Acing Act Two
First it was the Feb. 11, 2009, article in the New York Times about what to call people of, ahem, a certain age. In "Goodbye, Spry Codgers, So Long, Feisty Crones," writer Jane Gross noted that The International Longevity Center has suggested in their new stylebook that we avoid the terms elderly, senior citizen, golden years, feisty, spry, feeble, eccentric, senile, and grandmotherly, among others. The age demarcation at which some of these terms might apply felt just a bit too close to home.
Then it was a request from my VP of Technology that I accompany his team to a cutting-edge tech conference in Las Vegas. I'm not a big fan of Las Vegas, didn't want to have to be away from the office for a week, and doubted that I'd learn much from a week focused on emerging technologies, since my area of responsibility at Disaboom.com (my employer) is to head up content development.
Next came the all-day workshop on social media, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, et al, and the role these media are now playing in digital marketing and PR. Familiar with LinkedIn as a career-building tool, I nevertheless couldn't quite connect something like Twitter to serious work. It just didn't seem, well, professional (read: grownup).
So there I was, feeling dissed, cranky, and somewhat resentful about the fact that although my job was supposed to be about creating online content, I was also going to have to learn how to use these silly social media tools… and then I had a birthday. Not a decade-type birthday, but close enough. And I could feel myself sliding down that slippery slope from engaged, curious, enthusiastic professional to defensive, change-resistant, entitled old broad.
So I decided it was time for an attitude reset.
Act Two: From Closed Mind to Open Ideas
In order to "ace Act Two" of my career, I realized that I had to completely reframe how I respond to my professional universe. Instead of thinking of myself as someone at the top of my game, I realized it made more sense to think of myself as someone just starting out in my career, because in fact the LIS world I trained for was now 25 years in the distance.
Because I (as well as pretty much all of my friends) love to work and thrive on its challenges, here's how I'm going to ensure that I can continue to contribute at a high level for the next 25 years:
Understand the strategic benefit of change. Yeah, yeah, I know that change equals opportunity. But the older I get, the more I feel like I'm ready to slow down the rate of change a bit, thank you very much. The comfort of familiarity seems to be a lot more appealing to me than it used to be. So I'm decided to instead focus on creating that familiarity and stability in other areas of my life so I can more easily embrace change in my career.
Know that my initial reaction's likely to be "no," then put it aside and move on to "yes." It's pretty much human nature to resist change, and I've observed that this tendency tends to rise in sync with your age. So similar to the idea "feel the fear but do it anyway," I'm going to go with "know you'll be ticked off, then get over it and get moving." That way I don't waste time or energy on trying to change my initial responses, and can instead focus or improving my subsequent actions.
Seek out opportunities to learn and use new technologies. As part of the generation that didn't grow up with technology, every new communication or IT tech seems to speak a foreign language for me. But letting myself avoid using these tools means that I won't understand what they can do. As a result, I won't be able to contribute ideas, strategies, or solutions. And what fun would that be?
Look for mentors in all the right places. That's probably going to be your younger staffers, or people in other departments, or possibly someone you heard speak at a recent conference. When I was young and just starting out, my mentors were people older and more experienced than I. Now that I myself am the older and more experienced person, I seek out anyone who knows about the stuff I want to learn more about: technology, social media, popular culture, social entrepreneurship, organic gardening, etc. More often than not, these mentors are at least 20 years my junior. Feels a bit strange, but it's also highly entertaining.
Keep a sense of humor. Okay, I've socially humiliated myself on LinkedIn and Twitter a number of times as I attempt to master these tools, and I'm guessing I'm going to do it several more times (at least) in the foreseeable future. I can either be mortified (which will cause me to avoid trying again) or entertain my colleagues with stories of my social faux pas and keep at it. I find a sense of humor is a great tool for keeping both humiliation and one's ego at bay.
Avoid being known as Ms./Mr. Cranky. The other great thing about hanging on to your sense of humor is that it allows you to avoid being known as The Cranky One. I never realized quite how easy it is to move into this persona as we get older and more set in our ways. But it's important to be positive and optimistic if you want people to look forward to working with you instead of dismissing you as a negative and obstructionist old geezer.
Focus on energy and resilience. If you can engage with enthusiasm, bring energy to your work, and model a resilient mind and body, then it doesn't matter how old you are - your spirit is still young, and people will want to work with you. So as I get ready for Act Two of my career, I've given up the flat-abs challenge to instead focus on energy - physical and intellectual - and resilience. Whether stretching your mind or your muscles, doing so will keep you active.
Will these new attitudes enable me to continue to enjoy my career, contribute at a high level, and remain gainfully employed over the next twenty-five years of my career Act Two? No guarantees. But I'm pretty sure that if I don't actively seek to avoid the pitfalls of "aging into obsolescence," my value will diminish like yesterday's hot stock. So might as well get with the program!