The three essential steps to designing a 50-year career
Longevity in the workplace demands physical fitness, mental toughness, and intellectual honesty
Australia has revised its retirement age to 67, much on the lines of Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, and even France, after protests. The argument is that if people are living longer and healthier, they must contribute to the economy more actively.
The situation is exacerbated by the lower fertility rates in many of these countries. Japan is emblematic of this phenomenon, where roughly 14% of its workforce is 65 and older. The employment rate in the 60+ age group is one of the highest in the world: 65-69 years (52%), 70-74 years (34%), and above 75 years (11.4%). And the fertility rate hovers at 1.2, one of the lowest amongst the world’s developed countries. It is a different story altogether that Japanese can pull this off owing to their healthy lifestyles, food habits and social structure.
As for India, people are either dreaming of retiring at 40 or not tiring until 70. With the shifting financial goalposts, spiralling cost of healthcare, and mushrooming avenues of spending money, 60 has become a number.
In the private sector, 60 is the time to look at greener pastures; in the government sector, 60 is the age to go private; and in the world of entrepreneurship, 60 is the time of arrival.
When careers are long, they must be crafted diligently, instead of being left to chance or somebody’s benevolence. Next to sleeping, career takes up most of your living life. So, the question remains: how do you design an enduring career? Be physically fit, mentally tough, and intellectually honest.
Let’s begin with physical fitness. It’s difficult to conceive of a leader who doesn’t exude energy.
Fitness Matters
If you are looking at a career spanning 40-50 years, physical fitness is a must. That starts by treating your body as an asset, and not a resource. You do this by taking care of what you eat, how much you sleep, and respecting your daily constitutional. During your 20s and 30s, your body can take the abuse, but as you age your body recoils, for the body keeps the score. A healthy body is the foundation on which a tough mind is built.
Mental toughness doesn’t mean emotionlessness but instead refers to being emotionally intelligent. Being mentally tough is in not hurting others deliberately, but also not being hurt by others. As you climb the corporate ladder, you will need to take unpopular decisions.
You should be willing to polarize your audience, take insults head on, and operate from a position of loneliness and yet appear in control. Minus physical fitness, you can’t exhibit emotional intelligence, as you would operate from preservation mode. Mental toughness comes from knowing your non-negotiables, being selective about the fights you wish to pick, and swallowing your pride when the stakes are low.
Mind Games
Once you are physically fit and mentally tough, you can afford to be intellectually honest. Sans the first two attributes, you feel insufficient and your decisions stem from a fixed mindset.
Being intellectually honest is to know what you don’t know. It’s the antithesis of the fake-it-till-you-make-it philosophy. You don’t fake it, you build it.
Intellectual honesty calls for uncovering your blind spots and working towards building competencies that you deem are vital in the long run. This is especially true during the midlife crisis, when you feel stuck at your highest level of incompetence, and it’s your intellectual honesty that can set you on to a newer trajectory—a second career.
Since careers are long, work is multifaceted, and expectations, both internal and external, are high, it’s imperative to lead the path with clarity and courage, and these attributes hinge on being physically fit, mentally tough and intellectually honest.
Pavan Soni is the founder of Inflexion Point, an innovation and strategy consultancy and author of Design Your Thinking.
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