Build your resilience by taking more risks.
A conversation: How reframing risks can build personal resilience; and lessons from crises: how real and perceived risks can influence our decision making in this edition everyday decisions.
This week:
explore - A conversation: How to build your personal resilience by taking more risks.
consider this - Navigating real and perceived risks in your decision making.
stay curious - Three questions to ask yourself or others this week.
explore -
Recently I was chatting with my friend Shannon Zoeller about some of her life and career decisions. I love this particular excerpt of her story because she tells it with ease. There is a measured confidence that permeates her decision making. It's not overt or aggressive. She trusts her gut feeling, considers the risks, but also understands the great potential of her choices.
Shannon’s career, like many millennials starting her career in 2010 was in part shaped by the Great Recession. Her career has spanned various industries from furniture manufacturing, to interior design, business resilience, and organizational strategy and management. Early in her career she followed her intuition and accepted a job as a design manager in San Francisco. Moving across the country for a new job in a new industry is what some might call a leap of faith or even a risky decision.
Because, what if it doesn’t work out?
“Then it will lead to something else,” she says.
All signs in her life were suggesting this was the right move at the time. There was no way to explain it, other than it felt right and was an opportunity to expand her skills early in her career. Shannon also knew one of her great decision indicators: if she was debating a decision too long there was probably a reason. There was little internal debate and the decision to move to San Francisco was clear.
When she arrived in the city she first stayed with family. Soon as she got in the rhythm of her job and the city she wanted more flexibility in her living situation. So like many of us in the 2000’s Shannon turned to craigslist to find an apartment and roommate. And there’s nothing that builds personal resilience faster than apartment searching in a major city. After a few moves, Shannon made San Francisco home. At least for a few years! Stay tuned for more of our conversation.
Shannon’s story highlights some of the most important practices to build personal resilience through decisions. These practices have shaped her ability to take risks (like moving during the pandemic!), jump at new opportunities, and build resilience.
Internal debates about a decision may be an indicator something is not right or more information is needed. Ask yourself “what is holding me back from making this decision right now?” Exploring why the decision is not easy can help bring clarity.
Trust your ability to adapt if things go sideways. When considering a decision, your mindset is just as important as your intuition. Ask yourself, “If it doesn’t work out, what else could it lead to?” Considering the outcomes in terms of possibilities and potential over risks creates a resilient mindset.
Listen to your intuition for redirection. Our stories are a compilation of choices and decisions. Our intuition not only helps us to make decisions, but also lights up when we might need redirection. Listening to our intuition when something is off, can open us to making new, unimagined, and wonderful decisions.
More of Shannon’s story coming in future editions including a conversation about how a late diagnosis of ADHD has influenced her decision making.
consider this -
We talk a lot about risk when it comes to decision making. Not necessarily because it's the most important consideration, but because of what risks can teach us about our decision making. Understanding the risks - real and perceived - can lead us to ask different questions, consider new information, recognize our own cognitive biases, and seek new perspectives.
Our brain loves to tell us stories that are rooted in fear and insecurity, but not necessarily rooted in reality. How we process this information can influence our appetite for risk.
I’m including one of my favorite blog posts about how leaders can manage real and perceived risks. While the piece is focused on managing risks in a crisis, the lessons are universal and can be used to check how our own real and perceived risks influence our decision making. Hope you enjoy.
stay curious -
Questions to ask yourself or others this week:
Think of a time when your intuition redirected a life or career decision? Was it hard to listen to your gut and change course?
Do you debate internally your decisions? If so, what ultimately makes a decision clear for you?
When you think of the potential outcomes of a decision do you consider the risks, opportunities, or a mix of both?
See you next week, til then, make good decisions friends.
- M