3 Easy Steps to Progress Yourself

Career Change, Grad Programs, Relocation? Just add these 3E’s…

Three E’s (3E’s) is a three-step approach to progress yourself in life and business endeavors. Might it work for you?

3E’s stands for: Expose, Evolve, Express.
So, how does it work?

During my mid-20's I thought I was a relatively successful, well-performing ___*___ in my company.

fill in the blank — the words I would’ve used back then: associate, management trainee, financial analyst, etc

Ugh. The way I described myself then was so constrained by the environment around me.

Out of school I conformed to society and followed a standard career path. Imbedded in a workplace and company culture — it all seemed great, until I realized, it really wasn’t.

I talked myself out of, then back-in to the fact that I was not happy and I was not where I wanted to be.

The problem? I didn’t really know where I could go.

I was not alone.

Today, I estimate several million college educated professionals are going through similar feelings and thoughts daily — stuck in Place A, longing for Place B … if Place B even had a name for some.

It’s confusing, it’s frustrating, it’s lonely.

Here’s where Three E’s comes in.

Expose:

The First E is simple: Talk to people, see what’s out there and what’s around us (globally if possible).

We all grow up in an environment that shapes us — tells us what’s right or wrong and what we should or should not be doing.

While these environments do not reflect the conditions or options of the entire world, some of us might not understand that until we are older.

Most of us grow up in a sample of the world, and exposing ourselves to new environments, people, ideas, cultures, working styles, etc helps us explore ourselves deeper, become more aware of who we can be.

For example, I was an analyst who suddenly learned about the world of goods trading. I met people from all backgrounds, living around the world brokering transactions, they are happy. Learning that got me excited about something I never know about, it gave me curiosity to learn about what’s out there. How could I not know about this before?
Simple. The world is large — there’s many things we’re unaware of.

With Exposure, we see things we never knew of, we learn about new possibilities and we get excited to learn about what we can become.
Exposure provides the stimulus to start taking action. It’s a motivational first step towards progress.

Evolve:

The Second E is about evolving through reflection and taking action.
While exposure provides stimulus, it’s easy for stimulus to go away quickly. In order to progress we need to give more thought about what we were exposed to.

Through reflection we may find we need to learn more, or get exposed further to understand pros and cons to weigh for ourselves. Is it really for me? Or did it just sound good the first time I heard it?

Once you can convince yourself to take further action, start progressing towards your next stage.

Start with small actions and reflect further as you go along— talk to more people, start taking a course, join a community, a group activity or volunteer. Use trial and error. Evolving is a core component of what we as humans do. Trying new things, evaluating “might this work?” or “will this last for me?”

Over time I’ve seen people evolve drastically and reinvent themselves: Bankers who became artists, a School Principal who became a Design Consultant and an Editor who became a Chef.

I’ve done it as well, and believe anyone can.

Note: While large scale evolving can occur, it’s not a quick process and does require a lot of exposure, reflection and action to reach.
With that said, at the core we’re all capable of evolving. Ignore that Society has trained us to conform — with more exposure, reflection and action we can provide ourselves opportunities to progress and evolve.

Express:

The Third E is about self-expression. This involves understanding who you are or who you want to be and expressing it openly.

These things are important.

Earlier I spoke of an unhappy mid-20s version of myself and millions who are like me.

Most of us likely fall into 1 or 2 buckets:

1. We don’t fully understand who we are or who we want to be
2. We’re in an environment where our self-expression is constrained

I believe:

1. Expose and Evolve will help you reach a better understanding of self interest and finding your way. Start here.
2. Society or work environments will always have constraints. The key is to find places that resonate with you and allow you to be yourself and express yourself more openly.
3. (There may be an expose and evolve loop here again for #2)

Knowing who you are, what you want and expressing it will help you progress quicker — you’ll better understand who you need to talk to and what you need to learn from them.

One tip if you’re still finding your way and having difficulty. You may try various things at once and cross things-off that don’t resonate with you or don’t reflect who you are. It takes some work, but this is a viable way to narrow down interests and determine whether they actually suit you.

Please Recommend if you like the notion of 3E’s!

Update
Self progress contains pain points and it’s often easier said than done.

For anyone who’s facing challenges with exposing themselves - if it hasn’t been easy to learn more about areas you’re interested in and how to get there — I’ve started building a career advice marketplace for you.

My goal is to bring easy access to people who’ve been there and done that and are willing to share their time, knowledge and experiences with others for a reasonable fee.

At iSeekiGive.com we believe everyone has a story — if you’ve studied at at ABC school, worked at XYZ co. or lived in XXX city your stories and experiences can help others get exposed quicker to figure out what’s right for them.