Choosing to thrive
The need for meaning and professional development have changed.
They are not new. But following Covid, the outbreak of war in Europe and the reality of climate change, their meaning is no longer the same.
Personal development has now become a question of choice and responsibility.
The after has begun. Since last fall, I had a strange feeling every time I started training with adults. Whether I give it myself or present a teacher. There was something different about the group, the atmosphere, the words. And last week, during the presentation of the next Self-Leadership course, I was finally able to put this feeling into words. The words of the participants to whom I simply asked what came to mind at the outset if they thought about their professional life.
We were looking for a comfortable development
Until then, when faced with this question, in a muted way, fear prevailed. The fear of losing something. The constant changes were a danger in the face of well-being, security, and the search for personal and social balance. While individual desires for development existed, they were counterbalanced by the fear of going the wrong way. To not really thrive. To go for something uncomfortable as well. Even when the current situation was far from optimal, we were in a certain comfort. The need to find meaning was already there. But he was looking to the past. To identify what was upsetting the beliefs we believed in. To understand what was no longer working.
Change yes, but controlled
The 30 Glorieuses have been over for a long time. But this period of growth, which flourished until the end of the 1960s, was resisting. It allowed for a society where everyone was able to continue to live without regard for major risks. Of course, you could lose your job, or not be properly valued there. But social insurance, a protective legal framework, quality health care, infrastructure, and an education system far beyond what we could see elsewhere in the world gave us that security. That of the feeling of relative control over our living environment, and that everyone is protected by the community. The change was hopeful, but it was also clearly a risk. Finally, if someone was dissatisfied with their job, they could counterbalance this frustration with more fulfilling personal activities. Sport, volunteering, taking care of your family, but also meditation or a whole range of personal development proposals. To find meaning in your daily life around yourself.
Our sense of control is gone
Covid, the climate emergency and the war in Ukraine have changed all of this. The pandemic has made us experience fear on an intimate dimension, our health and our life. And we felt how unprotected we were by society to deal with the unknown. Certainly, our governments reacted as best they could. Global answers were found, which probably helped to reduce losses. But the damage was done. Maybe we've lost loved ones, we've been sick, or At the very least we had to go into lockdown. The visceral fear of the unknown, which had disappeared several generations ago, has re-emerged. As for the climate, the change is here. Heat waves come back every year. And without really knowing what that means exactly, we all feel that future upheavals will fundamentally change our lives. Finally, the war gives us the feeling that we have come closer. It has always existed, even not far from us in former Yugoslavia, but we feel that the geopolitical balances that we knew have become more precarious. We don't control anything about our environment, not ourselves, or our governments that we believe in less and less. The sense of security was shattered.
From fear to choice
So what do these thirty-somethings and forty-year-olds who are entering continuing education say? Who are going to take on new responsibilities in our businesses tomorrow? They feel this context is stimulating! Like a challenge to take on. Who could have predicted that? If they also use the terms of risk Or of mist, they oppose the picks. Why the choice? Finally, there is no longer any need to be afraid that our well-being will be questioned, it is. We no longer have to worry about losing safety and control, we have lost them. We find ourselves naked in front of the reality of life as it is today. And it's liberating in a sense. Instead of trying to move forward without losing anything we had, we abandoned these chains to discover a horizon that is by far not all blue, but one that needs to be built. That is the way it is, and we accept it. In any case, we have the skills we have acquired, and for many a social and family circle to rely on. For the rest, we have a choice. We can be accountable and loyal to some of the people we meet along the way, but we don't owe anything to a professional environment that doesn't protect us. It is up to us to choose and build our future.
The meaning of the concrete
And since the fog is there, this choice has also changed texture. The meaning we can give to our lives is one thing. The meaning of our professional commitment is another. They are not disconnected. But the second is necessarily the next step to take. The word of quarry is becoming obsolete. We will prefer that of responsibility. Has it now become impossible to define a viable long-term professional vision? Well let's assume it, and start by choosing our next step, the one that will correspond to us and from which other choices will be born. Is it illusory to find lasting meaning in our actions beyond the present moment? Let's embrace this present and look for what is feasible now. The question of meaning now means this: what responsibility do we want to commit ourselves to today? Which one do we choose to thrive in the field of possibilities in our environment? And how do we want to assume it in order to be useful for it? An uncertain field, but how open to us offering him our commitment as an opportunity. The meaning is no longer self-centered, it is a proposition between our desires here and now on the one hand, and a multiple world on the other hand. It is no longer a destiny, but a choice. It is a step forward. So yes, it is stimulating. Because it is a concrete and pragmatic meaning.
The clarity needed to take this step forward makes the issue of Self-Leadership even more important. Since the choice is wide, we only perceive a portion of it, and it is up to us to do it, it is up to us to work on doing it consciously. In full awareness of our assets and our deep desires, of our paradoxes as well, to integrate them into a value proposition that we will then be able to make to the professional world. If this concern is yours, the next session of our Self-Leadership program Starts on 2 March.
