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Dangerous leader: taking stock at 50 years old

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Dangerous leader: taking stock at 50 years old

Here are ways to honestly evaluate your life.

Jennifer Smith, Dangerous Leader columnist

November 24, 2024, 5:00

Last week I turned 50. Entering a new decade usually prompts deeper reflection. Ahead of my birthday, I spent some time worrying about my 40s.

What I saw in this time travel was quite a decade.

Changing jobs, changing relationships, raising a child from a teenager to a young adult, getting a PhD, buying two houses, selling a business, publishing a book. All this was accompanied by the loss of my husband. It left me feeling like I was wandering aimlessly through the forest. Prison and freedom rolled into one.

I periodically encourage this kind of honest assessment of my life.

Take stock of your achievements, lessons learned, where you were lazy and where you overdid it.

We, as business leaders, do this through financial reporting and strategic planning. In our personal lives, we can use any tools we want.

A few that I would recommend:

  • Vision board. Vision boards are great if you want to see them. Create a version of where I’ve been, where I am, what version I’m creating.
  • Personal SWOT. I use it with the Special Operations veterans I train. Strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Create four squares on a piece of paper and make notes on each square. Create an action plan to leverage your strengths and opportunities while addressing your weaknesses and/or mitigating your threats.
  • Align your priorities. List the five most important values ​​you hold. List what you do that matches each one. List everything you do that doesn’t fit this separately. Ask yourself why you are doing these things inconsistently.

I made the latest version the day after my birthday. I spent my birthday reading, watching bad TV, relaxing by the fire, and then having dinner with my parents and son. The next day I had to go to work.

Summing up

As I turned 50, I discovered that the feeling of wandering aimlessly revealed its purpose. The energies I have been accepting for so long are taking on new meaning.

Here are what I have come up with as truths to help me enter this new decade.

1. No restrictions. There are no limits to the boundaries I can set to protect myself and those I love most.

2. Never settle. Never settle for first impressions. Never settle for the first wave of excitement. Never settle for surface level. Never settle for good enough.

3. Live dangerously. Live dangerously true to yourself. I say yes to my intuition. Trusting yourself. Be true to your energies. Say “no” to what is wrong and not quite right.

4. Be yourself. Be me. Take my own advice. All the rest are taken. Be exactly who I am. A writer, a healer, an adventurer, a non-conformist, a defying of expectations, raising this child in this time of transition, an awkward, extroverted, introverted, foul-mouthed, dirty dog ​​lover who has still lived a life that sometimes seems incredible. And I have a cat that still confuses me.

These exercises can be used at any time. And just as we take stock, analyze, plan and revise our intentions in business, so must we as leaders and people. Intentionality and connection to self-awareness are key qualities of a dangerous leader.

Live dangerously, be yourself.

Jennifer Smith is a Cedar Rapids-based personal and executive coach, host of the Dangerous Leader podcast, and an unapologetic optimist. Comments: [email protected]; @drjennsmith