Finding meaning in career disruption
“159,786 jobs have been cut by tech firms last year, according to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts across the industry. So far, in 2023, an additional 98,100 employees have been laid off by tech firms.” Time
Industry cataclysms by the economy, technologies, or personal life shift force us to question our career choices and definitions of stability, safety, and success.
- What is a successful career?
- How does this definition evolve as we evolve?
- How to find opportunities during changes?
QUESTIONS THAT COULD HELP IN CHOOSING YOUR CAREER
SKILLS
- What are your superpowers?
- What would be your differentiation point? What can you be the best in the world?
RELEVANCE — FINANCIAL
- What would be meaningful for you to do? What value would you like to create? To whom?
- How would this value improve the world? How can you increase that value creation?
- How is your industry or career transforming?
- What will be the future value and demand?
INTERESTS
- What would you be curious to learn?
- What experiences would you like to have?
- What would you enjoy doing daily for the following few years?
YOUR PROCESS
- What conditions can you create for yourself that would enhance the possibility for you to succeed?
- Who could be your tribe to support and challenge you?
- What lifestyle would you like to create for yourself?
RESOURCES
- Article: How to Build a Meaningful Career
- Article: The pitfalls of loving your job a little too much | The Economist
- Book: “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein, 2020
- Book: “Falling upward”
- Concept: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-hedgehog-concept.html
- Coursera course: Future thinking by Jane McGonigal
- Movie: “Brad’s Status”
- Report: Workforce of the future by PwC
We invite you to join live talks with Olympians and Performance Coaches to explore topics that help us break our limits.
HOSTS
Inga Stasiulionyte, Olympian in javelin throwing, performance coach at Valor Performance, and founder of ofounders.com
Joe Jacobi, Olympic Gold medalist at whitewater slalom, author of “Slalom: 6 River Classes About How To Confront Obstacles, Advance Amid Uncertainty, & Bring Focus To What Matters Most,” performance coach at Valor Performance, and founder of joejacobi.com
LIVE TALKS: Finding meaning in career disruption
Watch the recording here:
TIMESTAMPS
03:30 — What is a successful career?
- A career was as an identity, and now, a career is designed to support life.
- What does it mean when we base our career on our passion?
- How do we separate our identity from our career?
- Choosing a career that aligns with our values to know why we do what we do
13:00 — Is going “all in” the only way to find success in our chosen career?
- What is meaningful for you to create for yourself and others? What future would you like to create for yourself and others?
- What barriers would be meaningful to go through to have needed growth?
- What are the costs of going “all in”?
- We can realize our growth not only in the organization and our careers.
- Understanding what enhances us as human beings with the experiences we create within and outside work
21:00 — Are there ways we can disrupt ourselves on purpose?
- What skills do we need to develop and apply during stressful situations?
- Choosing strategic growth disruptions that align with our values and meaning
- Looking for our points of rigidness. What do we need to hold more loosely?
- What relationship do we have with failure? Mistakes are part of our evolution and growth. Accepting and forgiving ourselves for making mistakes.
32:00 — Dealing with disruptions beyond our control
- When something unexpected happens, it grounds us and checks how to align closer to what’s meaningful for us.
- What new options can this unexpected event offer us that we didn’t get to do before?
- The world does not end with this disruption. What could be good about this?
- What would be the first thing you would do if you started again?
- Through practice and preparation, we can give ourselves a better chance to respond to disruptions.
- Experience of loss is a part of being whole.
40:00 — Exercises to prepare for changes
- To feel awake by slightly changing our habits and doing something new or different.
- “Instead of 10 reps, do 9.” Doing slightly less than prescribed and seeing how we can live with that. Observing what we have been holding so tightly and learning how to loosen it.
- Surrounding ourselves with different people with different interests
- Journaling what is important for us
- Not being defined by something that is happening to us
- Imagining what the future would look like and what will be our role there
- Practicing gratitude when we feel the ground is moving
- Being kind to ourselves
52:00 — What can we do when we feel in a situation that is unjust, unfair, and stuck?
- It is sad if our life depends on one person’s decision. We have the power to create a future for ourselves. How can we take control of our destiny and create more opportunities ourselves?
- What is this situation teaching us? How can we lean into something we are resisting?
- What led us to this point? What was our part in this?
- Pausing for self-care, we do have enough time to respond
