Back to Work

Back to work...out

Because it worked out

The return to the office

For a long time, going back to work after the holidays was the final straw that broke me. I would sob uncontrollably for days on end, begging myself to take action.

However, I was already emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted from dealing with my toxic work environment and my own "stuff" before returning, so all my tears just served to sap further the self-esteem, drive, and self-assurance I had been working so hard to restore.

I cry as needed now when I need to regulate, and it never hurts as much anymore. What makes a difference, though, is the environment in which I experience my emotions.

So, my return to work after the holidays didn't work out for many years, and I didn't work (my ownership here is also taken apart from my job's element within it all and my burnout).

For twenty years, circumstances, rather than my choice, seemed to be the driving force behind my life's meaning and purpose. I spent eleven years living with autoimmune dysfunction and having major surgeries, and a lot more physical, mental, and emotional things happened within all of it.

This morning, I am working.

It worked out, which means I am up and working out without any signs of anxiety or dread. There are a few aches and pains, for sure, that need addressing this year, namely a hip injury, but much fell into place, not overnight but over many years.

It is still a daily purpose of mine to try and choose myself since it serves my outlook.

Choose oneself.

While it may not always be feasible, prioritise your health whenever you can.

Choose grace for your nervous and neurological systems.

That doesn't necessarily mean we should get up and leave our jobs, buy a camper van, and head to the hill unless we want to.

It may just mean incremental daily, weekly, or monthly self-accommodations in our self-care; loving ourselves more, setting boundaries, taking ownership and responsibility for some of our life and work circumstances, and making ourselves more comfortable with accommodating are all things we deserve.

To a new day, not even a year, just day by day gracefully.

The Importance of Embracing Wonder in Our Life and Career Paths

We don't have to throw our sense of wonder and curiosity out with our childhood toys. On the contrary, our innate ability to seek out wonder and the joy it brings can help us shape our futures and relieve lethargy and boredom that can add to our jaded adult selves and professionals in time.

It is a sense of wonder that instils creativity, and while there is a belief that we can become less creative as we age, this is an avoidable fate. Loss of creativity doesn't occur because we grow older; it happens because we grow out of our sense of wonder. We become jaded, weary and less motivated to enter into a process of curiosity and wondering where to go next in our lives and work and what it could give us back on a whole health level.

We block our perspective with a lack of imagination. Direction becomes harder to determine as we dim our natural creative self. Eventually, the lights can go out, leading many to career and life anxiety. We lose our "why". But before finding our "why", we must wonder about it. We lose our sense of awe and wonder, and we can lose valuable time stressing over career prospects, social status, measures of success on others' terms, and the banalities and drama here online. Reclaim our wonder, and we can find the inner strength, courage and creativity to make some changes and take the first step.

Wonder is beyond reason, and before it, it is an emotion we face with a mystery.

And sometimes, that first step is to embrace everything mysterious about your next move, the unknown knowns. Yes, it will be full of fear, but fear can instil forward thinking and the magic that is momentum. So while many are reading this, the "what is next for me?" thoughts amidst their internal chatter and chorus of jaded self-statements such as "is this all left for me now ?" Well, there is a mystery. What if we allow ourselves to embrace the mysterious to give us perspective and rationalise context?

Albert Einstein notes in The World as I see it that "the mysterious" is not only "the most beautiful experience we can have" but also the most basic emotion that is at the fore of true art and science. He states, "whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed."

And yet, as we make our way through school, college, and work, there can be so much of this mystery and wonder stripped back. So many lights go out in the process and dimming of our deliberate direction. We are told to grow up, get on with it and be practical in our endeavours. So go be the hardworking professional on a career ladder, letting our lights go out and losing our sense of curiosity only to find we have had our ladder inevitably up against the wrong wall all the time.

And then we realise our loss of curiosity and wonder can kill our sense of self and manifest in other whole health deterioration from an emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual context. We don't have to revert to our inner child by no means, as this reiterates the idea that we lose our sense of wonder as we age. We are adults. Yes, we have bills to pay, and we know the factual context of reality. However, we can still teach ourselves to access wonder and to look at our options with such curiosity. As we can train our emotions and most of our senses to serve us in many life stage phases, we can teach ourselves to wonder, access practical wisdom and realign our lives and work in time.

When was the last time you embraced wonder in your life and work?

Can you recall how it made you feel?

What did it give you, and why was this important for your whole health and sense of personal and professional self?

Wondering what it might be like to work with me, why not try a no-commitment one-off session soon?

Schedule here.

Image Credit: Chris Malinao Burgett Unsplash

What is your competitive career strategy?

In terms of organisational strategy, Michael Porter describes strategy as:

"Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value."

So how do we do apply this approach to our career change or existing career paths?

We learn how to define, express and communicate our purpose to show where we can impact by creating our career mission, vision and value statements to honour our objectives and what we are trying to achieve. 

Think of the brands you value. How do they define their purpose? 

Your mission: What is it you want to do? If your role or industry didn't exist tomorrow, would it matter to the world? How will you show you can make a difference?

Your vision: What do you want to achieve in the future? What do you want your life and career to look like in 10 years or more? How does that sit with your personal and professional values?

Your values: What is important to you? What does it give you? Why does it matter? These are the underlying core principles that will build your career strategy.

Your objectives: What is your competitive advantage? What is the ROI to invest in you? What is the ROI for others to invest in you?

All of your strategy statements and objectives have to be realistic. You should have the capabilities to deliver them and measure them and your efforts to determine how successful you have been or will be. 

What you want to do now to gain a competitive advantage is to leverage all these statements to gain a competitive advantage and position yourself to enter new positions or industries. 

To begin working on your personal career strategy, you can book a one-off session initially to explore more here.