Life in Seasons. And Dealing with Career Challenges.

Welcome to the Eating your Cake too Newsletter.

I'll be popping into your feed each month with insights, observations and guidance on all things careers and leadership. This newsletter will give you a 'best of' of sorts. If you really want to GREAT stuff, though, you should?join our private mailing list?over at the Eating your Cake too website.

We've got two reflection pieces for you this month.....

1. Life in Seasons
2. Dealing with Career Challenges

Firstly, let's talk about life in seasons. This feels like great timing, particularly as this Friday will be the start of a new one!

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of a tough time it can feel like it’s never going to end. Like the world is going to swallow you whole.

Sometimes the feeling can be so overwhelming that even though you can see the negativity surrounding you like the arms of an octopus, it still just keeps moving in on its prey.

You can feel it. You know it’s happening.

You even know it’s not real and that it’s just your mind playing games with you.

BUT….

When the chips are down, it can feel hard to muster up the strength to get back up time and time again.

It can feel like you’re the victim, even. Those “why me” thoughts creep in. The “what did I do so wrong” vibes. Or the "why does everyone else's life seem so easy" pity party.?

But I also know this to be true…

Life is made up of a series of seasons.

Some will be good. Some will be great.

Some will undoubtedly be bad.

And the odd one may even be terrible.

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My observations and my own self reflections are often that when we are in the good, we keep trying to make it great.

And when we are lucky enough to be in the great, we don’t stop to smell the roses or appreciate just how great it actually is.

Yet, when we are in the bad or the terrible, we feel like it’s never going to end, or that we’ve been there forever.

My learning for dealing in the bad and terrible times (as we all will) is to step off the dance floor and back on to the balcony.

When we step back and zoom out a little, we are more able to gain perspective about ourselves and our lives overall. We are able to see this season for what it is. A season. NOT our whole life.? ?

YOUR CAREER ACTION: Reflect on whatever season of life you might be in at the moment - good, great, bad, or even terrible, and remind yourself that this too shall pass - so embrace the happiness, but remember that adversity is also not forever. You will rise again.

Now.... I am keen to hear from you if you are dealing with these career challenges too?

One of my favourite things to do when I work with new groups of people inside Organisations is to get a flavour for what they feel their biggest career and leadership challenges currently are. ?

Not only does it give me a sense of the key themes at play inside the Organisation (and often an insight into the real culture that is playing out too), but it then gives me almost everything I need to know which bits of my own IP and expertise to share with the group in order to help them navigate these challenges for greater career confidence, and ultimately to deliver better business outcomes.?

What is always interesting to me though is that no matter what company I go into, no matter where it is in the world, and irrespective of the product, service, or industry at play, the same core desires prevail. They might be worded slightly differently, but they almost always comes back to this…. ??

That human beings at their core want to feel heard, seen valued and understood.

Sounds so simple, right? So obvious. And yet, time and time again the biggest challenges that people face, or the biggest frustrations that they hold are because they feel someone hasn’t done this for them, OR they have not consistently and competently done it for others which has reduced their own impact and influence.?

Here is just a micro snippet of some of the career challenges that participants will often shout out to me when I ask them in workshops: ?

CAREER CHALLENGES?

• Building a broader network and a stronger ability to influence people and showcase value without feeling arrogant
• Deeper clarity on my own impact, influence and the value that I can add to my manager and team
• Better emotional management and ability to deal with overwhelm - managing people and complex people/problems daily has left me feeling exhausted
• How to successfully influence stakeholders when everyone seems to have their own agenda
• Feeling inspired again by my career and the opportunities that are out there after returning to the workforce post having children
• Being more strategic about the relationships I have and consistently building my own network, instead of just focussing on my immediate tasks
• Being truly comfortable being authentically me in a workplace that feels like it doesn’t want me to be
• Switching off and setting boundaries - being able to say NO and feel like that is ok
• Knowing, owning and leveraging my strengths more intentionally
• Building greater ROI around my role, the teams and our impact to the business – essentially, PR of our department
• Feeling ok to break career ladder norms and do what I want to do

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Do any of these resonate with you??Do you see these play out in your workplace?

Competing agendas? Limited resources and time? Seemingly endless deliverables and priorities all needed yesterday? The goal posts shifting, the pace increasing, and the ability to cut through to the decision makers and be seen getting harder? ?

You’re not alone if you’re feeling ANY of these things.?

My advice to you is this though.

Hope is NOT a strategy. ?

Waiting and hoping that your organisation will take care of this for you, or that these challenges will go away is not enough.

YOU have got to get out in front of them. ?

YOU have got to lead yourself first.

YOUR CAREER ACTION: Reflect on your current career challenges. What feels difficult right now? And now ask yourself, if failure wasn't an option, how would you solve this challenge? What would you do? Now, take one small step forward and take action. Momentum breeds momentum, and action builds confidence.

I believe in you.

See you next month for more real talk and relevant career and leadership conversations!

P.s If you are a Perth based woman, or supporter of empowering the women in your Organisation to be heard, seen, noticed and valued more in your workplace, then join us at the Women on the Rise 3 day Accelerator on October 16th – 18th. Spaces are limited.?

P.p.s If your Organisation would benefit from having an engaging, authentic, ‘real talk’ speaker come in and motivate your talent to be impact players in your Organisation, please reach out.