Pathway #1 to Professional Resilience: Invest in Yourself

 INVEST IN YOURSELF

​Welcome to the first article in my series on professional resilience. In this article, I'll be sharing with you my first pathway to professional resilience: Investing in Yourself.

I want you to think about investing in yourself as an act of hard work, of incredible faith in the future, of feeding your soul and the work you are meant to do in this world. It is a full-body-mind-soul-spirit experience.

I chose the photo above to illustrate this article because of the fact that the person planting the flowers is getting their hands dirty. Real growth comes from digging up your foundation, refreshing the soil and making room for new possibilities. This means we have to let things get a little messy. We might get uncomfortable and scared along the way, but it's the only way for us to sprout new growth.

Too often we think of investing in ourselves as a transaction like attending a seminar, upgrading our professional wardrobe or having virtual coffee with a long-lost colleague. I'm not talking about transactions. I'm talking about investing in yourself as a life practice, one that will foster your professional sustainability and resilience. I'm talking about getting messy, making mistakes, creating space and discomfort in service of your next incarnation.

Think of investing in yourself on multiple levels, on an ongoing basis, throughout your professional life. Here are some ways to break it down:
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1. Skills/experience/knowledge: Make a yearly plan to build your professional capabilities by focusing on quarters. Choose four activities that will build your skills and spread them out throughout the next year.
2. Personal development: Look inward. Where are you in your life? What do you need most? What do you yearn to do in your life? Who do you wish to be? Find ways to develop your inner resources so you can better respond to the inevitable changes that will arise.
3. Mindset: Tune in to your inner dialogue and notice how it makes you feel. If you are in a loop of stuckness and frustration, consciously choose to shift it. Meditation helps and so does a daily practice of gratitude.
4. Foster authentic connections: Make a list of 25 people you would like to connect with. Be genuine about this and magical things will happen. Don't choose people that you think will help you get somewhere. Choose people who excite you, that inspire you. Being with them will change you and how you see your future. Then make a plan to connect with them all in a meaningful way this year.