By Mary Ann Faremouth, CPC
For many of us during the years of the pandemic and even beyond, our professional and personal lives have been through the fire. We’ve all experienced loss in some form, and at times, it has been hard to see our way forward.
But like the phoenix, no matter what season of life you happen to be in, you can emerge from the fire a better version of yourself. By transforming your mindset and refreshing your skill set, you can reclaim your personal and professional journeys.
Reignite Your Mindset
Mindset is now front and center when it comes to achieving success. A positive mindset and a willingness to share ideas that reflect your goals and desire to contribute will take you far in life. Set fire to the negativity and outdated beliefs about what others have done to you or must do for you. Focusing solely on yourself, rather than the team and community, will prevent you from thriving. Transforming your mindset is an important first step to productively moving your career journey as well as your personal life forward.
Shake Off the Ashes of the Old
Old questions and mindsets often focused on the individual: How have I been treated? When will I get promoted? When will I receive increased wages or vacation benefits? These old questions that center around “me” do not work anymore and must be shed. Instead, ask questions that focus on the “we”: the business community, the groups and associations in which you participate, the teams you’re part of or looking to join. Ask how you can expand your skill set to make a bigger contribution to your company. Ask how you might help others, whether through volunteering or perhaps just assisting a coworker struggling with a new system. Shedding the old focus on “me” and instead asking about the “we” will help you make a valuable contribution that is sure to be noticed by all.
Stretch Your Wings and Fly
While transforming your mindset is important, it needs to be complemented by a renewal of your skill set. To do so, you must stretch your wings out of your comfort zone to learn new skills and embrace what you might not yet do well. For example, how can you help your company become more efficient digitally, and what would you need to learn? Explore skills with which you don’t feel confident and consider what steps you might take to improve and gain confidence in them. For example, if you want to take flight as a presenter, consider joining Toastmasters or Rotary Club. Temporarily doing things that are uncomfortable can help you expand your skill set and allow you to offer more to your company and others in the community.
Hunt New Opportunities
It is not enough to transform your mindset, renew your skill set, and just sit around waiting for opportunities to come to you. Once you have emerged from the fire, you must use your new mindset and skill set to hunt down new opportunities. Get your ego out of the way, show up, be innovative, and make a concerted effort to demonstrate how what you want correlates with the requirements or desires of others.
As Timothy Pina says, “Be like the phoenix. From the midst of your ashes . . . get up and rise again!” Like the phoenix, you can become the personification of tenacity, persistence, and rebirth. By reigniting your mindset, shaking off the ashes of the old, stretching you wings to take flight, and hunting down new opportunities, you can rise above the destructive fires of the last few years to realize your dreams and goals in your journey forward in every aspect of your life!
Mary Ann Faremouth
Mary Ann holds a CPC (Certified Personnel Consultant) credential, was certified by the Board of Regents of the National Association of Personnel Consultants in Washington, D.C., and was awarded an Advanced Communicator Bronze, Advanced Leader Bronze Awards by Toastmasters. She cofounded Jobs: Houston magazine in 1997. Mary Ann maintains affiliations with professional organizations, including oil and gas, financial, construction, IT, and structural, mechanical, and civil engineering. (www.faremouth.com)
Mary Ann’s award-winning first book Revolutionary Recruiting has been listed by Book Authority as Number #1 Best 100 Recruiting Books; #1 Best Seller, Non-Fiction, Amazon (2019); Top 20 Recruiting books, Recruitics; Readers’ Choice finalist (2019), Houston Literary Awards; Best Non-Fiction (2018), Best Cover (2019), and Best Self-Help (2018), Authors Marketing Guild. Her books support individuals and corporations, tap into each candidate’s unrealized potential to find the right person for each job, maximizing both employee satisfaction and the employer’s bottom line. Mary Ann showcases her expertise of the recruiting world on a monthly podcast for The Price of Business and weekly articles for USA Business. Her new workbook, Revolutionary Reinvention, was recently released on Amazon. Mary Ann lives in Houston, Texas.
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