Back to school! I recently volunteered to participate in a master students and alumni event at the VU University in Amsterdam. I graduated in 2009 and it was amazing to be back and see what has changed. Or didn’t change at all. The event was full of interesting conversations and insights worth sharing here.
When talking to the students I recognized so much from myself 9 years ago. What am I going to do after this? What is expected of me when I get out there? Since these are truly personal questions, the studens were quite hesitant to asking them. Networking with all the alumni representing many different organizations, helped to get curious.
I saw relief with some of them that you don’t have to figure out your future all at once. That you aren’t expected to have all the knowledge it takes to make it in practice. Whatever that means. That you get to keep on learning. That employers provide you time and budget to invest in yourself, your knowledge and personal development.
One thing we noticed as alumni: the students were quite idealistic. They were focused on changing the world. Interested in sustainability topics for instance. Made us feel nostalgic. We also got into a genuine conversation about how organizations are currently managed. And how you, being a young professional, are supposed to fit in.
As alumni, it struck us we walked completely different paths, but according to pretty much the same pattern. We graduated and got a job. We adjusted to the organization, its goals and structure. We tried to fit in and to perform the best we could. We were pretty successful, got promoted, and extremely busy achieving our goals. And then we got tired. Both physically and mentally.
In reality, in our conversation we were still talking about how successful we were. And how more often people got burned out and afterwards became coaches and/or yoga teachers in Bali. Extremely judgmental of course… but aren’t you expected to show only your good side at a networking event? I suddenly remembered my intention to show more of myself and try to be open and show vulnerability. So I took a deep breath and shared that I had been pretty close (to a burn out) and actually applied for a yoga teacher training.
It was silent for a sec. And then the other two alumni said: yeah, I’ve been there. We discovered a pattern among our paths. When we got tired, both physically and mentally, we started thinking about what we really wanted. Instead of striving for an organizational goal or external expectation, we focused on what we found important. And started to make adjustments, not only in our work but in our lifestyle too.
This made me think of Brene Brown’s research. We felt courageous enough to show our vulnerability (we went into the arena) and we could relate to each others story. We aren’t successful because of the ‘perfect’ way to climb the career ladder. We are successful because we learned from our own mistakes and improved the way we live and lead. Turns out, we’re not that different from the master students. We just have to keep on growing.
Essence of Change 