Ugh.
If you have (had) a little person in your home, you know what potty training is all about. This is a crazy mix of hope, anxiety, and sense of pending loss as your little person flirts with the idea of leaving diapers behind for a bold and independent new world. As easy as diapers are for traveling, bedtime, and landing on when they fall down, little people need to eventually move on.
Which leads me here: at some point, people need to step up and take over tasks others have fulfilled for them in the past. Diapers, wiping, picking out clothes, tying our shoes - all these things eventually come into our repetoire as we age and mature. You may not have moved out of your parents house yet (even if you’re 45), but that doesn’t mean you can dodge your professional responsibilities forever. At some point, you must become parent to your child - because you do this for yourself.
When I think about the application of this line of thinking to career management, it makes me grin (bathroom analogies often do). Wiping the smirk, we must at some point become accountable for the aspects of our life/career. You probably have blowhards in your cubicle farm, always lecturing about how they are overworked and underappreciated (I hope this isn’t you, but there is hope - read on!). These folks are never fully appreciated until they are gone, and love to share about the good-old-days and “before your time”.
All this whining? Sounds like a daycare full of three-year-olds instead of adults:
“Somebody change me!”
“I’m not getting enough attention!”
“I want what [insert name] has, not the [toy or responsibility] that I have in my hands.”
“Our boss loves you more than me.”
So you can imagine my mental model, thinking about all the overgrown, diaper-wearing babies walking the floor, drinking coffee and hanging by the copier/scanner/stapler machine. I’m inclined to think it may simply be too late for them when they hit that 5th anniversary in the same role, crying in the same beer. Hell, I’m thinking that 6 months of agony and suffering in a dirty diaper is good cause to get moving.
Step up. Move forward. Push ahead. It’s not too late. Whip that career into shape.
Just like college, your parents/boss/mentor/HR can’t do the learning for you that must occur for you to mature as a professional. This is your life, your career - can you imagine anyone being in a better position than you to plan it out, to measure its progress? How useful is the learning represented by an “A” when your roommate wrote your papers?
Working hard at what we do, which includes managing our career, is what makes us knowledgeable resources down the road. All that whining? It’s because there are too few meaningful bits of wisdom to be shared, so you get water-cooler reruns.
A simple formula for growth - work on being the mentor you haven’t found yet.
So you can’t answer all your own questions - so what? At least you’ll be asking them, and seeking out those that can answer them when you can’t find the answer yourself. And the worst case is - you may never answer to the professional challenges you face, which may simply be the markings of high aspirations.
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We Love Baby! » Blogging Baby Sleepover for Thursday, March 8 // Mar 8, 2007 at 6:51 pm
[…] Toby Lucich has a post up at More than a living that uses potty training as an analogy for career management. It is useful when taken literally, too, since it is a reminder that toilet learning is just one of the many steps kids take toward independence. If we are mindful of that, it’s a little easier to focus on praising our child’s successes, strengthening their sense that they are able, and also to resist the temptation to punish and yell when they’ve peed on the floor for the tenth time in a row. (Two words: Back yard.) […]
Other blogs : Blogging Baby Sleepover for Thursday, March 8 // Mar 8, 2007 at 7:12 pm
[…] Filed under: Potty training, Blogs, Sleepover, WillowSpring is getting closer here in California: the plum tree in my backyard is full of blooms, and my eyes are watering so much I can hardly see. If you are the parent of a diaper-wearing small person, the coming warmer months may hold the added bonus of being toilet learning time. On more than one summer afternoon, I’ve put a little potty in the back yard and let my potty trainee run around with no pants on. If you are one of the parents gearing up for this life-changing event, you won’t want to miss the following links: At Mother Talkers, lamictal asked for some advice about her young son’s reluctance to use the potty. The comments are not only helpful; they are funny and even contain a reference to a David Sedaris bit. We all need a good dose of humor when dealing with teaching our kids to use the potty. Sue of Little People writes about graduating from the nighttime diaper. That was a tough one at my house, but I think that each subsequent child had the overnight diaper disappear sooner and sooner into the process, until Willow (the fourth one) began sleeping in her underpants just as soon as she started wearing them during the day. Toby Lucich has a post up at More than a living that uses potty training as an analogy for career management. It is useful when taken literally, too, since it is a reminder that toilet learning is just one of the many steps kids take toward independence. If we are mindful of that, it’s a little easier to focus on praising our child’s successes, strengthening their sense that they are able, and also to resist the temptation to punish and yell when they’ve peed on the floor for the tenth time in a row. (Two words: Back yard.)And, okay, I’m going to sneak this one in, even though it just kinda refers to potty training, because I really love what she (Surrender, Dorothy) has to say. If you haven’t already seen the Japanese Toilet Training for Kids video (or, you know, even if you already have) now’s your chance. Willow watched this about twelve times straight through, totally fascinated. I didn’t even read the subtitles to her. Good night. Stay dry.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Published Thursday, March 08, 2007 1:17 PM by Blogging Baby […]
Toby Lucich // Mar 8, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Interesting idea, letting your “kids” run wild and pee all over the backyard (I’ll keep this in mind this summer). It also posits the question,
Where is your safe place to explore indepdendence?
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