12 Comments

Not surprisingly, Diving Board #2 is newsletter gold. Your writing verve is fun and inspirational.

From ad school through several years at numerous Mpls ad agencies, I spent a ton of time drooling over work others were doing, soaking up anything that resembled mentorship, emulating first, innovating later, and just caring so damn much about what everyone else thought about me and my work. I found myself motivated by advertising awards. In fact, I've got quite a bit of multi-colored metal sitting on my basement shelf collecting dust... come check it out and I'll tell you all about that one ad I did for Porsche in like 2006!

But these past few years, from my mid 40s on, at a time when I'm running my own modest little advertising & branding agency (**shameless plug alert** wecreativepartners.com), I guess I've unknowingly been experiencing a bit of this verticalness you speak of. I've found myself asking myself questions like, "How much longer do I want to write for whichever company wants me to write for them?" "Have I just traded caring about winning awards for caring about getting paid?" "Is there a greater purpose in what I do, or is there a new passion I could be pursuing?" "Is it too late for me to get an exercise degree and be a coach at Orange Theory?" "Is it possible to get Peanut M&Ms AND go to the bathroom during intermission?" Wait, that last one wasn't mine.

Regarding wellness programs and the like, I've personally had a great experience: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7155245011897405440/

Regarding that self-driving car, hey, just more time for you to write your next masterpiece newsletter.

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I love these musings, Zaar. (Have you considered starting a Substack in any of these "what if" moments? You are obviously a great writer yourself!)

And stay tuned because the book I'm writing is all about this mid-life(ish) career questioning. It's not always a vertical development shift, or it's a mix of that and other things, but bottom line - I believe you should really lean into the questions you're asking and not fear them or dismiss them one bit!

And I love that you just posted on LI about your own great experience with workplace wellness coaching! Zing!

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Claire, a wise woman once told me "accept that you will never not be afraid." (Maybe you know her, she's a real gem.) Since then I've noticed more and more just how much fear has played a role in my career — and life in general. Realizing and acknowledging that reality has really started opening "what if" doors in my head. Change has always been hard for me, so I will definitely keep asking myself questions that challenge my status quo. Taking leaps from workaday agency life to the freedoms of freelancing to the thrills and spills of having my own business have laid a good foundation for future growth. Thank you!

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Thanks for sharing this insight you're becoming more aware of, Zaar! I'm very curious to hear more sometime about those "what ifs" you're entertaining. And you're right, the fact that you've already leapt into freelancing means you have it in you to big, brave things and to keep stretching yourself.

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I can relate to everything you’ve written! Including coaching (or owning an OT studio!). Thanks for sharing the both/and of life ... what I do/can do to make a living and the wonder of what else.

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Oh don't think for a second that my wife hasn't already looked into franchising.

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Ok I'm sorry - MYSTERY TRIP?! Must look into this, because a trip I do not have to plan sounds heavenly!!

Also, with Vertical Development, I'm wondering how static or dynamic the quadrants are. Some days I feel like I'm in Q3, and other days Q4. Is it normal to bounce around a little bit?

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The mystery trip was really fun! I LOVED not knowing where we going until we were literally walking out the door to go to the airport. My husband did not love that so much, but he played along. :) It was a great experience, I would totally recommend it! They picked a great hotel, great restaurants, great activities, all tailored to our tastes from the survey we filled out.

Vertical Dev - it's definitely VERY dynamic ...like you might go through a vertical growth spurt and be in Q4 for a while, but then down the road, you are stalled out in your growth or your "context" (life/work demands) get more complex and you might be in Q3 and it could be helpful to grow vertically again. I'll talk more about this next time!

Keep in mind that the quadrants are not the same thing as the stages or levels I will outline next time. I'll be curious to hear if it makes more sense after that - or if introducing the stages on top of the matrix actually feels MORE confusing! It's a challenge to figure out how to make this really digestible for people, so thanks for letting me know about your question and reaction!

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OK thanks - I'm excited to learn more!

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I love the analogy you provide and the super-accessible definitions of horizontal and vertical development. Thank you!

I do want to know more about how you felt about the surprise vacation...

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Ok the vacation - I loved the surprise element, and I tend to be a control freak and a planner. But I also love a good adventure and trusted that the experts would do a good job of translating our preferences from the survey we filled out into a trip agenda we'd love. And they did! One caveat though, is that I liked it a lot more than my husband did. I said we like a slower pace on trips with some margin for relaxing, so they only planned 2 activities a day for us (some sort of 2-3 hour activity + dinner reservations) but even that was too much for my husband and he felt boxed in by it. So I don't know that he would do it again - but I totally would.

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Good to know--thank you! This would be a fun experience for one of my friends and I for a girls' trip.

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