This year has been a tough one for me personally. Like many working in the DEI space, my clients have put the brakes on many projects. With global insecurity, impending elections, and cost of living concerns, many simply aren’t buying workshops and coaching for their clients the way they historically did. The good news for me, though? The ‘Peak Resilience Accelerator’ has not only helped my clients, the lessons within have been a godsend for me too in remembering my professional resilience.
Learning From My Own Teachings
This became clearest perhaps in a discussion I had with a woman, Mary, who had been on last year’s course. Mary, like other clients, is self-employed in a demanding field where ‘perfection’ is expected, and the stakes are high. Mary found the training within the Peak Resilience Accelerator very grounding and saw its utility with her colleagues, many of whom hide mental health issues and the strain they face for the sake of their reputations.
In a social meeting with Mary, I mentioned I was going to be in Western Australia and Singapore for 6 weeks, celebrating my husband’s long-overdue retirement. Given we were both self-employed, Mary was amazed I was willing to take such a long break, particularly when my workload was so low. What if I missed out on something important? Wasn’t I concerned about my earnings and my reputation?
Having worked for myself for over 20 years, I completely understood her concern, recognising those fears myself. However, I countered that the irony of most of our careers is that ‘when you are working and you have the money, you don’t have the time. When you aren’t working and are waiting for work, you don’t have the money!’ As someone who had built a very well-regarded reputation, she laughed and recognised this too.
The Importance of Taking Time for Yourself
I thought about Mary’s question that entire night, even mulling it over as I tried to sleep. I realised that my new mindset shift, the one comfortable with taking a long holiday, was completely because of the positive intelligence focus of ‘Peak Resilience Accelerator’. The next day I wrote her an email:
‘I’m not sure I answered your query well at all the other day.
Missing out on work IS a conundrum we all face, especially as self-employed people. Indeed, in my adult life, since the age of 22 (now 48) I’ve only ever worked as an employee for 4 years. But in thinking your question through, I go back to the PQ focus: recognising the gifts that the ‘slow period’ of time away from work will give you.
- Use your prior evidence that after so many years becoming a professional and developing your reputation, something will likely come your way. You have been in low periods before, and it’s worked out.
- Realise new ways of looking at your work and your life priorities will come to you while you are ‘away’.
- Use your prior evidence that you have the skills/connections/resources to turn even a ‘bad’ situation around.’
Remember Your Professional Resilience!
‘Even before I found the mental fitness and positive intelligence work that is the basis for ‘Peak Resilience Accelerator,’ I found that when in a really high pressured situation and asked a tricky question (notably presentations to all male boards on the importance of gender balance), I’d remind myself: ‘It is highly improbable/statistically unlikely that I will die here on the spot as I speak to this unfriendly audience,’ which would then quickly remind me to check my assumptions – are all 8 men equally hostile? Probably not! This reality check would remind me of my professional resilience – a more helpful path than hoping the floor would simply swallow me up.
Mary, that’s what I should have said to you yesterday, and for me a reminder of how the PQ and mental fitness offers resilience. It reminds people to not dwell in their fear or in a difficult moment, but use your tools to get out of it more quickly than you have before.’
If you want to learn more about what your saboteurs might be doing to hold you back in your career, keep an eye out for my next round of Peak Resilience Accelerator sessions! Or get in contact for some executive coaching sessions, or a webinar talk.
