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Happy 2024 Career Champion! 🎉
If you're reading this, you've brought the new year in with me, and I'm genuinely thrilled to have you here and on this journey. Here's to a year filled with all the goodness you envision, may you harness all your wonderful potential!!!
Like most of you, I've done some reflecting and planning that comes with the turning of the calendar. Amidst the sea of emails flooding in, I'm grateful for this moment with you.
My introspective journey had me ponder about the many adjectives I've used to define myself over the past year. Black/African, Caribbean, "Trini", woman, Coach, mother, cheerleader, and foreigner—each label bringing its own novelty and joy but also with them, a set of expectations and guidelines, which can be a bit of a rulebook and if I'm not careful could limit my actions and opportunities.
For instance, as an educated Caribbean "good" mother, I seem to have an unspoken checklist of expectations! I attend ALL parent-teacher conferences with questions, PTA meetings, ensure the perfectly articulated "caribbean" manners from my daughter, she's must look tidy, give 100% attention in class ....whew right!!!! The list goes on and on and on, it's a roadmap, a set of guidelines I unwittingly carry and extend to others.
Here's the revelation: I never paused to question which definitions lit up my spirit, which felt limiting, which ones drained my energy or which one's if didn't happen didn't mean that I was a horrible parent (I just can't do the PTA!!!!). So, I'm flipping the script, doing a re-write and if you want to reclaim your identity, I invite you to do the same.
Let's shift this introspection to you and your career journey. Just like our personal identities, our professional ones often come with predetermined scripts and roadmaps. But what if we dared to question them? What if we had the curiosity and freedom to redefine our professional narrative?
One client of mine carried bags full of labels, some chosen and some handed down to her by the world. Coming from a lower income neighborhood, she believed she had to work very hard to get anything she wanted and when she did she had to share with her community. So she felt guilty for spending money on herself and constantly judged the quality of her work based on how hard she worked on it. In one of our coaching sessions she was able to identify and examine a few when they came up. The aha was .... some things can be just easy because of my talent. The impact was less anxiety, more confidence and ease in her work and life.
If you're curious about doing the same here are few tips:
🌟 Acknowledge Your Professional Layers: Open a fresh page. List your professional adjectives and explore your beliefs and feelings about each. This isn't just a career exercise; it's a liberating journey toward professional authenticity.
🔍 Scrutinize Each Label: Like a detective, investigate how each professional label shapes your thoughts, beliefs, and actions within the workplace. Do they empower you or hold you back? Identify the ones aligned with your career aspirations and courageously bid farewell to those that hinder your growth.
🚀 Craft a New Professional Tale: Now, imagine introducing yourself in your career again, what titles would resonate authentically with you or energize you? Picture the professional narrative that sets your soul on fire.
The canvas is yours, fellow champion. What masterpiece will you create?
I would love to know adjectives and aha's you come up with - REPLY to this email!
As we stand at the beginning year, let's revel in the excitement of self-rediscovery. Embrace the freedom to redefine your career narrative, one adjective at a time.
To your success,
Coach Assata
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