The meditations are intentionally about career security because it is anchored in freedom. Career security is about our ability to create or land and maintain jobs that align with our interests and skillset irrespective of the financial position of an employer or the economic context. In contrast, job security is about not losing a specific/current job or at the very least having it until you decide to leave.
The current crisis has had many of us reflecting on security and what it means. What has become clear for me personally is that my sense of career security derives from two key places: (1) the space to bounce back and (2) the ability to bounce back.
The space to bounce back is what financial security affords through the means to continue to meet basic living needs and receive anxiety free (or significantly reduced) time to respond to a challenge or opportunity. In terms of a career, it is being able to take time to navigate an existential crisis, leave a toxic job and find a new one, invest in your development through formal education, rest, extend your parental leave or start a new venture.
The ability to bounce back is what internal security enables through a combination of emotional resilience and a deep sense of conviction that I navigate the challenge and emerge out of it. This shows up as the ability to lean into self-compassion and sit in my feelings, focus only on that which is my locus of control and influence, setting a goal and visualising myself achieving it, aptly manage anxiety and stress, consistent reflection and, seeking and receiving support.
Can you have career security without financial and internal security? I would argue that you can probably achieve this without financial security by finding ways to still meet all your basic needs, however drastic the decision. It is, however, more difficult to achieve career security without internal security as the resilience and conviction are crucial ingredients to any form of security.
Career security is our theme for this quarter (Jul – Sep) and in future posts we will be delving more into what lies behind freedom, what exactly financial security is and how to cultivate internal security.
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Post by Lerato Shai
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MORERO 