Written by: Vickie Sullivan | September 13, 2022
Get Ready for Your Next Adventure
Heads up to all you strivers out there: The ambition you needed for past success could be your downfall now if not managed properly.
In your peak years, business success looks like great P&L reports, a big spotlight, and adulation from strangers. The hard truth many people don’t prepare for: This party gets harder and harder to put on. At some point, that ground-breaking innovative phase of your success ends. It either paves the way for the next wave of success or for a lifetime of heavy disappointment.
Social scientist Arthur Brooks explores this transition in his best-selling book From Strength to Strength. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak earlier this year, and what he said made me realize that a person’s definition of success changes as they succeed.
Prepare for Your Next Adventure
Here are two big crossroads that pave the way for your next big adventure:
• From opportunity to discernment. During your peak years, growth is about grabbing all the opportunity you have before you. It’s about saying yes to everything, building capacity for volume. The next phase of success is about discernment. Instead of quantity, opt for quality. This calls for changing the standards of the projects you take on. Replace breadth for depth.
• From relevance to fulfilled. Brooks’ distinction between “fluid intelligence” and “crystallized intelligence” points the way to your next stage of success. The latter—defined as the ability to use knowledge learned from the past—opens the door to successful endeavors that weren’t considered in the past. The key: Give up your definition of relevance.
Listen: What to Let Go of to Get Ready for Your Next Adventure
The big takeaway: Nothing, including your achievements, lasts forever. But they can be the launch pad for new, cooler work. Instead of upping your ante to diminishing returns, look around and find other avenues to apply your brilliance.
Perhaps the gift of creating what you wanted back then is that you can change what you strive for right now.
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