As pro golfer Tiger Woods found out recently, life mistakes can have a profound effect on our family and the fabric of our lives. Whether we make mistakes large or small, however, it is our resiliency, adaptability and honesty that will help us move past such challenges in our lives and/or careers.
I don’t want to talk any further about Tiger’s own personal issues except to say they reemphasize a lesson I learned many years ago: It’s not that we make mistakes, it’s how we react from those challenges that truly make the ultimate difference in our continuing success.
Circumstances Should Not Consume Us
While I have a very wonderful 25-year marriage, the point is we can’t let circumstances consume us no matter what those challenges may be. Many of us, for example, have gone through layoff challenges in this perfect storm economy or have been over-burdened at work because of extra duties added with valued colleagues being let go.
Should we feel down at least momentarily…of course. Should we lose our confidence for the moment because very challenging things have come to our doorstop…while I hope not but we are, again, only human. I made the mistake of blaming myself after my layoff even though I was told I was one of the top performers at my company. I also made a mistake initially thinking that I just had one course of action to try to find the same type communications executive position I’ve always been successful at in the past.
My additional mistake was letting such circumstances consume me without seeing the true skills and potential I had in this “new” economy. You also may have experienced this, but I did a lot of soul-searching after I figured out the types of jobs I was accustomed to were just not there – or at least not readily available – anymore.
I Did Not See My Life Gifts or the Broad Picture…
So where was I going to go and what were my next options. To be honest, I just did not know at first. Should I continue down the same employment path as before or should I do something else? Well, what I decided is an example that I suggest you consider as you move down your unique career and life journey.
Re-Looking at Your Personal Brand is Critical
I looked extremely hard at my personal brand and what I truly loved to do in life. I want to retire some day in Hawaii but that is not going to happen any time soon. So how should I use my many talents in life to continue being reasonably successful in life? After a lot of reflection, I decided to use my gifts as a writer and speaker to help others with their shared desire to have a happy life and very resilient future. But how could I do this?
For my health, I started to write this blog to keep my writing talents sharp and my skills in talking with people fine-tuned. It was a God-send and a true revelation…my common-sense resiliency strategies hit the right cord. I used my personal work resiliency moments and life challenges as a person with a disability (Cerebral Palsy) to help provide – as many of you have highlighted – real life vignettes that show how all of us can stay resilient.
While I now have more than a million hits on this blog, and have made speeches to organizations and individuals worldwide, the point is that I needed to re-invent the way I thought about myself leading me to a very resilient mindset. That has helped me maintain my confidence, stay persistent and be truly patient as I find ways to spread the resiliency message to (very, very humbly) millions of great folks like you.
Never Limit Yourself
The additional point: Please never limit yourself or let any mistake consume you to where you do not see your true potential – not only at work but in life. If I would have stayed the typical course, I’d still be out of work with much reduced confidence and a sense of diminishing hope. Now, I have a resiliency business that is so gratefully taking off. Despite my layoff mistakes initially, I looked at my self hard, determined what I absolutely wanted to do in life and developed a plan to get me there.
So, if you have made life or career mistakes or are facing other significant challenges, I suggest you never give up believing in yourself, your resilient attitude or the rock-solid values you live by everyday. While I personally went through my “black hole” after the very agonizing layoff, I found the resilient formula to be happy and healthy in my life.
Understand your personal brand and confidently go to where you want to be. I know you can have even more success than me if you only believe…
I will talk with you next week, and I hope you are staying resilient despite the possible missteps and challenges all of us inevitably face.
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