3 | Professional Bravery

In a recent conversation, a friend shared an anecdotal observation that "professional bravery" within careers seems to start drying up somewhere in the 40s for many people as the reality of the career slog sets in.

The specific example in the conversation was a pastor counting down the Christmases left before "getting" to call it quits on a career. The countdown had started with 20+ Christmases to go, not 2.

Initially, you might gasp, but I think there are countless other examples of this perspective across every field, and I don't think we need sophisticated research to confirm it.

Innovation and ambition replaced by status quo and not rocking the boat.

Working for a purpose replaced by working for an income.

The flexibility and freedom offered by change replaced by the hypothetical cost and fear of change.

Life circumstances certainly play a role - many of which might be out of our control.

I still think there are at least two things that are always in our control but have a sneaky way of slipping through our hands if we let them.

Slowly losing clarity on the "why" behind what you spend your time doing.

Slowly tethering your lifestyle to a specific, high level of income.

I think the combination of these two things is deadly when it comes to professional bravery.

When we stop the process of editing and refining our "whys" and our lifestyle, it seems like "professional bravery" is going to slowly start to evaporate.