The Art of "Stay Relevant"

One day at the office, one of my work colleagues announced his resignation. Been 5 years working with him. He is one of the best and the oldest employee in our team. As usual, he explained that he had to move to another city and said some words about his experience working with us. One sentence that hit me hard, he said " you guys help me to stay relevant in my job". Suddenly the words speak louder to me: How to stay relevant?

Everyone always starts a new session of their life fresh, engaged, and full of enthusiasm. Then time goes by, over time we face challenges, we do our everyday routines, we lose, we win, then we hit our comfort zone, and we're getting older day by day. When we do or be something for a very long time, could we stay relevant? That's my biggest question.

When we’re not relevant anymore… we’re useless. We’ll be forgotten. We’ll be replaced. How can you stay in the game, and be useful?

The same questions go to everybody:
How can a worker stay relevant to her job?
How can a professional stay relevant with his work?
How can a husband/wife stay relevant to his partner?
How can a businessman stay relevant in the business industry he's in?
How can a father stay relevant to his child even when they’ve grown up?
How can a friend stay relevant to his other friends?

How do you know you're still relevant... or the opposite.

Stay relevant is not about surviving, but it is about staying valuable in any circumstances. Value is the main indicator here.

In every season of my son age development, my wife would throw away any toys that not relevant anymore to my son's age. The mother simply judge by the usefulness of the toys. If the toys support my son development, or if the boy like the toy very much, then we'll keep it. And interestingly there is this one toy that my son had since 1st birthday, a block of woods.

Why that particular toy still relevant?

• Perceived values : the parent still see value in the toys that the kid haven’t explore yet.
• The toy still relevant to the kids milestones, to improve fine motors, and creativity.
• The toy is flexible enough to be combined with another toy to make a new custom game.
• When the toy is missing, the kid will looking for it again and again.

Some of the signs that you're still relevant:

• You have something to bring into the table.
• You understand what are people talking about.
• Your involvement is needed, wanted, or appreciated. Being asked about your opinion.
• You got positive feedbacks.

To stay relevant in the workplace...

• Be a lifelong learner. Be willing to learn new things. Get out your comfort zone and try to learn things that you don't understand. If you got a boss that ask you to learn new things, take that as a blessing. Instead of let you go, they want you to upgrade yourself, so you can still bring value to the work.
• Skill diversification is a must. Don't be boring. Combine hard and soft skills. By combining hard skills (like data analysis or coding) with soft skills (like communication or empathy), you not only make yourself more versatile but also more interesting and engaging as a professional, making you indispensable to your team.
• Engage with your work. Engagement is about more than just showing up and doing what’s asked of you. It’s about bringing your energy, ideas, and creativity to the table. Have the mindset to contribute. Catch up with the topic is the minimum bar, you need to “contribute”. Remember, anyone can do the bare minimum, but those who truly engage are the ones who make a difference.
• You’re flexible and able to collaborate with others to create greater value. Your impact could be less significant, but if you could collaborate with other, the impact added up, and can produce something more valuable. If you can be awesome team player, less likely you'll be replaced.

Shift your mindset from just surviving from day to day at work. Let's move to the level of “How can I still contribute values”.