Today’s volatile marketplace find executives being rewarded one-day for the stellar results they’ve generated only to see themselves squeezed out the next day because the rules have changed. Clients call stating:
- Remember the co-worker I’ve had struggles with since we started working together? Well, now that person is my boss. This reporting structure has little chance of working!
- Remember how senior-management told me all indications are I’m a lock-in as the successor to my boss when he retires? Well, they brought someone in from the outside; then, turned around and asked me if I’m committed to the company!
- Remember when my organization announced the merger, assuring the employees how beneficial it would be for all of us and separately pulling me aside to let me know my position was secure? Well, not so much. I was just laid off!
- Remember the presentation I worked on honing it to perfection? Well, the project didn’t get funded!
On the surface, all of these real-life scenarios may seem as though they are career killers or at the very least, career slow-downs. Without question, they can emotionally take your legs right out from underneath you. How do you turn it around to restore your internal balance in the face of all of this?
Give Yourself a Break–Literally: Immediate action is not your friend in times like these. Pause, mourn the loss of what you believed could be, ground yourself in today’s reality and then, reset. What do you intend to create for yourself? What action plans can you put in place right now?
Discouragement Drags You Down: Don’t forget, you’re always on the way to your future, the grand adventure of your life; it just doesn’t always look like you thought it would. But depend on it, you are!
Celebrate: Yes!! It may sound counter-intuitive, and yet, as you look back over your life experiences; haven’t you already moved through tough times to achieve your current position? Didn’t perceived bad turned into spectacular good? Now, is the time to reconnect with the reality of your past and have faith all is well in your world moving forward even though it may not appear to be so in this season of your career.
Maintain Your Perspective: Every life of significances—which yours is—evolves out of the turbulent periods. The fact is your peak growth emerges out of the struggles you experience along the journey not merely smooth sailing. What lesson is embedded in your setback today? Realize it and get back in the game this is what draws success to you.
Trust: If you don’t claim the positive narrative of your career and exclusively focus on what has gone wrong, you become the victim in the storyline, when what, in actuality, you desire is to be the hero!
Disrupters are coming at us fast-and-furiously which could and can throw us off our stride, but only if you allow it to occur. When you live as though external forces determine your reality, you lose. Undoubtedly, your internal state is far more essential to generating a powerful future—one that leads to satisfaction as well as fulfillment. So, pay attention to that aspect, and your thriving career will be a sure thing!