In this post:
I consider what I think a successful and meaningful professional life looks like to me.
I am about to end my latest assignment. I will have spent five years of my active duty career at this singular base by the time my change of station passes. As I’ve been telling people that have asked about my upcoming move: It’s getting weird.
It’s time for a change. It’s time for my PCS.
As I approach this transition to a new place, working with new people, developing new skillsets or applying old skillsets to new problems, I thought it might be good to take the opportunity to conduct something of a personal inventory.
Taking an “inventory” can be good to do from time to time. Ideally, you revisit goals you’ve established previously and determine your progress and interest in those goals. That reflection should tell you not only whether you’ve maintained alignment or deviated substantially, but also whether you still find the goal valuable.
This post will focus on a “professional” inventory – it won’t get too personal. But if this inspires you to do your own, there is no need for you to limit yourself to “only a professional” one.
Questions:
What am I good at? What am I not so good at?
What am I comfortable doing? What am I not so comfortable doing?
What do I care about? What do I want to accomplish?
Why do I do what I do? What do I get out of it? What do I want to get out of it?
Answers:
I think I’m generally pretty good at time management, writing, organization, and process development.
I can struggle with following through on long-term projects. I tend to be short with people, but less because I am intentionally mean and more because I have consistently higher expectations of others than is necessarily warranted.
I enjoy interacting with others, whether they are new to me or part of long-term relationships. I’ve an interest in making decisions but lack practice doing so.
I care about doing things well while still having fun. I care about self-improvement over time.
It would be nice to make a substantial difference or be part of a significant change for the better in the Air Force. As our enterprise tries to become more digital, I want to be a big mover that facilitates that change.
I joined the Air Force over a decade ago because I wanted to do something financially beneficial for myself, my father and grandfather are both veterans, and because I figured it was fitting.
I remain in the Air Force today because it remains financially beneficial, I’m curious where my career might take me (and who it might introduce me to, and what knowledge it will continue to expose me to, etc.), and I feel it remains fitting.
I learn so much about the way the system of our nation works as a military member in the acquisition career field. Something as simple as a metal bolt is an apparent consideration of political play. My understanding of local behaviors based on geography, history, and national if not international politics improves frequently. I get to see this subtle interconnection between local behaviors to national decisions that illuminates the voice of The People in their elected representatives on The Hill.
Going forward:
I think the longer I am around, the less I want anything specific out of my military career (besides retirement) and the more I’m just looking forward to what it continues to offer.
After I complete my change of station, my professional goals over four years include successfully completing my Intermediate Developmental Education, completing my Practitioner Program Management certification, completing my next Fitness Tests with 95+ scores, and, while it is yet to be determined how to quantify this, do my job(s) with excellence.
I think I would also like to find one or two professional organizations to begin participating in, if my schedule really allows for that. We’ll see.
Given my post from last month, I’d also like to develop my ability to identify skills in others as well as my ability to negotiate effectively. I think this will help me follow through with long-term tasks, as well as better set my expectations of others.
Going even further beyond my next assignment
I think the mindset of ‘excellence and self-improvement with fun’ is something I want to keep central. Presumably, I could end up in a serious de facto leadership role. If/ when that happens, people will be taking cues from me whether intentionally or not and I’ll have a degree of accountability for some of their behavior based on my own.
I don’t pretend to know how to deal with that right now, but I do need to keep it in mind as I get closer to that opportunity. My “boring” behaviors need to do most of the work if I want to be the least exhausted, but I also need to take intentional action for definitive problems that need resource-limited solving.
72 Airman's Writings 