Lately I’ve been thinking about where this is all going.
Not in a crisis kind of way. Things are good. I like my work. I’m paid well. I’m not scrambling, and I’m not burned out. But when I look a few years down the line, I keep seeing the same picture—same role, similar responsibilities, small raises each year. It’s stable. It’s predictable. It should feel good.
And it mostly does. But then this little voice kicks in, and it says, “Yeah, but are you growing?”
It’s familiar, that voice. It sounds a lot like the one I heard earlier in my career, back when I was grinding hard and making almost no progress. Years passed, and my salary crept up, but nothing really shifted. I remember how heavy that felt. I wasn’t just stuck—I felt invisible.
That’s not what this is, I know that. I have autonomy now. I get to make decisions. I’m respected. But the projection of staying still—even if I’ve chosen it—makes me nervous. Not because I want a new title or more money, but because I want to keep becoming something. I want to know that even if the scenery stays the same, I’m still in motion.
But I still catch myself scrolling job listings I’m not even interested in, just to prove I still could.
So I’ve been thinking about how to find that sense of motion without blowing up the life I’ve worked so hard to build. And I think it starts with setting goals that are mine. No one else needs to give them to me. No one else even needs to notice. But I need to be doing something that stretches me. Writing more. Building something reusable. Sharing ideas that force me to clarify my thinking. Helping someone else grow and realizing I’m growing too.
It also means paying attention. Once in a while, I just need to stop and ask, what did I learn this month? What did I get better at? What felt a little uncomfortable? If I’m not asking those questions, I won’t notice the progress even if it’s happening.
