Yesterday I stumbled upon Penelope Trunk’s blog (of Brazen Careerist). One of her articles caught my eye, and before I knew it, I must have read at least a dozen of her posts; topics ranged from one’s likelihood of being promoted, to deciding if you need a therapist, to tips on navigating a quarter-life crisis.

In my reading, I became more aware that I’m not the only one who’s feeling like they’ve hit a learning curve plateau, or who may be in the middle of a quarter-life crisis. I got the impression from reading what she’s written, that she’s been through a lot more (career-wise) in her life than I have… it was just comforting to see how she has shared her experiences and given some really great advice on how to make it through similar situations.

Here are a few of my take-aways:

• “One of the contributions Generations X and Y have made to the workplace is the quarterlife crisis. It’s not the midlife crisis, typified by a baby boomer in a Porsche obsessively speeding. The quarterlife crisis happens in one’s twenties and more likely involves takeout pizza and obsessive IMing.”
• “Enlisting the help of a coach may seem like a high-risk move – after all, a bad coach is really bad. But you also take a risk by not getting help to address your weaknesses.”
• “The people who win are not necessarily the smartest people, but they’re the people who are able to sustain drive, commitment, passion and engagement…”
• “…each of us has three modes: Dynamo, loser and cruiser. The first two are when you are doing something – getting a lot accomplished or failing – and both are important for growth. We all cruise, too, but the trick is to have a system around you where you don’t let yourself cruise for too long… So how do you do that? Force yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new. Once you accept that success and failure are both worthy avenues of personal development, it’s easy to understand the importance of trying new things, and risking that they’ll be bad ideas.”
• “Another way to keep yourself from cruising is to always understand what gets you out of bed in the morning.”
• “Don’t ask young people to be patient. Why should they be patient? Who does that serve? As long as they deliver something to you every day, and they are not rude, leave them alone. Let them dream that they can achieve in one year what took you ten…”

Now, this is all just the tip of the iceberg… My biggest discovery- my “I KNOW!” moment- was that I need to start searching for a mentor, or a career coach. It’s not that I need my life be managed and directed in minutia; what I need is some guidance, on a macro scale. Just a nudge in the right direction, or some applicable advice when I’ve hit a wall.

So, maybe I’ll start searching for a career coach. I’d like to get a better understanding of what gets me out of bed- motivated- in the morning. I’m going to take a good, hard look at myself and understand my goals.