How to be yourself at work

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me

Bronnie Ware "Regrets of the Dying"

I’ve just finished reading Minda Zetlin’s “Career Self-Care” book and found it refreshingly honest and packed with practical advice on how to manage the ups and down of working life. 

She’s interested in how we can design and build careers that are authentic - they reflect who we are - and she’s encouraging us to work that out for ourselves. 

Zetlin is a pragmatist. She recognizes the many of us are in working environments that have toxic ideas and practices. 

• Places where success is seen as working harder and longer. Where we have to always be available. Where people are discriminated against because of gender and race. 

• And we can have warped ideas ourselves - such as thinking that, when we find a job we love, it will be easy. 

Drawing on her experience as a journalist, Zetlin offers powerful reframes and insights to encourage us to engage in the “radical act of self-care."

This involves:

• knowing what really matters to you (not someone else) and then prioritizing it

• inviting others to support you on your career journeys

• proactively investing in your learning and growth

• accepting that setbacks and struggle are normal even for work we love and

• intentionally looking after your mind and body.

She provides over 50 practical exercises that draw on her wisdom. Some of my favourites include “Do something embarrassing” (a challenge to get out of our comfort zones), “Have a conversation with your older self” (to explore the importance of the work you do now), and “Wish others well” (hope others will have success and happiness, even people you don’t like). 

Zeitlin poses a question early on in the book - which I think captures her orientation towards authenticity and action - and has such generative power.

“What would you do if you could be your real self at work?”

Answers to this question could bring real clarity to your next step .