Like every person, I have a story. My story is personal, confronting, emotional and challenging. But, through all my ups and downs, I have learned to appreciate perspectives on the power of building personal resilience and creating the right conditions for resilience to both arise and thrive.
I got dealt a bad set of lottery numbers in the genetic lottery.
I was born and diagnosed 45 years ago with Cystic Fibrosis, a multisystemic life-limiting genetic disorder that affects a number of organs – especially the lungs, pancreas, stomach and intestines. From this, I also have other complications including type 1 diabetes and liver disease from the years of life saving antibiotic courses. Damn. Nice cards!
However, Cystic Fibrosis or its complications are not on my resume.
In fact, CF is not on my CV at all!
What is on my CV, is the fact that because of my life long battle with this disease, I have been challenged and empowered to develop perspective, build resilience, and been shaped and inspired to redefine personal success.
Have you thought about your career story, how it has shaped you and how you will share it?
Firstly, I developed a sense of perspective from an early age, that translates to high levels of emotional awareness of self and others. As a mere teenager I had to front up to way too many funerals of ‘hospital friends’, the sort of funerals that we don’t usually experience in our formative years. This built a level of empathy, diplomacy and courage to continue lifes journey, both from a personal and a career perspective.
My second career assisting lesson was about building resilience. The feeling of being knocked down onto the canvas and to only get up again, after a quick dusting off, is a metaphor of my personal life. It’s a metaphor that carries over into my corporate world. For me this was often via the number of hospital ‘tune-up’ admissions I endured. What a skill to get up and fight on. I learned to roll with the inevitability of project mistakes, career mistakes and other stuff ups, and stay focused on the next step, rather than being absorbed and beaten up by a setback.
The third learning is being able to define personal success. In my early years the prognosis for children in the 1970s was very low, ending as early as teenage years. As I have aged, so too has the amazing changes in treatment, life altering mediciations for those who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis. My defintion of success has gone from, living to my late teens, to early 20’s and now it is measured by my strong family, my growing strong professional connections and my strong legacy I leave in my career path. And if I can share those learnings with others as they forge their own professional career ‘with baggage’, I have been given a bonus and I have given a bonus.
What is your definition of personal success?
Only 12 years ago, my brother passed away from the effects of CF, after a double lung transplant at the age of thirty-five, ironically on his birthday. The gift I have, is that I can and will, continue to build, develop and define for me, for him and for others the scaffolding and support structures that help others find their success, build resilient careers and do so with empathy, compassion and perspective.
James – Facilitator and Career Coach
YellowBox Careers
