What do you need?

Hi there.

If you’ve been following this newsletter up to now, you’ll know that it’s all about the things each and every one of us can do to change our working lives for the better. So, you might imagine, at the start of a New Year, I’d be all for making punchy work-based resolutions.

But I’m not.?

It’s not that I’m anti-resolutions. They do actually work *for some people, some of the time*.?The evidence from behavioural science tells us that having a?Fresh Start?- a clear and decisive date from which we can start a new behaviour - can really help to kick start a new habit. (If you’re interested, I highly recommend Katy Milkman’s work. Her book ‘How to Change’ was one of my favourite reads of 2021).?

It’s just that this might not be the right Fresh Start moment for you. Think of it like this: even if you change nothing about the way you do things right now, your brain is bang in the middle of some pretty heaving cognitive mapping; replotting everything you once knew about work and life, after almost 2 years of enormous disruption. Sound like effort? It is.

So, you can definitely afford to cut yourself some slack.

I’m doing that by reframing a question we often ask of ourselves at the beginning of the year. Instead of asking?'What do I need to do/achieve/become in 2022?’,?I’m simply asking 'What do I need in 2022?’

Understanding your ever-evolving needs is an essential step in setting yourself up to recover from burnout and prepare for further uncertainty ahead. But it’s not just about survival mode. Tuning into what you really need – both in the present moment and into the future – will also set you up for greater contentment, fulfilment, performance and ultimately success by your own measure.???

Although ‘what do I need?’ sounds like an obvious question, it’s surprisingly hard to get to the nub of the answer.??For a start, it’s open to a huge range of interpretations. You might need a decent night's sleep.?But you also might need a bold career move. It’s a wide spectrum to consider. In addition, our needs are evolving constantly. Just think about this time two years ago. Your ambitions. Your expectations. The set-up of your work and home life. Things are different now. What you need – to find fulfilment and success – may well be different too.

So, how do you get a helpful answer to such a broad question? There are three steps I use to help me sort through the kaleidoscope of possibilities….

1)???Get clear on what success looks like to you.

See if you can get specific about what success looks like to you this year.?It could be things like:

·??????Your place on the career ladder

·???????Respect in your field

·???????Financial reward

But more of us are starting to include things like:

·???????Wellbeing

·???????Time and energy to spend with your friends and family

·???????Freedom to have more time doing what you love

When you look at it in these terms, you soon realise that what you?really?need could be very different depending on your answer…

2)?Think about what you need to make it happen.?

Once you have clarity on your measure of success, then ask yourself: what do I need in 2022 to make this happen? Of course, the answer might lead you to setting a punchy resolution or a big hairy goal. But it also might lead you to realise that it’s OK to just be as you are right now. That you might need more rest. To book that holiday. Or more time to pursue that hobby you’ve been dreaming about.

This isn’t about chucking in ambition. Or lowering your standards of performance. It is simply recognising that sometimes doing and achieving won’t always bring you the success you’re after. That sometimes, taking time to reflect and fuelling your tank in other ways, might even get you there sooner.?

3)?Get in the habit of asking yourself: what do I need right now?

It can be easier to identify our longer-term needs than to really tune into what we need here and now.??Our brains are hardcore prediction devices. Constantly sizing up what’s ahead and trying to prepare for it. So, it’s really easy to get distracted with thinking far into the future. But bringing it back to the present and identifying what?you need right now could actually be the key to transforming how you set yourself up for the long-run. For me, this is the core of mindfulness.??Even just a few brief check-in moments every day - tuning into?thoughts, emotions and physiological?signals - can give me the data to help me decide what I need to equip myself for the rest of that day. A walk in the fresh air might shift my?energy state. A reshuffle of my priorities might calm the overwhelm. A quick chat with a friend might help me discard some negative thought?patterns or give me a much needed boost from the powers of social connection.

And soon that habit translates from the day-to-day into a way of being. Learning how to be here now and really tune into what your body and mind are telling you is a skill. One you can only really learn through messy trial and error. But it starts with those check-ins, those moments of accepting things for how they are right now and finding ways to equip yourself with what you need to move forward.

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So to make work better in 2022, the habit I’m getting behind is to know when to ask this all important question. And to remind those around us to do the same.?

It could even serve as a regular team check-in, as you navigate uncertainty together.?Ask yourselves the simple question ‘what do we need as a team?’ and give each other?permission to find a way to make it happen.

The truth is: we really don’t all need to be doing, achieving, transforming all of the time. Sometimes it’s the *not doing* that brings the ultimate success.??It’s a hard one for our busy minds to come to terms with. But the more we all become aware of it, the more we can teach each other the value of putting our need?to be?before our need?to do.

Bye for now,

Erin

This newsletter is a part of a series to help you find ways to change your experience of?work?for the?better. Subscribe and you'll find it in your inbox every other week.