Discover your authentic voice
It’s been five years since I nudged myself forward in ways that felt scary AF and super vulnerable. In retrospect, that was a small step but a critical one to learn how to show up in bigger, more authentic ways. I’m celebrating five years of a journey to push the edges of my discomfort that has grown my window of tolerance. I’m also cheering for the ripple effect that this inner work has had in supporting others as they develop their voice as well.
While it has only been about 125 posts since I first hit ‘publish’ on April 24, 2019, I can see how I charted a path to discover my authentic voice. A voice that I had to reclaim from my academic socialization. (After reading my academic book, someone close to me said how disappointed they were because they heard nothing of me in it. Ouch. And true.)
That first post titled, Welcome, was a reflection of having given myself up to other demands over and over until I finally started reclaiming my own choices. So much has changed in these five years because this path was one of reconnection. I can see the seeds planted in 2019 held whispers of hope that my own experience could offer something to someone else.
Fast forward to 2024, my year of branching out from those seeds. A new month paired with new folks signed up recently, it bears offering a framing for these weekly Awaken Resilience emails. And even why I still email in a world of social media and so much noise and distraction.
Last month, I facilitated my organizational leadership work around building resilient leaders and teams in a world of ongoing uncertainty. It was a pre-conference program for Senior Management Professionals at a professional association - ACUI. Afterwards I got to catch up with a former graduate assistant of mine from our University of Arizona days. He asked who am I hoping to reach with my work now on resilience for career and climate?
Well, You.
I want to reach you.
To support and bolster who you are in the world.
Resilience is a built competency with skills, content knowledge, behaviors, practices, and mindsets. It’s about your body’s felt sensations, nervous system and emotions, mindset, and the stories you tell yourself. It’s how all of those pieces either inform your behaviors in a reactive way or in an intentional, responsive, slowed down way.
Across all types of modern organizations, be they educational, non-profit, or corporate institutions, resilience has been defined as a need for individuals and teams to bounce back from adversity and change. Often this has placed the burden on adaptation and evolution on an underskilled and under resourced staff who may want to change but lack a supported pathway forward. Many frameworks I saw taught in grad school approach leadership style, competency development, and team dynamics from a deficit perspective and place of damage.
In a world of ongoing uncertainties, including climate and inequities, we have witnessed the costly impact. But by developing resilience skills, you can minimize burnout and rust out. Resilience redefined is how we recover and transform ourselves, our work, and our communities.
Awaken Resilience is my umbrella for a body of work that addresses three levels:
The individual who wants transformation in their life
The leader who wants transformation in their team and organization
The community who wants transformation in connection with climate change
This is where the path of the last five years has led me to. And I’m so grateful to be here. I am so appreciative for your time reading and being with me as we all grow.