Is Your Ladder against the Right Wall?
“We’re deferring everything – that happiness, that fulfillment – we’re deferring that finish line till we’re 65. Then, when we’re 65, if we haven’t paid attention to the right things and checked if the ladder is up against the right wall, we get to 65, we don’t have the things that might actually lead to fulfillment. Instead, what we’ve done is chased society’s definition of success – not our own.”
—Ben Bergeron, Chasing Excellence podcast, Episode 069: Embrace the Chase
These words resonated strongly with me when I first heard them.
The context for this quote is Ben Bergeron unpacking the consequences of prioritizing money at the cost of life satisfaction in other areas. Ben describes the experience of working your whole life, driven by money, believing that financial resources will eventually lead to a blissful retirement. But if you neglected relationships, health, satisfaction and personal fulfillment in the pursuit of wealth, they may not be there when you are ready to enjoy them.
I like the metaphor of checking what wall your ladder is up against.
So often we focus only on the rung right in front of us – or we are eager to simply climb – and we fail to look at the destination we are moving toward.
If your climb is taking you further from people you love, tasks that energize you, interactions that bring meaning, then you can assume that your destination – the end of the ladder, if you will, is not going to be wildly different from the feelings and quality of life you experience during the climb.
One good way to check your ‘ladder destination’ – especially if you are in a traditional work structure – is to look at the jobs of folks a rung or two above you. Check out your boss, your boss’s boss, or even your boss’s boss’s boss.
Do you like what you see? Does their work intrigue you? Do you think that role would be a fun challenge or a miserable slog?
If you reach the conclusion that your ladder is up against the right wall – excellent!
If you realize the climb itself is miserable, and you are no longer excited about the destination, please don’t despair!
It may be time to do some reflection, plot a new destination, pick up your ladder and bring it to lean against a new wall.
Pivoting to a new career path may require a temporary decrease in pay, seniority or responsibility. In other words, climbing down a few rungs in order to re-position your ladder. But short-term discomfort is worth it for greater life satisfaction in the long-term.
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