The Changing World of Work – a Personal Insight

Yes, we have heard it a thousand times if we have heard it once, our world is constantly changing, now at a much more rapid rate than ever before.
What we once thought was secure and constant is no longer and we need to be more innovative in the way in which we see our work.
Most of us are working differently whether that be introducing work from home, changing work projects, employer etc…
From a personal perspective, this pandemic has assisted me to achieved balance in my life. It made me step back and think about what I wanted out of life, how I wanted to live my life and gave me time and space to plan and start putting my world into action.
I used to get hung up on the small things – if something….anything went wrong in my planned day; I would end up in an internal spin… you would never see if from the outside looking in but I would be in internal turmoil.
I have been through drastic personal changes over the last three years. Life events that have challenged me in ways I never thought I could handle.
For those who know me, I am workaholic and perfectionist. I always have been. I love my work. I have always been passionate and dedicated to being the best I could be at work. My work has always been the way in which I have defined who I am. During this pandemic I started thinking about what matters to me! What really gave me the pep up and fast stepped pace in my morning, what made me want to get up and achieve a day’s work and when I solidified that in my mind, I started making some changes and then started feeling like I was actually achieving my life goals.
I learnt that:
I will always strive to be the best I can be
I love empowering others to be the best they can be
I will never stop learning and I love to learn
I love to help to make a difference – systemically within organisations and with individuals
What needed to change for me is the need for balance. The need to ensure a balance between professional and personal life activities. I started to establish my personal life goals. I asked myself what actually brings me happiness and I then rejuggled my approach to life to enable me to have a fulfilling personal and professional life.
Its interesting that this pandemic is what helped me to stop to smell the roses and reconsider how I wanted to be in my future and helped me plan and start implementing some really amazing life changes:
Spending quality time with my family and friends – albeit in COVID-19 style – coffees, drinks and even dinner over zoom, team meetings, long phone discussions etc…
Investing heavily in my professional future – focusing on building a new company with my long-time friend and colleague Jeanette Kinahan – Thriving People where our focus is on bringing the joy back into work.
Dedicating time in my day for solid work activity and play time – going for a run, walking in the park and gardening.
Spending a part of every day on rewirement challenges that aim to improve myself personally.
Showing an act of kindness to another person every day – at least one!
I have always preached balance to my clients and colleagues but in reality never really focused on that for myself. I kept putting my needs on the back burner – in the “too hard basket”. What amazed me is that when my balance improved, my level of happiness elevated and I had a sense of achievement, satisfaction, and internal energy that I have never before experienced.
I don’t know if I (or others) will ever have the perfect work-life balance. For me, it’s about continuously challenging myself and focusing then refocusing on how I can achieve a greater end.
We have all heard the saying – another day another dollar – hum drum….. I never want to be there – I want to love what I do every-day. I want to be able to look back on my day and say I have achieved something good that will make some difference even it is only a small difference. I want to say that my day had purpose and influence to others around me both professionally and personally. I am sure that I am not the only person to say this but this pandemic has helped me to regroup and in some ways find myself. The lessons I have learnt is that life is not all about work, its about me as an individual, as a mum, as a friend, as a daughter, as a therapist, as a mediator, as a conflict management coach….. I can go on. We all have such a lot of hats to wear. The trick is to achieve a balance to enable us to wear our various life role hats to ensure that our overall happiness is not compromised. Life is crazy busy for many of us – we just need to know when to change hats and ensure our lives have meaning in each of life’s arenas.

At Thriving People we are setting out to capture our ‘joy in work’ stories and broadcast them so we can learn from each other – turning theory into reality. Check this out on our website www.thrivingpeople.net.au. If you’d like to know more please connect with us at Thriving People.

Carol Young, Co-Director of Thriving People has 25 + years practical experience holding various qualification as an Occupational Therapist, Health and Safety Practitioner, Nationally Accredited Mediator and Conflict Management Coach (amongst other things).