Meet Jananya Harrington: Investing in Herself and Setting New Boundaries

Jananya Harrington is used to taking care of everyone around her but often forgets to take care of herself along the way. She is a Social Media Specialist, a mother, a wife, and a United States Marine military spouse. As military spouses, we wear so many hats, Jananya said. We often forget to take off all the other hats and focus on ourselves. “Nobody had ever asked me that before, like, Hey, what do you want?” said Harrington.

Wait for it…this is where The Paradigm Switch (TPS) comes in! TPS is designed by military spouses for spouses. TPS understands military life and has designed their program Switch, with us in mind. The ability to work through one of the TPS programs, periodically when her busy schedule allowed for it, was especially useful for Jananya. She was introduced to TPS by an awesome organization, Instant Teams, while applying to remote employment opportunities.

A major section of Switch asks military spouses to write out 5-year goals for yourself. These can be a combination of personal and professional goals. “It was life-changing. Just to put that on paper”, said Harrington. The impact the Switch program offers is unparalleled, something Jananya quickly realized.

“Marrying our emotional strengths and weaknesses with our professional ones is not something that I had seen before and I thought that it was refreshing…Seeing those two being put together in a way that I could understand was really enlightening”, said Harrington.

Once more for the people in the back! We often separate our personal and professional attributes and do not give ourselves enough credit. Our interpersonal abilities as mothers, military spouses, and professionals all go together. They make us unique and extremely marketable to employers, as entrepreneurs and anything else we set our minds to. We are courageous, bold, honest and driven and we deserve to be proud of those abilities.

For three years, Jananya had been serving as an advisor to her husband’s military unit. Her role included social media management, content creation, writing and building an engaging online community. “When I went through Switch, and we talked about social media, I was like, that’s it! That’s my in. Social media is my in. I know how to engage, I know how to make a community, and this could be a win for me!”, said Harrington. That it was. Jananya began listing social media at the forefront of her resume and her networking, instead of listing it as a site note skill.

Switch allowed Jananya to see herself in a new light. It allowed her to recognize experiences, skills, and strengths that she had not previously highlighted. The discovery and self-reflection Jananya experienced during Switch led her to a remote-based social media career. How amazing is that?!

Jananya has such a wonderful piece of advice: “take 20 minutes of the day for yourself to ask questions about your future and what you want.” Our careers take a back seat and we deserve some time to focus on ourselves. This personal investment can have an impact on more than just ourselves. Switch — goal setting and personal reflection, can ripple into our families and our communities.

We hope that you can spend some time with TPS this week and start by giving back to yourself.

Her full story can be found here: https://vimeo.com/409875729