Episode 53 - The 4 Levels of Careerist Part 4: The Established
Hey Rebels! Welcome back to our 4 part series on the 4 levels of a careerist. Today we're talking bout the 3rd level, The Established Level. This level is the end result of the Hustler Level. It's often the place where, when women arrive, they start to really question why they're there. Once they're at or near the top of that ladder they diligently climbed, they begin to panic a bit, wondering if this is all there is and if they can do something else.


If you missed the episodes on level 1, the Drifter, and Level 2, the Hustler, go back and check those out. There are subtle differences between the four levels, and you must know where you're at to build a bridge to where you want to go.Â


So let's get to it.Â


Once you reach the Established level you've been grinding your way through, often on autopilot, it's not uncommon to look around and wonder, "how did I get here?"


You've been hustling in your career for about 15-20 years now, are making a significant income, you're being invited to sit on boards, speak on company and industry panels, present at conferences on behalf of your organization, and are being honored and awarded for all your hard work and expertise. So, to borrow a lyric from the animated Prince of Egypt, "you're playing with the 'big boys now,' and to everyone around you, you've arrived, you've made it.Â


But at this level, you're also deep within the midlife pivot. Psychologist Erik Erikson developed the 8 stages of psychosocial or human development. He maintained that throughout their lifespan, individuals would go through a psychosocial crisis that could create a positive or negative outcome in their development. In the midlife pivot, we're in what's called the generativity vs. stagnation stage. Generativity is about making our mark on the world. Creating or implementing things that will outlast us and create a positive change in the world that others can benefit from. If we're stagnant, however, we feel unproductive and possibly disconnected from our contribution to our community or the world. In stagnation, we risk feeling regret as we look back over our lives and wonder about what we created and what we're leaving behind.Â


To put this in context, if you're at the Established Level in midlife, you may feel a crisis of consciousness. A calling to do something different, something more. To veer off the course you've been following and explore the road less traveled. While you're in the midlife pivot, your professional identity has become your most significant identity, and it's challenging to think about taking on a different one. In addition, you're literally in the middle of two generations, your kiddos, and aging parents. And at this stage, that whisper you heard (and maybe have been ignoring) at the Hustle Level now demanding your attention.


You're starting to think deeper and more purposeful about where you are in your career, what you're doing, and the contributions and impact you want to make. You're intuitively figuring out what no longer matters to you and are beginning to wonder what does anymore. Today it's not so much about people pleasing or external validation; it's more about dealing with the idea that "you've got it so good," or "you've finally figured it out," why make a change now? Why upset the apple cart? After all, you've developed expertise in your work or industry, and it would be ridiculous to start over and try something else.Â


At least that's the limiting thought or belief…that you're too old, too established, and it's crazy to start over. The truth is, all that is a myth; it's bullshit. But once again, we've bought into society's ideas of what it means to age or be an older person in midlife. That it's time to wind down in life instead of revving up to something to do something new! But remember Erikson stages…. that's not true. At this stage in your life and with your many gifts and experiences, you're never starting over; you're merely pivoting into something new.


In their book How Women Rise, authors Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith discuss "overvaluing expertise." When I first read it, I was like huh, but as I continued reading, I could see they weren't against gaining expertise, just against acquiring it above all else because the danger of overvaluing expertise is that it's an excellent strategy for keeping the job you have but not a useful strategy in positioning you for what's next.


That's why my program, Fearless, emphasizes mastering and owning your natural gifts, talents, and genius and not just education and experience. When you're focused on those things, it's like wearing blinders to any other potential opportunity to utilize what you have to offer the world.Â


In the book, they say, "it's only natural that women would want to become experts at what they do since it's how women earned their spot at the table in the first place, especially if you're in a male-dominated career… and so you put enormous effort into learning every aspect of your job and assuring your work is letter-perfect, which feels proactive to you, but it just puts you on an endless treadmill of overworking and overcommitting to an employer or position that's ultimately limiting you. Meanwhile, men are doing their jobs well enough and spending their time building relationships and visibility that will allow them to climb to new and even different levels in their careers.Â


While you've been on autopilot, keeping your head down, going after those external rewards, you forget to take the time necessary to figure out what you wanted, to foster your values and your dreams, and take risks and go after opportunities in your career that moved you off your ladder and into new and exciting pastures. Whether it was a fear, imposter syndrome, or a lack of self-confidence that had you focus on proving yourself and showing that you deserved the seat at the table you got, the problem is now that you're at the Established level, you feel afraid and unprepared to make any move other than the moves you've already been making. Even though you feel compelled to do so.


And that's the struggle at this level…and that's where I find most clients when they come to me. Stuck at what I call…. the Good Enough Zone.


I've talked before about the Motivational Triad and how the brain is designed with these three principle motivations: avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy or put out the least effort, which in other words, means stay in your comfort zone. So, in a sense, our principal motivation is to sit in the Good Enough Zone.Â


I mean, it's easy to buy into the myth that "Hey, I'm doing pretty good, and 'pretty good' is good enough, right." Or "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't." The problem is good enough NEVER lasts. Good enough isn't pandemic proof; it doesn't often survive a divorce or empty-nest syndrome. If it did, we wouldn't have seen that mass upheaval in the post-pandemic workplace and are still experiencing now in "the Great Breakup." That feeling of "good enough" just doesn't last.


And the problem with good enough is that it not only impacts you profoundly, but it also affects your family because you suddenly find yourself unmotivated and uninspired by your work, or the stress of feeling trapped and stuck in your well-defined expertise is stressing you out, and impacting your physical and mental health. And what about your legacy? What about your desire to be more, do more, and make an impact at a greater level? When settling for "good enough," you're not in control of your life or career choices, and you can't have true career freedom. Instead, your career is in control of you.Â


So what do you do?Â


The midlife pivot during the Established level is a precarious dance. You're very conscious of the responsibilities in front of you and secretly daydream about the life and career you could have on the other side of saying YES to yourself. Fear constantly reminds you of all you have to lose and blinds you from seeing the path to the other side of YES. Fear also tells you that you can't change careers or do something else because you haven't built the expertise, so those pathways are no longer available.


To break free from the good enough zone, you've got to reclaim your identity separate from your professional identity. You must reconnect with what makes you unique and incredibly valuable beyond the external accolades, acknowledgments, and rewards. You've got to allow yourself to dream about what's possible and BELIEVE that those dreams are still available to you. You've got to re-story the narrative of your life and career into one that fits not who you've been but who you want to be. You also have to release yourself from the agist paradigms and the societal pressure trying to get you to move out of the way and make room for the next generation as if what you have to offer the world no longer matters.


Julia Child wrote her first cookbook at 50 after serving a career in the military. And it started out as a hobby.


Stan Lee, who wrote many of the Marvel comics, didn't sell his first one until he was 40, and he was in his 70s when the Marvel Universe hit the big screen.


Vera Wang was 40 when they entered the fashion industry.


Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature at 62.


I want you to draw a line across a piece of paper, and on one end, write 0, and at the other, write 100. Now take your age, and mark where it would fall between those two numbers on that line. Now observe how much space there is between your current age and 100. That's how much life you have to live. Are you going to stop now and settle for "good enough?" I sure hope not.
If you're ready to move out of the good enough zone and see all you have to offer at this stage in your life, then reach out to me. Right now, Fearless: the Career Rebel Academy is closed, but I'll drop a link to the waitlist in the show notes. I am, however, offering VIP Accelerators where we can work together over a 2-day intensive to move you out of that good enough zone. I'll also drop a link to apply for one of these accelerators in the chat. I only offer two a month.


Well, that's it for part 3 of our series. Join me next time for the final part of our 4 part series, where I'll talk about what it means to be at the REBEL level.


See you next time, and until then…have an amazingly rebellious week.
