With only a few days of 2019 left, we're coming to the start of a new decade ... and so what better time to start a new chapter in your life?
We all have things we'd like to improve about ourselves, and there is something about a new decade that makes this an even better time to start new goals than at the start of any other year. There is so much possibility in that round zero at the end of 2020: you can become a 'more rounded' person, 'count down' like a rocket on you journey of discovery to a new you ... or aim to use zero appalling dad jokes if you're me...
If one of the areas you want to focus on this year is your career, one book you will definitely want to have on your reading list this summer is Resilience at Work: Practical Tools for Career Success, opens a new window by Kathryn Jackson.
'Resilience' is one of those words we are hearing a lot of at the moment, particularly here in Ōtautahi / Christchurch. We all know how helpful this personality trait is when we are facing difficult situations, and that with it we can come through challenges and learn from the experience. We know that building our resilience will set us up for success in our jobs and careers. But what does 'resilience' actually mean? What does it look like? And how do we develop our resilience and apply it to the different areas of our life?
Resilience at Work is a readable,engaging, and practical look at just this topic. Informative, research-based, and highly interactive, it talks about the four foundations of resilience, guides you in thinking about and evaluating your current resiliency practices, and provides tips and tools that will make you more resilient in all areas of your life. Resilience at Work will work with you to achieve your goal.
No matter where you are on your career journey - just starting out with big ambitions, trying to rediscover your passion in your current role, or looking for a more effective way to balance work and family commitments - something in this book will resonate for you. Read it cover to cover, or just dip in to the particular topics that you want to find out about and work on. We all read, learn, and process information in different ways, and Resilience at Work includes tables, graphs, diagrams and anecdotes so that it works for all those different types of readers. Throughout, there are multiple tools you can choose between to evaluate or develop your resiliency skills - just choose which one works best for you!
For people working in mentoring and coaching roles, this is a valuable tool for working with clients and mentees. Providing numerous ideas and tools to help guide your discussion and reflections, and with real life examples of how these tools have been used in coaching, you will develop your own coaching skills and help others develop their self-awareness.
Jackson and her team have worked in the field of resilience for many years, and have been involved in situations where they have had to apply their professional knowledge to their personal lives, including living and working in Ōtautahi / Christchurch during the 2010/11 earthquakes. The fact that they are all so willing to share their own experiences with the reader is one of the reasons that this book works - if these professionals have used these tools, you know they're going to work.
I highly recommend reading this book as we enter this new decade. Although the idea of resilience is large and complex, this book breaks it down into simple ways to work on your emotional honesty, self-care, learning, and connecting. By analysing how you really feel about situations, learning how to look after yourself, developing skills in different areas, and making time for those important relationships in your life, you really will improve how you live, and how you deal with any difficult situations you find yourself in.
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