(1-minute read and lots of activities)
Concatenation is my new favorite word.
I learned this word last week at the “Hear Me Now” exhibition at the Met Museum. This extraordinary exhibition focuses on the work of 19th-century African American potters in Old Edgefield, South Carolina, and features the work of Dave Drake, an enslaved, literate, and highly talented potter. Dave Drake carved the word ‘concatenation’ directly into a monumental jar. Immediately, I looked up its definition on Google.
Concatenation refers to a series of interconnected things or events.
I’m writing about it here because, besides being cool to say, the word applies beautifully to careers. Careers are not just a series of stand-alone jobs; careers are beautifully iterative.
Yet, as we build our careers, we spend much time addressing specific activities and incidents. We focus on learning and refining new skills, managing important moments or looking for new business opportunities.
As a means to an end, whether it’s job efficiency, promotion or crisis survival, these activities are highly focused and often leave little time for reflection.
A career is the sum of the jobs we’ve held, the wisdom absorbed from the people we’ve met, the learnings we’ve taken away from good and bad bosses, the benefits we’ve created for our communities and how we use all of this information in our daily lives.
A career’s lasting value is not represented on a resume or CV but what was shared and learned, how others progressed through mentorship and allyship, and how we’ve been lifted by new ideas and changed by points of view.
These are the aspects of a career that create your legacy.
As December begins, it seems fitting to take a little time and separate from the day-to-day.
Take the opportunity to reflect on this year’s work and concatenate the experiences as you look to the year ahead.
Prompts for looking back
5 words to describe my work this past year
I was most proud of myself when…
I helped_____ grow when________
I struggled most with learning…
I struggled to connect with…
I improved my community by…
I’m most visible to my bosses when…
If I can do one thing to grow, it is…
These are the things I want to continue…
These are the things I want to do more of…
These are the things I want to abandon…
Prompts for connecting forward
The most significant change I want to make next year is…
This is how I want to talk about what I want in the year ahead…
At the end of next year, I want to say that I …
This holiday season, give yourself the gift of permission to reflect on your accomplishments and focus your excitement on 2023.
Wishing you a fun, relaxing and regenerating holiday season!
