I guess you know Tony Robbins. He is possibly the best coach in the world. He has coached very powerful people (elite athletes, managers of the best companies, actors and even presidents of the United States). He manages more than 100 companies, invoices more than 9,000 million dollars a year and, at 66 years old, continues to fill stadiums with the energy of a teenager. Something must be known about how to manage the life stages.
According to him, life is divided into SEASONS OF 20 YEARS (approximately):
- Spring (0-21 years): The season of learning and care. Everything blooms and almost everything comes out well because you are protected.
- Summer (22-42 years): The test season. Hard work, scorching sun and the fable of the ant and the cicada at its best. This is where you sweat to find your way.
But, FROM THE AGE OF 42, WE ENTER AUTUMN. And watch out, because this is where most people make the wrong map. Surely, if you’re reading this post, you’re in your professional “autumn” or close to it.
If you did your homework in summer, autumn is not the beginning of the end; IT’S TIME FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY. IT IS THAT STAGE WHERE, WITH MUCH LESS EFFORT, YOU CAN ACHIEVE A MUCH GREATER IMPACT THAN WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER.
WHY?
Because now:
- You recognize patterns: You no longer go blindly; you know where the hit is coming from before it happens.
- You are strategic: You know that brute force does not win battles, intelligence does.
- You are more elegant: There is a magnetism in those who know who they are and what they do.
“Autumn” is the stage in which, statistically, most people earn more money. But there is a catch. To succeed in this vital autumn, you must recognize a fundamental pattern: your entire career is not a list of jobs, it is an asset.
YOU HAVE TWO OPTIONS:
- Continue to believe that your value is reduced to your resume. You will continue depending on other people’s structures or a business that absorbs your life, doing things that no longer fill you.
- Capitalize on your knowledge. Turn your experience into a solid personal brand that transcends the company you work for. Create something that depends on your criteria, not on your sitting hours.
HOW YOU MANAGE THIS ASSET WILL NOW DEPEND ON YOUR WINTER (62-82 YEARS), that stage of real leadership where you no longer need external validation because you are the referent.
As a consultant and trainer, I observe every day incredible professionals, with great trajectories, who are sitting on a gold mine and don’t know it. They think that “it’s too late” when they are in the perfect season to shine.
In our professional “autumn” is when we can focus more on our life. Maybe until now you didn’t know how to join the dots. You no longer have that excuse.
“Professional autumn is not the end of the road, but the moment to collect the harvest of your efforts.”
Do you feel that you are taking advantage of your professional “autumn” or are you working as if it was summer?
