You Can Create The Life And Career You Want! The Role Of Creativity In Your Career Recovery!
Looking for some new success rituals to give you a boost in mental energy and optimism? Are you feeling stuck? Low on energy? Lost or uncertain about your future? Don’t underestimate the role of creativity in your career recovery!
I have shared my belief about the importance of creativity and recovery over the years with my women in leadership programs, as it was and remains one of the most powerful tools, I have ever used in my life to overcome both life and career challenges!
I have never made a secret of the fact that my life and career has had its moments! And…not all of them great!
In fact, during the early 2000’s – well before the GFC, I hit rock bottom!
My personal life was (quite publicly) in tatters and my career on hold.
I was depressed…
Searching for ways to stay ‘alive’… Mentally – I was completely ‘broken’…
As I sit here writing this – I remember how lost, overwhelmed and desperate I was to find a way out…
So, here’s what I did…
Firstly, I reached out to get professional help, support and guidance…
Secondly, I stopped! Everything…and I took a career hiatus.
At first, I struggled with the idea of ‘stopping’.
Like many high-performance people, I identified the idea of slowing down as is a sign of weakness. I felt my ability to keep forging during tough times was one of my biggest strengths.
And it was …until it wasn’t!
What I hadn’t considered, was the importance of personal renewal as a key component to enduring high performance as well as to optimal health and wellbeing.
I should have known this as a former elite athlete right?
Yet, I hadn’t aligned the importance of recovery to maintaining a healthy mindset as well as the benefits on career performance.
Here’s what I discovered…
Permitting myself to stop, enabled me to better manage my energy and unlock the power of creativity in recovery.
I discovered how to reconnect and make use of the different parts of my brain. In particular the creative part responsible for producing original thought, flexibility and new behaviours that override established mental habits.
I mean, who’s got time to be creative when you living in survival mode?
All your energy and time goes into managing relentless workloads and elevated stress levels.
But here’s the thing,
When you’re out of sync and you’re struggling mentally to keep it all together, you limit your ability to manage both your time and your energy efficiently.
So, what happened next?
I made a recovery plan. Part of that plan was to be creative and do things that challenged me. I had always been creative, but my daily struggles had impacted my ability to remain in touch with my creative side.
I started to paint. And when I say ‘paint’… I don’t mean the walls of my house (although I did that too! Nothing was safe!). I became a self-taught artist. I bought canvases, acrylics, impasto, easels and brushes! The whole shebang!
I painted every day for hours. So intensive was my ‘creative treatment process’, after several months, I had produced 30 paintings! Enough for an exhibition!
So that’s exactly what I did.
I held a solo exhibition of my artworks for charity!
Surprisingly, I sold 20 original paintings and secured a couple of commissions! Who would have thought I could do it? Certainly not me. Especially when not long before my self-confidence was at an all-time low!
So, here’s the lesson… (no, don’t worry…I’m not about to tell you to become an artist)!
Getting in touch with my creativity permitted different parts of my brain to be activated and over time I adopted new ways of processing information and managing stress.
As a result, I unlocked a deeply transformative process of creative recovery that I still use today.
And there are so many benefits!
Adopting creativity and recovery in your performance plan will help you:
- Foster personal renewal and career growth and regeneration
- Discover greater balance and purpose
- Look beyond what’s happening right now, to see the bigger picture.
- Focus on finding energy-driven solutions rather than just time-focused solutions
- Process information differently and change your perspective.
- Open your mind to explore new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things, creative ideas and concepts and bring them to life.
- Challenge yourself to accomplish new skills and adopt new success rituals that serve you!
- Realise it’s ok to stop, breathe and take time to regroup and reboot no matter how busy you are.
- Overcome your fears and realise you can do anything if you put your mind to it and have a plan!
- Realise when you follow your passion there is always a reward.
- Find real and lasting alignment which will allow you to sustain and maintain your flow and rhythm during times of stress or overwhelm
- Regain your power of judgment and more balanced perception
- Unlock your inner creative genius!
Now, I look back and see with great clarity how these lessons have shaped who I am today, helping me rise up from adversity to become a top executive coach and personal brand mentor for women in business.
These success rituals are part of my methodology for greater personal and professional success and happiness. They have also formed the foundation of my highly successful female mentoring programs, helping other female leaders, like you, elevate their leadership capabilities and navigate any career crisis with the ability to think and act creatively!
If you need help and guidance reach out for support! You just need to take the first step!
