Stoic Career: Recent Episodes
Matt Schmidt
Stress in unavoidable- that is a hard fact of life. However, it seems like some people have the worst luck when it comes to their stress burden, almost as if they are inviting it in. Turns out, there are certain risks that are clearly associated with an increased burden of stress, even though you may not realize it. Is there anything you can do about it? Not sure what to look for? Stoicism can help.
Your life is filled with opportunities for achievement. You can achieve more if you allow you failures to create opportunities instead of seeing them as obstacles you can’t overcome. Psychologists believe that failure creates opportunities for achievement because failure helps you increase your personal growth. An opportunity for personal growth is part of every failure you experience. Each failure teaches you ways to learn, grow, and change your mental, emotional, and physical activities. The opportunity for achievement comes when you use these opportunities to help yourself succeed.
Stress is a great part of the work we do. It is easy to lose our temper and lash out when the stress boils over. It can also affect us by bringing things stress home from work and vice versa. Emotions by themselves are neither good nor bad. They just are. It is how you allow your emotions to influence your thoughts and actions that is important. Awareness and understanding of your feelings can help ensure that you control your feelings and that they aren’t controlling you. Knowing what you are feeling, what made you think that way, and how those feelings are affecting your behaviors and thoughts is a crucial life skill.
Change is part of the work we do. We need to adapt to changes. If we cannot change we must quit. We all go through tough situations where things seem not to work regardless of our invested efforts. We then wonder if the goal is worth all the trouble. Where we think it is indeed worth it, we ask ourselves whether we will succeed amid all obstacles. It is human nature to worry when things do not go as planned and, it is good to do evaluations and make adjustments where strategies are not yielding the expected results.
Pressure. It is an aspect of work that must be dealt with. Dealing with it means fortitude. The word fortitude, meaning “courage in pain or adversity”, is a term associated with individuals that refuse to give up when times get hard. Regardless of the time period, this character trait has always been unique amongst the general population. Even though the specific situations that require fortitude have certainly changed with the typical way of life, the universal definition of the word has not. Our world today is primarily made up of individuals who have developed a personal comfort zone in which they dare not step out of. This almost always leads to a life of stagnation and results in most people never achieving any remarkable goals they may secretly long for.
Being an professional entails many professional and personal traits. It takes a lot to be able to manage and grow in your career.. As a result, professionals have to be extra careful with every decision, and being able to manage their time correctly is an invaluable skill. Here are four, time management tactics that busy professionals can employ to get more done.
What do you regret? This is a question that is asked by interviewers. But there is much wrapped up with the word emotion. But it is important to understand the concept of regret. Regrets are common with millions of people around the world. It is considered a negative state of mind and most people have a hard time dealing with it. It basically hinders our growth and distracts us from our day-to-day activities in life. When we have feelings of regret, our mind continues to process things like-what could have been done, what we shouldn’t have done, what are the opportunities that we missed, etc. It also disturbs our inner peace because we are always living in the past thinking about our failures and inaction. We have done many things in the past and we always regret not doing it in a better way. While it is okay to have regrets, you have to make sure that you accept your regrets and then take some action to move on in life.
What is your greatest failure? Your life is filled with opportunities for achievement. You can achieve more if you allow you failures to create opportunities instead of seeing them as obstacles you can’t overcome.
The number one reason why most people are not happy at their jobs is that they made the mistake of failing to link their life purpose to their career choice when choosing a profession. You may have taken up the job offer because you are well paid or because you wanted something to help put food on the table, pay the bills, or send the kids to school. While there is nothing wrong with being concerned about any of those things or accepting a job offer as a way of addressing such concerns, you have to consider your calling or life purpose when choosing a career, if you are to remain happy in life or if you are to live a satisfying life.
We all have faced adversity in our careers. A bad boss. A project that did not come out well. Cold calling in sales with no results. Losing our job and starting over again.
In order to move from a place of simply surviving in life to a place of thriving, resilience is a necessary trait. At a basic level resilience is our ability to bounce back from tragedies and difficulties we encounter in life.
At a more complex level, the resilience mindset embraces the idea that true resilience is our ability to navigate life, adapt to change, learn through adversity, and understand our feelings and emotional responses to situations. In order for this to be achieved, there must be a high level of personal awareness and insight which leads to a deep understanding of self.
Resilience is an asset when it comes to managing adversity because it helps us to overcome it. Rather than crumbling under the pressure and weight of every challenge we encounter, we become able to assess the challenge, learn and grow from it as we go through it, and then move forward with the lessons we’ve been taught.
That last line of this passage from Seneca Moral Letter 43 verse 2 : A ship which looms large in the river seems tiny when on the ocean. A rudder which is large for one vessel, is small for another. Does it sound familiar? Think of the phrase a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?
How does this relate to your career? Do you want to work for a small company where your skills can make an impact? Or would you rather be in a large organization where you are part of a larger mission but can find your niche in the organization?
It is a classic question particularly for those that are switching careers or starting their first job. It comes down to your own sense of empowerment.
Seneca's Moral Letter 40 is a wonderful work on the importance of communication in the philosophers message. Your ability to communicate is not only important for your career success but also for your personal growth and happiness. Soft skills, like being able to communicate ideas or persuade others, are fundamental in today’s society, so it is essential that you perfect your communication skills. If you need to focus on developing your communication skills, here are four steps that will help get you there in no time.
So many aspects of our careers depend on self confidence. But what happens when your self confidence falters? It could be you are stressed out and seek a change of employment. Maybe you are now unemployed and are looking for a job.
Situations like these require doing a job search. But there may be a lack of confidence when it comes to seeking employment because of the reasons why the job search is needed.
Self-confidence is the feeling that you will be able to use your talents, experiences, and resources, to be able to solve problems. This feeling is very important for finding motivation. After all, why do something if you don’t think that you will succeed.
The problem is that sometimes we can lose our self-confidence. There Are five ways that we can lose self-confidence, as well as ways that you can put it to work by overcoming obstacles.
Enchiridion 8 shows that we need to be realistic in what we can expect in life. We cannot have things go our way all the time. We have to accept what happens in life for tranquility. We can take control of aspects of our lives to deal with what happens.
There is a common idea that “life is a rollercoaster” with many ups and downs. It is true that life does have its ups and downs, but it doesn’t have to be out of control. This perception may lead to accepting more volatility than you really need to if you know how to take control of your life.
Meditations 2.2 brings out the importance of the directing mind. The directing mind helps us to focus. Many people starting over in their career need not only the directing mind but a growth mindset. A growth mindset allows the individual to learn and grow in all aspects of life including our career.