More than 1 in 2 employees think their current role doesn’t make good use of their skills. This observation has fuelled a growing movement that prioritizes mental and emotional hygiene, specifically in the workplace. It’s understandable considering the significant space our jobs take up in our lives. No longer wanting to compartmentalize work and life, we look for the conditions that allow our best self to show up in the workplace too.
We yearn to unleash our full potential and make a profound impact with our individual talents and gifts that are unique to ourselves. It's a quest that goes beyond career redefinition; it's about redefining how we show up in the world. Yet, often, we are denied the space to explore and discover ourselves. Time constraints, external pressures, lack of resources, and self-doubt hold us back.
Nevertheless, a powerful desire to stop compromising drives us forward. Our pursuit extends beyond financial gain. With a clearer understanding of our individual strengths, talents and skills, we can articulate the conditions we require to thrive and show up authentically. Feeling valued and accepted for who we are and the contributions we bring becomes non-negotiable on our journey of self-realization.
So how do we connect to our best self? We often try to ‘think things through’. Our quest begins with our minds and we tackle the problem from a mental standpoint.
But cast aside this notion of "mind over matter." Throughout our lives, we've been overwhelmed with external opinions on what's best for us and what we should pursue. In response, we've started crafting our own narratives. We don’t need to talk ourselves into anything anymore. We need less mind and more heart.
Listening to the heart is when others ‘should’ all over our path, but we want to pave our own. It's about giving ourselves the compassion, patience and space to understand and meet our needs. This is where genuine confidence resides.
But the mind is tricky. Driven by the instinct to protect us, it will tell us lies in our own voice. We must, then, devise clever strategies to silence it momentarily while we allow the wisdom within us to be heard.
I’ve been trying out and testing various tactics. I’ve combined teachings from NLP, mindfulness meditation, and Design Thinking to cut through the clutter and step outside of the current framework, to identify new insights and possibilities. You don’t need to sweat the process. Your mind can take the back seat and follow along. The exercises will help you start differentiating between your needs and those of others, and pinpoint experiences and conditions that leave you energized, confident and inspired.