Going Up? or Going Down?

Everyone, even Bill Gates or George Bush, gets to the point where they realize their career is no longer on the "up escalator". When you're "on the way up", and remain there for years, you tend to see the first lateral job as a blip - just the short walk between escalators when you get to a landing. But, then the second lateral in a row... and now you start to wonder. And if the next one isn't a lateral move, but a step back... Uh, oh... you may have peaked and are on the way down.

I used to look at guys older than me, or even younger sometimes, who I could see were not going to rise any further in the organization, and say to myself "How can you stand it? You have years to go yet until retirement. How can you take just sitting there doing the same old job and knowing it won't get any better?" Now, I'm starting to ask myself the same questions. Have I peaked and started to come down? Or, maybe not going down, but on the same floor for the duration? My answer may only come after I find my next job, outside Bell Insurance. Will it be an equivalent job to what I'm doing now, a step back, or a step up?

There's an old saying that "two points don't make a trend", but three do. My last two jobs have been laterals, or slightly down. The next one will tell the tale, and if it's also down, then I know - I've reached that peak (it was back in 1999 in my early 40's) and have begun to decline.

This will be about as hard to take as it was finding my first grey hairs (though I still don't have many), or as it was finding myself stiff in the joints when I first got up in the morning and descended the stairs, or as it was realizing that it's taking me a second or two longer to find the right word to put in a sentence than it used to take. Well, at least I don't require Viagra... much ;) It's highly situational, and certain situations... ahem... don't require it at all. :)

I don't like to think about aging, but I have to, I guess. Not only is the mirror telling me it's happening, but so is my body, my mind, and ... maybe ... my career. So, rather than going lower in the same career path, maybe I should think about embarking on a new and different career. That might just put the age thing in its place for a while. Or maybe I should just accept it like those "old guys" did who I used to pity. Then maybe some young hot shots will pity me! Ha! Just wait, snot-nose... you'll see - you'll get yours someday.