Why Your Best Career Move May Be to Become Useful in a Completely Different Way

There is a point in many careers when being good at your job stops being enough to create the kind of progress you want.

You know the systems.

You understand the routine.

People know they can rely on you.

You can probably complete work that once required a lot of help without thinking too much about it.

That sounds like a good place to be.

And it is.

But there’s a hidden problem with becoming very good at one particular way of being useful:

People may keep giving you exactly the kind of work you’re already good at.

Your competence becomes your assignment.

Your reputation becomes your role.

And before long, you can find yourself becoming more experienced without becoming much more flexible.

That’s why your next career move may not need to be about becoming better at the same thing.

It may be about becoming useful in a completely different way.

Not starting over.

Not throwing away your experience.

Not pretending your current skills don’t matter.

Instead, you’re adding another dimension to what you can contribute.

And that can change the direction of your career.

Being Useful in One Way Can Eventually Become a Limitation