Invest in Yourself and Build Your Career
If there is one thing I have learned in almost 40 years of work, it is that unless you are resilient, and can “bounce back” when it seems that the worst has happened, you will not survive in the competitive world of work. More importantly, you will not survive happily anywhere – at home or at work.
One of the strongest human emotions is fear: fear of failure, fear of change and fear of ridicule. From an evolutionary perspective, fear keeps us safe, but it can also obstruct us in pursuing goals and dreams. Whenever there is some level of risk, there is the possibility of failure. Being open to change and taking risks requires the strength to possibly fail. Consciously assessing that risk is a positive step towards further building resilience – by facing the challenge, and deciding how to manage or mitigate the risks it entails, will help minimise the probability of failure.
Even with the best risk management, you may still fail. Learning to accept failure, to “pick yourself up” and try again, incorporating lessons learnt from the situation is another sign of increasing resilience. So, embrace change, bear the fear, capture opportunities particularly those that may appear contrary to the mainstream, and you will increasingly build resilience.
Develop Resilience
- Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work. Regularly do something enjoyable that is very removed from what you do at work.
- Take a chance. Capture opportunities as they come your way. Say “yes, I can do that”, even if the voice inside your head is saying “you can’t do that”! You never know where that opportunity may lead.
- Build Your Personal Brand. Who are you? Why should someone engage you? Why should someone trust you?
- Don’t beat yourself up. You don’t always have to be achieving; everyone makes mistakes, so consider it a learning opportunity rather than putting a negative spin on it.
- Laugh. At yourself, and at life. Laughter helps to put you in a positive mindset and gets your endorphins flowing, so you will feel better.
- Stand up and be counted. Rile against the things you know are wrong. Keep your moral compass!
- Talk about how you are feeling. Talk with a trusted colleague, relative, friend, mentor or paid counsellor. Sharing usually results in putting an issue into perspective and decreasing the burden it may be causing.
- Self-reflect regularly. Self-awareness is one of the most important skills a person can have. If you are prepared to listen to feedback, reflect on that feedback, decide how you will accept or act on that feedback, then you are well placed to consider the “bigger picture”, your place in it, and how you can capture opportunities as they present.