So, if you reach the point where you’re starting to feel a bit tired and jaded don’t worry, you’re not alone. They might not always share it openly, but I promise you there are a lot of other HR people who feel the same.
What you’re feeling now is completely normal and just a transition phase that’s preparing you for the next evolution of your career. Instead of trying to resist it or deny it, lean into it and take the time to listen to what your body, brain and soul are trying to tell you.
Start from a place of acceptance and acknowledgement of how you’re really feeling. One way you can do this is to just write it all down, start simply with ‘I feel…’ and then let the words flow without holding back. The phrase ‘I am…’ can work well too.
When you’re done, at the end of the page write the following: ‘I hear you, I see you, I understand. I release all that needs to be released. I’m ready to find my spark again.’
Saying the words out loud can help as it’s all part of giving your brain the signal and instruction that you’ve learned what you need to learn and you’re ready to step out of the lethargic funk and find your fire again.
If you’ve ever done one of those fire safety courses you’ll know that to create a fire you need three things: oxygen, heat and fuel. This is a useful and easy way to remember the key factors you need to embrace to light a fire inside yourself too and to help you re-connect with your passion and purpose again.
When you think about oxygen, consider if you have space to breathe and to think. Are you able to step off the treadmill and see the bigger picture of what you’re working on? Does work feel like breathing in fresh air that nourishes you? Or does it feel like inhaling tar that’s clogging up your lungs? Is there a metaphysical window you could open up to let some fresh air into your career?
When you think about heat, consider what lights you up: what sparks your imagination and creativity? And what you are passionate about? To start a fire you need a spark of combustion, something to ignite the flames. This is where purpose comes in.
If you’ve been feeling more and more tired lately, it’s likely that you’ve disconnected in some way from your purpose. Today is the day you start to find your way back to it again.
You might not have total clarity on what it is right now, but trust me, that’s coming. When you’re in this phase of career transition, all you need to do is trust your intuition and move in the direction that feels right at this time.
If you really feel so stuck that you just can’t get moving and that you can’t hear the whispers of your purpose at all, just pause, take your focus away from yourself and consider one small thing you could do today to help someone else light their fire. This could be as simple as writing a positive review for a current or former colleague on LinkedIn or taking time to say well done to someone if they’ve done something you consider to be great work.
Always be genuine and only comment or give reviews where they are justified, but consider this: there’s a theory that our outer world is a projection of our inner one, so the more comfortable you get in celebrating success and calling out great work, the more likely it is that you’ll start to see more of this showing up in your life too.
When you think about fuel, consider firstly how you’re fuelling your body, mind and soul. Are you fuelling yourself for success or for something else? Of course the obvious place to start here is to look at diet and nutrition but I encourage you to go beyond that and look at what else could be considered as fuel: what helps you to reconnect with your passion, feel energised and light your fire again?
It could be the people or things you have surrounded yourself with, do they drain you or
energise you? It could be stagnant thought processes; maybe it’s time to read a new book that you know will spark fresh thoughts and get you moving again.
Consider your whole world as a vision board that will fuel your ambition and help you bring the fire that will enable you to step into your soul’s purpose and do your
best work. Surround yourself with things that reflect more of what you want to bring into your life and less of that which you need to release.
You have a spark inside you. It just needs oxygen, heat and fuel to turn it into a fire that will energise you effortlessly, enabling you to do work that will truly light you up and those around you for years to come.
Karen Beaven is an HR director, strategist and author.
The full article of the above is published in the November/December 2020 issue of HR magazine. Subscribe today to have all our latest articles delivered right to your desk.
