New year usually heralds a spirit of optimism and a desire to change for better. New resolutions, new opportunities, new intentions. While all this sounds promising it can be challenging to implement those alterations in life professionally and personally. Reflections from the past years and my personal experience of moving between careers has made me speculate and ponder over a lot of questions which has helped me recalibrate my goals, my measurement of success. Below are the questions that you can ask yourself in order to set the right expectations for yourself, be focussed and happier at work.
What does successful career mean to you?
The answer to this can be quite complicated as it has a material and a spiritual aspect to it.
For many, success is judged by tangible, quantifiable factors. Professionally, success is mostly equated with financial growth. Socially, it is the number of friends, followers and post 'likes'. In fact, success is also being associated with who you are seen with, tagging the whos who of the social media. However, there is no problem with this interpretation of success benchmarking. But if your parameters of success are personal growth, happiness and a sense of fulfillment then perhaps you need to recalibrate your expectations.
You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play. - Warren Beatty
Have I learnt anything new in the past year?
In my view, learning is synonymous with growth and personal development. Repetitive tasks of any form can be a cause of monotony leading to complacency. Researches have shown that learning new skills can lead to formation of new neural connections, in short, more food for the brain to become smarter and efficient. Learning does not necessarily have to be professionally-related, it can be anything that helps you de-stress, helps your personal development. It could be as simple as learning a dance form that you have been wanting to but never had the time for it or joining a crossfit class to learn handstand, or simply learning to cook your favourite japanese cuisine.
What kind of work really gets you excited?
So it isn't the first time that you have heard this question? It is indeed an extremely clichéd HR interview question. If you google search it you will find lots of websites giving you the 'right' answers for a perfect interview. Despite this, not many of us land up having an ideal career we envisioned in university life; a dream job that is lucrative and continues to be exciting each day. These youthful visions are based on a ingrained misconception of what brings in the desired job satisfaction. The pandemic shook the people of the world and made them reevaluate their choices, reimagine their careers. There has been a cultural shift in the way worklife is envisioned. It is no more 'what type' of job you do that makes you happy or whether or not you are using your educational qualification to the fullest, it is the sense of accomplishment you get when you work that matters the most.
Do I spend enough time with myself or my family?
Now that we have discussed the parameters of success, growth and job satisfaction, the next question in line is me/family time or in other words, work-life balance.
Work-life balance has become an elusive buzzword of the 21st century. Everybody is yearning for it but nobody has achieved it. Well that's because researchers have suggested that it may be more of a lifelong process; a cycle of continuous re-evaluation and improvement and timely tweaks. In the end, the onus is on us to find this elusive balance. One of the good side-effects of the pandemic is the surgence of the hybrid working models. The possibility of remote working will play a vital role in how we manage our professional and personal lives going forward. Time to recalibrate?
H2O Budapest offers a soothing, elegant and sophisticated environment for co-working, training sessions, conferences, meetings and seminars. The studio can host a variety of events, tailor-made to your individual needs and office space requirements. And to top it all, we are a dog/friendly office because we know the happiness and sense of fulfilment that these furry angels bring into our lives.
It has been our pursuit to not only provide a state-of-the-art venue with absolute professional ambience but to help continue learning and development as a culture.
After all, it's Our Space, your Business!
For more information on how we can help you with your co-working requirements, office space needs or training and coaching sessions contact us via LinkedIn or Facebook or write to us on info@h2oconsulting.eu.