different when you’re 25 compared to 35 or 55. And with the changes we’ll all experience over our professional lives, we may switch between levels, sometimes needing to address our basic needs before advancing further.
It is OK to find yourself longing for something different. It is OK to reach a certain level of your career and realize that fulfillment lies elsewhere. Our progress, however full of twists and turns it may be, should flow toward realizing our potential in our work and our lives.
Happy navigating,
Bridget