When I was younger, it was easier to play the ‘game’ and besides, I was one of many trying to climb the career ladder, therefore, not seen as a threat. However, the more I climbed the career ladder, the more I saw the ‘politricks’ play out and I knew I would have to do things differently in order to move forward. However it came to a point when climbing the ladder in one company was the same in any company and eventually the toxic corporate world made my spirit cry and a little piece of me eroded every day.
Similar to any institution, where individuality is not necessarily celebrated or appreciated, the end result is the same…the slow and painful realisation that the diamond, we know that we are, is starting to lose its sparkle.
What happens when the issue is portrayed as ‘corporate life or death’, when you know it isn’t (in the grand scheme of life), how often do you pretend? You may want to run and scream down the corridor (believe me I know). You may want to raise your voice and dispute what’s being said in the meeting, the appraisal or shout from the rooftops and speak for the people. You want to speak but you have to clamp your mouth shut, you have to pinch yourself and think about the bills. You have to sit uncomfortably in the hole they have prepared for you.
Your energy is drained rapidly having to be topped up like an Oyster card. Every time you go in, every time something is said to you which grates you, demeans you, questions you yet again. You yearn to shed this skin.
Then you wonder how others seem to fit comfortably, when your feet are sticking out and you leave with cramp in your neck. Then people wonder why you’re stressed when you get paid so much and you have nice clothes on your back. ‘What is wrong with me?’, you say, ‘Am I always going to be dissatisfied with this lifestyle?’.
No one is saying to just jack it in, yet you can change the thought, that it is out of your hands. Create a vision of where you want to go and who you want to be. Write down all the things you love doing. Write down all your skills. Write down all the things you have ever done in your life. Find the common thread. Write it down. Visualise it. Create a strategy. Do it. Be that person now and make your way into your vision. Whether that means you stay on your career ladder or make a strategy to move on, you can change your way of thinking NOW. You get to decide. Hard isn’t it!
Whatever you do, stop and change your route mentally or physically before your spirit says “Enough!”. The world needs what you have. You with all your creativity, different-ness, passion, skills and experience. The world needs you, diamond. Yes, You.
