First, Take a STEP Back (Always!)

Perhaps at #Work, in #Education, or #Life you have encountered (or will) instances of #Regret – or ‘What if…’ situations after something already done, decided, or another #Pathway has been taken. Maybe it involved #CoWorkers, a #Boss, #Customers, #Students, or a specific #Scenario that presented only ‘no win’ options. Perhaps you attributed these factors as leading directly to?your personal #Outcomes – tied to what you did (not) do or accomplish in #Life, #Family, or #Career.

-- “One step forward, two steps back” is an idiomatic expression, not YOUR reality --

Yet upon later reflection, did you realize that each of these actually were ‘good’ experiences?? After all, the idea of a one/two-step is from the viewpoint of #Lenin, over 100 years ago, on political opportunity and revolutionary actions and responses. Is that truly your #Reality? Is it better to interpret the #Journey you’ve made as ‘paying the price’ of inexperience, indecision, or bad judgment – or a series of circumstances that left you, a #Victim, with no #Choice at all?

(0) Step Functions define Pathways in, of, & for Understanding

If involved in #Teaching and #Learning, #Program and #Project #Management, or when serving as a member of the #Staff, #Supervisor, or in #Administration – there are many reasons to ‘Take a Step back’ in ‘what you do’, ‘how you do’, and ‘why you do’ within any roles or tasks. That step is not about creating scenarios, #Innovation, #Professional #Development, weighing options, or #Meditation. It is not defining #Success via #Promotion and #Salary.

-- A step back guides Understanding of ‘now’ relative to your #Future & #Past --

Regret is often about second-guessing or supposing that different actions or steps would have led to an alternate ending. It could be about #Debt (#College), #Interviews, #Interactions, #Mistakes, #Decisions, #Reactions, or expressed as a lack of #Planning, #Communication, or #Managing of #Expectations. Some view looking back as a measure of a person's comfort level with a status quo, or as living in the past. In reflection, those are superficial #Artifacts of a #Mindset defined and experienced according to #Retribution, #Retaliation, and #Remorse.

(1) The ‘Sum of the Steps’ offers Totality of Meaning

Remember all the interviews you’ve ever endured – or just a few that really stand out? One that remains vivid for me involved an exploration of my extended work history. Although well qualified and appropriate, it was likened to a ship adrift on rolling seas amidst large waves without clear direction. The analogy revealed the interviewer’s inability to comprehend just how intervals of work, viewed in combination, represent a trajectory of experience and capability. That’s a lack of #Vision and #Understanding on their part.

-- Without a ‘Big Picture’ of #Self, how do you know where and when YOU are? --

A #Resume, #Portfolio, or #Presentation offers empirical evidence for an interpretation that is wholly dependent upon their collective meaning. It is the aggregate of YOU that they express and thus a totality of your fit, purpose, and the stepping-stones that allowed you to prosper. What about those components, variables, and combinations that were less than helpful, not productive, or even disastrous? That was also YOU, taking a step back to assess and regroup.

(2) Stepping up to the Plate (or playing an offense with defense)

Progression in the #Workplace, like #Baseball, has much to do with ‘Stepping up to the plate’ to embrace #Challenges and meet #Opportunity. While #Templates help, #Team players recognize that job descriptions offer little in setting #Goals, #Objectives, #Milestones, and #KPI. #Assessment links #Duties, #Responsibility, and #Managers in #Workspaces and creates viable #Timelines and #Deliverables. These are interdependent in your #Career, much like playing Center Field.

-- Being present in your position is more than myriad #Strategies or #Collegiality --

In Center Field it’s about being a #Defensive backbone on the field, delivering #Offensive support at the plate, and #Stabilizing and #Facilitating inning by inning play. It’s also about first Taking a Step back when approaching a ball hit in the air. This instantaneous step reviews ‘now’ in the game context for positioning. Current, past, and future scenarios, hoped for outcomes, and alternative paths that may exist or develop must also be considered. It is at that moment a #Strategic and #Measured response with meaning occurs.

(3) Stepping out into #Enlightenment & #Purpose

When you Step out to play, moving ‘outside the box’ that’s been defined around YOU by others, you can link your current (and past) #Stages to your #Authentic Self. Once you see beyond #Static #Workflows – and understand where and how you assign #Value as a #Professional – you have reached a deeply important #Revelation. This realization charts your course, not as one adrift, but as one driven by purposeful ideals. A path that embodies YOU, not each segment as a stand-alone circumstance.?

-- Changing course is not Career #Suicide, it’s #Awareness of YOU as a #Creative process --

There are times in any career that some decisions made are considered foolish, or that what appears to be an improper path of folly is followed. Certainly, there are times we err in #Growth. Our Step Functions are a collection of segments and events – some episodic – some with significant shocks in the system. They define path, process, and outcomes and make us #Creative. They are comparative information on states and stages that describe characteristics and responses of a key variable – YOU!

-- Not in full #Alignment with YOUR #Assignment? Why not? --

That’s the Bigger ‘Y’ – It’s how you describe and portray who and what YOU are, and how and when YOU ‘got there’ to define where you are in the process of YOU and your next steps. Are you ready to say… “Put me in #Coach, I’m ready to #Play…”?

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Background and Information:

Paul J. Croft on LI & ResearchGate

www.dhirubhai.net/pub/paul-j-croft/12/713/aba/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Croft2/

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Disclaimer:

The content herein, and the views and opinions expressed by the author, are intended ("bona fides") for educational and personal use and are part of the author's intellectual property. All information posted is without any guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or any summations expressed. The information herein is provided on an "as is" basis, is not a substitute for professional or paid advice or guidance and may be used at the user's own risk. All rights reserved.

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