How I sailed through the marathon of my career | Shruti Swaroop | TEDxAUD
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ0r7FANTNg Video ID: gZ0r7FANTNg ============================================================ hello everybody one of the most endearing memories i have through my school days is getting my report card my report got that yearnier spoke similar things very well done can do better excellent can do better this can do better has stayed with me for most part of my life it defined how i looked at myself and how i thought the world looked at me after all the beliefs and perspectives we get in our growing up years define us approximately 72 young professionals i coach are spending over 100 hours a week at work managing expectations of others and more importantly managing expectations they have of themselves they are showing signs of burnout i can understand them about two decades back when i started my career i remember wanting big designations quick money and trying to be successful whatever was my definition of success back then i was putting in long hours at work doing late nights trying to match pace with all the geographies my work took me to it was great feedback was good except that i was burnt out that was my first lesson in mental well-being that was the first time i realized that being mentally fit to do our role plays a big part to do our work well my coach back then sat down with me and made me do my swot becoming aware of my strengths my weaknesses my areas of opportunity the value i was bringing to the table the impact i was making helped me a lot it created a different kind of self-awareness another thing that helped me was taking a balcony view of the situation i was in which meant looking at things objectively without emotions was it easy no it was not but i had to because i was getting pulled in by the emotions of the work i was doing even today very often i take a step back it makes me look at things objectively and it makes life easy corporate careers are about 40 years from the time we graduate to the time we retire it is often said careers are like marathon sometimes i think it's possibly not even a marathon it's a very different country which requires a different kind of endurance because at different times in our career we need different skills we need different expertise to deal with what our career throws our way i have learned to manage my energy differently at different times i have learned that different parts of our career require us to manage our energy in different ways sometimes it's okay to rest sometimes it's okay to run we need to know how to pace ourselves a senior executive i worked with was discussing his challenges with me last week one of the things he mentioned was that he's expected to have all answers i was impressed with his vulnerability i was impressed with his courage it takes a lot of courage wisdom and humility to actually go out there and talk to somebody and accept that you're vulnerable except that you do not have all answers having all answers is also a story we tell ourselves that as leaders people need to have all answers that we need to have all answers this courage to accept that we do not have answers makes us go out there seek help ask people and leverage different perspectives getting different perspectives often helps us look at things with a very different mindset it has worked for me quite often to just be vulnerable and reach out and seek help a lot of women professionals i coach also speak about the glass ceiling they talk about the challenges they face in their careers glass ceiling is a lot about the opportunities we are denied but it is also a lot about the opportunities we deny ourselves as i said a little while back the stories we tell ourselves make a lot of difference recognizing that a lot of times the boundaries around us are self-created is a huge step in in our career and in defining where we are going again it has been an awareness for me that a lot of times what i am thinking or what i think the world is thinking about to me is possibly nothing it's about what i think about myself that defines me sometimes we feel very stuck in our careers we feel that we've hit a cul-de-sac there are no choices no options we are going through the same thing for a very long time it's important in those moments to know that it's time to manage energy differently to rescale ourselves i have seen a lot of senior professionals having the courage to reskill themselves at various stages of their lives i have seen a lot of senior professionals actually moving from their careers and following their hobby and their passions at various times knowing when to re-skill then to take a step back and re-look at your entire journey of the career is important the last one here has taught us all a very different skill flexibility the pandemic has showed a very different side of life to us which is that as many goals as we make as much vision that we can have about life and our career we can still have uncertainty like the one that we've been going through in the last one year the pandemic has taught us that everything can fall in disarray at times when we think about our careers of 40 years when we think about modularizing them and making short-term goals 2 years 5 years 10 years everything at times can come to a not it's about adaptability in these situations it's about knowing that these are times to manage energy to take rest to take a step back and let things happen go with the flow careers are about being creative being innovative and being entrepreneur it's about taking risk it's about knowing when to take that risk it has helped me in good stead to look back and see at various times how i have reinvented myself the challenges that are thrown our way require us to actually rethink and reinvent and i know that it is not easy but one has to do it in the grand scheme of these 40 years as i said it needs a very different endurance what has given me a lot of support is knowing that each time when faced with roadblocks and challenges i have managed to look at my overall mental well-being i have managed to look at the biggest scheme of my career and then work towards it i have managed to drive like a phoenix and that's what matters ultimately people do not remember events people only remember the emotions associated with it that's all i have to say thank you so much