Wise Wednesdays

When I was preparing for a big career leap, I had the sense that it was best to keep it quiet.   I only told a few people on a need-to-know basis… I quickly understood that some people just didn’t get what I was doing.   The idea of not continuing to work to get to the next rung on the career ladder was failure in their eyes. To them it seemed like I was giving up – that I couldn’t cut it, perhaps. At best, they thought I was burnt out and just needed a break. Once or twice, I even said I was going on maternity leave because it felt more acceptable. I joked with a sympathetic colleague that I was going on baternity leave to give birth to a business… And so I learned that failure is in the eye of the beholder. ONE PERSON’S FAILURE IS ANOTHER PERSON’S BID FOR FREEDOM This isn’t a motivational piece with practical tips or mindset tricks on how to turn failure around.   It’s a deeper questioning of our assumptions around meaningful life decisions .   Your life choices m...

During the pandemic, some people asked me: do you miss working as a doctor or in public health? It can be a little awkward because I loved my career as a doctor and public health advisor to governments. I worked very hard in my career. But at some point, I had to face the reality that it didn’t fit anymore. And the truth is I’m happy with what I’m doing now. My vocation has always been around helping others – service – but also doing it in a way that’s aligned with my strengths and passion. And these can evolve and change over time. Trusting your own evolution so that your career is an expression of your vocation and not the other way around is an act of courage.   Here are 3 types of trust that can help you let go of your current career while strengthening your vocation: See it on Linkedin or Instagram and share your thoughts or read on. 1) Trust in the impossible: When you have a vision of a new life or career during a meditation or powerful coaching conversation, the vision ...

The higher up you go in an organisation, the greater the prevalence of narcissists and psychopaths. Careers with the highest proportion of psychopaths are CEO , Lawyer, Media (TV/radio), Salesperson and Surgeon.   Reasons for these unfortunate statistics include the use of charm, empty confidence that is interpreted as leadership and a talent for covert manipulation of outcomes. As a result, corporate psychopaths have also been called Seductive Operational Bullies . Interactions with such personalities at work will leave you feeling off-balance, drained, demoralised and needing time to recover. If you’re an empath like many of my clients, you’ll feel the impact very strongly. Your work may suffer as well as your health. A few years ago, I came across some research examining the “ Dark Triad ”. The term describes people who have a combination of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. In other words, they lie, cheat and manipulate without shame or guilt to get what they wan...