You can't go back to who you were before the pandemic
I don’t know about you, but I don't fit my old work "me" anymore, I can't go back to who I was before the pandemic
Are you feeling like you've shifted in the past year, personally and professionally?
Who were you a year ago versus who are you today?
That's a big question I know a lot of us are grappling with. When I think back to March, 2020, and the life I had, the routines I depended on, the work streams I doing, and my overall mental state...I don't recognize that person anymore because she's not me today.
There's this sense of not recognizing myself and also wondering how do I make sense of who I've become?
Who is this new me?
How do I get to know her?
She seems like a wiser, more evolved version of past me. And, boy does she have a low tolerance for superficial, meaningless bullshit.
My values have changed. My priorities are different. My definition of what living a good life means is transformed. Those limiting beliefs that everyone talks about? WOW, I went to war with them this year in months long mental battles, finally noticing how many "supposed to's" were secretly defining me for years.
Want to know which mental gremlins I've been crushing?
Mine told me:
I'm stuck.
I'm a failure.
I don't know what I'm doing with my life.
My career has gone sideways and I'm doomed.
I'm going to be another statistic about women in the workforce who plateau.
I've peaked....
…that's pretty nutty stuff. Even writing this makes me chuckle at myself and cry. How have I put up with this self-sabotage?
There's a bright side.🌟
The many lessons of crushing my gremlins, include:
Lesson 1: I have the power to define myself.
Lesson 2: My identity is mine to choose and (re)shape into my own design.
Lesson 3: Damn, that "find your hybrid professional identity" process really works! Thank goodness I have this tool because I'm using it right now to (re)think who I've become since the pandemic. Back to Venn diagrams!
Does this sound like you?
Are you're trying to make sense of the "old" versus "new" you? The almost-post-pandemic version of yourself?
How has your work/life identity changed?
Who do you want to be in your work moving forward in 2021?
You know what?
It's time for you to do some hybrid professional identity work on yourself.
Let me tell you, this work is transformational in mind, body, and career! It will bring alignment, clarity, and effective communication about how to share WHO you are in your work.
I recently helped Kim Ribich, who shared:
"When I met Sarabeth, I thought I was burned out. I was actually having a professional identity crisis. For years, when asked what I did, I answered with a generic job title...but I didn’t know how to tell my whole story.
Sarabeth helped me strip away the layers of limiting labels, and identify the core of who I am when I am working at the intersection of my strongest attributes. Suddenly all the facets of my professional identity came together in the middle of that Venn diagram, and dormant, un-tapped value emerged center stage.
This gift of clarity has given me permission - no, authority - to fully show up in my work. I’m accessing new levels of energy, focus, and engagement because I’m intentionally creating work and serving others from my whole self."