The trend dubbed “The Great Resignation,” of people quitting their jobs in droves, which seemed to be a short-term phenomenon is hurting companies everywhere in every sector and who knows when it will end. This trend points to how the pandemic has upended our expectations of what career and life satisfaction looks like and the cost of teetering on the brink of exhaustion or burnout. Many people are drawing a line, a solid boundary around their mental, emotional and physical health and reimagining what they want.

The pandemic helped us see and understand at a deeper level that without a sense of purpose, meaning and value, our work cannot fulfill us and make the impact we long for.

So many of my clients are already planning their exits from their current roles to launch their own bold new endeavors. Often it involves long-held passions and dreams they all but gave up on that now seem....possible! Reinventing, reimagining, re-designing work that draws from their innate gifts and talents, their passions, their sense of purpose. There is a new urgency of, If not now when?

How has the pandemic changed your expectations of what you need or want from your career?

Before you can transition into a more rewarding and impactful career, you must know what matters most to you, and what's getting in the way of it. Ask yourself, what is it costing me to stay put? If I wasn’t afraid, what would I be doing?  What do I want more of? What do I want to stop doing?

 Also, it may be helpful to consider what’s the ONE thing you long for professionally, whether as an employee or entrepreneur. Some women want more leadership. Others want better work-life balance. Some care about their legacy. Others want more financial reward, fulfillment, impact, or visibility. What do YOU want? What’s your plan to get there?

As we all cope with the uncertainty, disruptions, and shifts of this environment, having resilience is going to separate those of us that emerge on the other side intact and those who succumb to its associated challenges.

So how do we cultivate resilience? A few quick tips:

1) Learn from failure. We improvise, learn what to adjust, which expert to consult, and what new protective protocol to implement.

2) Stay motivated and positive. What we focus on expands. In the face of challenge and trials, we must find a perspective that helps us see the silver lining, the light in the darkness.  

3) We stand firmly in our core beliefs and values. Our faith can ground us and keep us hopeful that we can overcome any hardship. 

4) We don’t go it alone. Life is meant to be lived in community. This is why God, created Eve, as a companion and helpmate for Adam because he said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen 2:18) Community can encourage us, spur us on, and inspire us. Those we surround ourselves with can give us a perspective we may not get on our own.

Speaking of community, I’ve been guilty of holding myself back from investing in support or help because I keep thinking I can figure it out with time. Other women stay stuck out of fear, concerns about investing in themselves, a lack of optimism that things can truly dramatically shift for the better for them with the right support, and many more reasons.

Consider what changing your work to something much more gratifying, where you’re operating in your brilliance and you’re in your right lane, with the confidence to lead, serve, and be a force of change, would be worth to you.

I'd love to help you figure out what you need and want most right now in your work, and how you can engage the best of your strengths and talents in ways that are mutually beneficial to you and your organization or business. When you play to your strengths, when you can name them and fully embrace how they are expressed in you and the value they bring, your job satisfaction and confidence soars. But most of us can’t do this work on our own. We need an objective person, a champion, a coach who can help us strengthen and refine our secret sauce and then help us aim it in the direction where it is most valued. This is one of my superpowers. I also have the gift of vision to see potential and call it out, challenging my clients to play bigger and dream larger.

I believe it’s time for all of us to take the reins of our careers and lives as we navigate uncertainty and pivots that are the new normal right now. If not now, when?