Book 244 - A Year of Magical Learning (Part 1/2)

Reflection Title: I’m in a Cul-de-Sac!

Book – The Dip: The Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit and When to Stick by Seth Godin (Part 1 of 2)

Book Description:

According to bestselling author Seth Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you'll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security. Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you're a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you're in a Dip that's worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.

Reflection:

Confession time – I’m mediocre at my current job.

It pains me to write that because I’m such a competitive person, but it is the truth. Many a times in my career to date, I’ve been the best of the best at what I do because I was passionate about it, I cared about my performance, and I wanted to be the best. In these previous roles, I pushed myself to get past the dip until I could look at everyone around me and say to myself, I’m world class at this job and one of the best at what I do. I don’t know why I felt I needed to accomplish this (which is a different problem), but I did because something inside of me wouldn’t let me quit until I could safely say that I was “the best”.

This same feeling just isn’t there in my current role, and I know it.

When I decided to originally take on the challenge of this job, I had different intentions in mind of what I wanted to accomplish in this role and how long I wanted to be in it. I never came into this role wanting to be the best. I came to this company to learn from the best in the business, to see how culture scales at a company of 80,000 people, and then to maybe try to branch out on my own and start my own venture.

I was well on my way to accomplishing that task and then…life happened. Emilia happened, Luca happened, and fast forward almost 4 years and here we are today where I find myself smack in the middle of a cul-de-sac going nowhere fast. It is a dead end and I know it, my boss knows it, and even my bosses boss knows it.

I’m a firm believer that you are where you are at a particular time and place for a reason. I think I was at my current company during this time of my life preciously because I didn’t need to care about being the best right now. I needed a place that was supportive, where I got to be around other world class professionals in my field, where I could learn, and where I could be somewhere for the first time in my career that had the resources and infrastructure in place to help me when I needed it the most in my life while going through 2 of the hardest situations I’ve ever experienced in having 2 children in extended NICU stays in the same year, and tragically losing 1 of them.

Now that all of that is in the past, I find myself staring squarely in the face of “the dip” in this job and I have a decision to make. Do I want to commit to being a world class software sales professional and fight to be the best, or do I want to quit?

In my past roles, when faced with this exact decision I always choose to fight and push through the dip to achieve the results I thought I wanted. While I always accomplished this, I sadly had no idea why I was doing what I was doing. This time, this decision is different when staring at the dip. It is different because this time around I have a purpose, my values, and a mission that I’m on for the rest of my life to guide my decision making.

The question I find myself asking this time is does this role and this company get me to where I want to go? Does this role get me through “the dip” on my lifetime mission that I care about more than anything in this world?

The answer to that is easy…NO!

It is time to quit, and I couldn’t be more at peace with the decision because I know exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing. I don’t want to be a world class sales professional; I want to be a world class leader, coach, mentor, culture builder, and Chris Sears that I can be with my short, precious time I have left on this Earth.

What a relief to get that out of my mind and out into the world. Now it is time to find my next adventure that aligns with the Living for 2 mission. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Question: What do you want to be world class at in this life? Are you on that path or do you find yourself in a cul-de-sac?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Dip: The Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit and When to Stick by Seth Godin