Coaching Insights: Is This Still the Progress You Want?

One of the things I notice in coaching conversations is that people don't always start questioning their direction because something has gone wrong. Typically, things have gone well for a long time.

They've built a successful career, taken opportunities as they've come along and assumed greater responsibility.  Each step has created the opportunity for another.

That's a good thing.  Ambition and momentum can take us a long way.

But they can also make it easy to keep moving without periodically asking: What does progress actually mean to me now?

When the next step becomes the obvious step

Most careers aren't the result of one carefully mapped-out plan.

We make decisions along the way.  Take the promotion.  Accept the opportunity.  Work towards the next target.  Build greater financial security.

Over time, those decisions create a direction.  And when things are working, the next step can feel obvious because it follows naturally from the one before it.

But while the path may remain relatively consistent, our circumstances don't necessarily stay the same.  What we want from work can evolve. 

Family circumstances change.  Financial security may carry less urgency than it once did.  Flexibility, autonomy, contribution or being more present in other areas of life may start to matter in ways they didn't before.

That doesn't mean our previous goals were wrong.  They may have been exactly right for that stage of our lives.

But it can be worth checking whether they still represent what we want now.

Two different questions

There's a subtle but important difference between asking: Am I making progress?

and: Is this still the progress I want to be making?

The first measures how well we're progressing along an established path.

The second asks whether that path is still one we're consciously choosing.

I see this in people who are doing well professionally but beginning to think about what they want from the next five or ten years.

The question isn't necessarily whether they can take the next step.  It's whether the obvious next step is still the one they want.

And sometimes the answer will be yes.

Reassessing what progress means doesn't necessarily require a career change, nor does it mean becoming less ambitious or rejecting the choices that brought us here.

It may simply confirm that we're still heading in the direction we want to go.

Ambition gives us momentum.  But occasionally, it's worth checking where that momentum is taking us.

So, a question to ask yourself: When did I last stop to consider what progress actually means to me now?

And perhaps: Is the next thing I'm working towards something I've consciously chosen, or has it simply become the next thing?