24: One Thing Could Unblock Your Career Advancement This Year

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I'm recording this episode at the very end of October, and if you're anything like me, you might be looking at the calendar right now and feeling a certain weight kind of building up as you realize the end of the year is suddenly looming, like a deadline you weren't quite prepared for.

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And as I've been talking with many of my clients over the past few weeks, I'm noticing a common thread emerging in our conversation.

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There's this sense of anxiety building up around unmet career goals and milestones that seemed so achievable earlier in the year.

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Whether it's that job transition they were planning, the networking they wanted to do, or the promotion they were hoping to position themselves for, suddenly the remaining weeks of the year don't seem like quite enough time to make it all happen.

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Does any of this feel familiar?

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Are you looking at your own goals and timelines and wondering how you got to this time of year so quickly, and more importantly, how you're going to make meaningful progress before the current year slips away entirely?

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There may be just one thing that's blocking your progress.

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Stick around and we'll give it a think.

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If you spend time on social media, you may have seen some buzz recently about something called October Theory.

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And just because I'm recording this at the very end of October doesn't mean it's not still relevant.

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There was actually an article in the Wall Street Journal about it recently, and I'll link to it in the show notes.

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The basic idea is that October presents a unique window of opportunity for reflection, goal setting, or resetting, and picking up new habits.

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And I have to tell you, after years of working with MBAs and ambitious professionals on their career development and advancement, I think there's really something to this.

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Think about it, by the time mid to late November rolls around, we're already getting pulled into that inevitable holiday season vortex.

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You know exactly what I mean.

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Suddenly your calendar starts filling up with work events, there are,"we should get together before the holidays" dinners and drinks with friends, and family obligations start to pile up.

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And let's be honest, there's maybe more than a little semi-panicked online shopping.

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And before you know it you're deep in the thick of it all, barely able to keep up with your regular work let alone make progress on those bigger career goals you might have set for yourself.

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But October, or the beginning of November, it's not too late, there's breathing room, space to step back and evaluate where you are and consider if there's one thing, one roadblock that's been standing in the way of advancing your career as much as you'd like to.

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Here's a story about my own October Theory reset.

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And if I'm being honest, it's stretching into November just a little.

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These past couple of weeks, I finally faced up to a roadblock that had been keeping me from achieving some of the milestones in my own business that I had been planning.

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And that roadblock was the relaunch of my website, careernarratives.com.

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Now, you might be thinking, it's just a website.

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But here's the thing.

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It had become this mental barrier that was affecting everything else in my business.

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Every piece of content I wanted to create, every business development initiative I wanted to pursue, all of it somehow led back to having an online presence that truly represented my work and its impact.

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And after months of letting this hang over my head, I finally made the decision to push aside everything that wasn't absolutely essential and focus intensely on this one goal.

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I spent quite a few multi-hour sessions completely immersed in the work, and finally I was able to hit the launch button.

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And, is the site perfect?

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Not even close.

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Are there still pages I need to publish and elements I want to refine?

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Definitely.

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But here's what's interesting.

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Simply by getting it to a point where it's no longer a mental roadblock, I found this sudden freedom to move forward with all those other projects for my business that weren't getting anywhere.

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And this experience has made me think a lot about what I'm seeing with many of my clients, particularly at this time of year.

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They come to me feeling frustrated about their lack of progress on their career goals, often telling me they can't really start networking or pursue new opportunities until they've updated their resume or LinkedIn profile.

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It sounds reasonable on the surface.

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After all, you want to put your best foot forward, right?

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I wanted the same with my website.

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But here's what I've noticed after years of working with people who are intent on advancing their careers.

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When we dig a little deeper, it's rarely about the resume or LinkedIn profile itself.

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The real roadblock, the thing that's actually keeping them stuck, is that they haven't yet clarified their personal narrative, the story that helps others understand not just what they've done, but who they are professionally and where they're headed.

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It's really similar to the roadblock I faced with my website.

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Just as I found myself hesitating to promote my business without a website that properly represented my work, many of the mid to senior-level MBAs I work with hesitate to put themselves out there because they're not confident in how they're telling their story.

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They might have impressive experience and valuable skills, but if they're not clear on how it all fits together into a compelling narrative, they just get stuck.

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So here's what I want to suggest, especially if you're feeling that end of year pressure around your career goals.

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Take a step back and ask yourself, What's the real roadblock?

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What's the one thing that if you could just get it figured out or done would help clear the way for progress on everything else?

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If you're realizing that it might be about clarifying your personal narrative, and it is for a lot of people, I've got some good news.

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Earlier episodes of this podcast, that's specifically episodes 1, 8, 9, and 10 walk through the key components of building a compelling personal narrative and applying it to your LinkedIn profile.

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And here's the really important part.

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This is exactly the right time to do this work.

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Block out a few hours now, early in November, while you still have that mental space to reflect and think strategically.

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And, if you happen to be listening at another time of year, the situation is really no different.

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Take the time now to reflect before life gets busy.

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It always will, no matter what time of year it is.

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And if you're listening to this podcast episode, then you're probably in the right frame of mind to do this type of work.

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The key really is to approach this with the right mindset.

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Just like I had to accept that my website didn't need to be perfect to be effective, your personal narrative doesn't need to be polished to perfection before you can start using it.

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What it needs to be is authentic and clear enough to give you the confidence to move forward.

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I'm curious, what's your equivalent of my website situation?

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What's that one thing you need to focus on now before we get caught up in the holiday season craziness?

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Maybe it's finally setting aside time to clarify your personal narrative.

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Or, maybe it's something else that's been a roadblock, holding you back from advancing your career.

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Once you figure it out, the time to work on it is now.

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If this episode or this podcast has been helpful, please subscribe or follow it and share it with a friend or colleague.

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And coming up, I'm working on a series about executive recruiters and executive search firms.

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See you soon.