How to keep dreaming and profiting from it

This week I had a day when a reviewer threw cold water to my back (saying that the research plan of my article was completely wrong and that I should redo the study with a completely different setup), a conference abstract which was supposed to be a formality got rejected, and I realized that the projects planned will never be ready on time. I felt out of energy and like a failure. Days like this happen to all of us, but at a moment like this, it is good to reflect how to keep calm.

I am the type of person who has sacrificed a lot for career (for example, I do not have a family, because I never felt like I would have enough time and would not want to do it half-way) so how could I still feel accomplished and good about myself? Of course, the first thing you can do is call a friend. This approach is sure to work – at least momentarily – just to let it all out and have someone close to you listen to you and support you. So it is worth making the use of!

In the long run, however, it is good to have other strategies as well. Career planning is a great way to set yourself on the map. I found some great tools online, that are available to all. I warmly recommend taking the free personality test to map your strengths and weaknesses. This was very useful for me, as I often find myself wondering why I get upset at work. It turned out that I have sometimes ended up in the wrong environment. I found out which pattern I have followed and what to do to avoid it. Instead of quietly trying to solve my own problems and deal with difficulties alone, to me the best strategy is teaming up with colleagues and share knowledge. This way of working makes me achieve more, feel more efficient, and this brings the feeling of ease. Work does not have to be difficult all the time!

Other strategies I discovered to bring satisfaction to daily routines, was a reality check with myself. I clarified (with a pencil and sheet of paper) my goals, my values and my beliefs that have made me select my current career path. That being visualized, I asked myself I where I want to be, and what actions should I take to get there. I found out that I want things that I currently have not let myself a permission to have. Quite a feeling to discover something like that. It is actually quite a relief to realize that it is not, in fact, the others to blame for the bad mood, but that there is a lot you can do yourself to get in a better mood.

So, this week my suggestion to all of you is, despite in what career stage you are, to take a moment to really get to know what kind of worker you are. Five minutes of honest self-reflection every day can improve your chances of success, make you feel like you are on the right track and magically, life seems so much better.

Let’s be brave and let’s dream big!

Here are some links I found useful:

https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-make-a-career-plan/

https://www.16personalities.com/

Where has creativity gone – the dilemma of the xennials

The terms imagination, creativity and innovation have separate definitions. Imagination is the capability of the mind to structure new ideas, creativity is applying imagination, and innovation is the use of creativity for a cause. To someone wanting a career filled with creativity, understanding all these processes is important. Yet, imagination, creativity and innovation may not always be recognizable within ourselves. This makes it difficult to use of them in our everyday life. In this blog text I aim to define the reasons why this is, and to propose how we could all make use of our hiding capabilities.

Imagine an ideal life path: you end up in college at 18, you graduate on time, find a partner, enroll to a well-paying and interesting permanent job, get married, start practicing trendy hobbies, get married and have children. You proceed in your career through a senior position to become a respected leader in your field, while you watch your family excelling at your side (children in great schools getting all scholarships and eventually following your footsteps). During this time your parents are enjoying their retirement days. A nice image, I would say. But how many of us have led this type of life? At least in my circle of friends, I must say not everyone had it so smooth, more often quite the opposite.

Building a set of images of a life one should accomplish is dangerous. Comparing yourself to such an unreal person, made up of the impressions you have of people presenting their best sides on Facebook, is – I claim – one of the main reasons why we are unhappy and lack creativity. We waste most of our time trying to match to an ideal, which is not possible to achieve, and get disappointed with ourselves failing to do so. Why do we do this? Instead of following a fulfilling life path, we purposefully seem to make ourselves miserable. I believe the answer is simple: we try too hard to be perfect.

Let’s face it. Today’s job market is completely different from those days when our parents graduated. Those days, most people with any degree were guaranteed a permanent job and secure pension. The path of life described above was a standard achieved by many those days. Nowadays, when my generation is approaching 40, we feel as if we failed it all. We do not gain permanent jobs. Not all of us succeed to have children. Also, not all of us enjoy a house without a mortgage. Comparing these “pitfalls” in your life to the description above makes it look as if we failed. The truth is, however, that while we are required to re-educate ourselves voluntarily to keep up with the pace of technological changes, while holding fulltime jobs (some feeding the children or paying our debt), we are also expected to look happy on the outside. As my aunt might say “In our days, when being young, we would not complain. We would just do it”. This creates a huge generation gap. The world is completely different than what it was about 40 years ago.

So, what then, should we think of all this? I believe we should give ourselves a break. I do not think it will change how we are seen by our parents’ generation; the trick is to change how we see ourselves. It is not our fault that there are no permanent jobs out there or that stable career paths do not exist. Also, we should not feel guilty that not all of us can have children or afford a big house. It is fine, that we search for our identity still in our 30s and wonder what job would suit us. It is also not a failure that we do not receive pension when we retire.

We try just as hard as everyone else have tried before us. It is ok not to be perfect.