It is important to be vulnerable. In the last few years, more and more I have realised, that if you do not know something, you need to admit it. You cannot always know everything and in fact, how else will you learn?

If you are not learning something every day, even something small, then I believe you need to check yourself. Why is this? Well, are you not pushing yourself? Are you not self-aware and realising that there is so much more that you could know? Are there any more positive and negative experiences that you could be open to? Asking these questions is essential to challenging yourself and allowing you to be receptive to new opportunities and learnings.

I have worked in recruitment for eight years and daily I think, ‘how did I get into this fickle industry?’ I still feel like I am an apprentice. It is not that I don’t know anything, it is just that every day there are new challenges and new ways of coping, new personalities that you’re having to navigate around and new ways of looking at things. It is ok to feel like you are not the epitome of your field. If anything, it means that you haven’t shut yourself off from the opportunity to learn and improve. The realisation that we are all different in our own unique way – taught and learnt, makes life so special. We are all learning and transforming every day, or at least we should be.

This pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works – our generations have never had to deal with anything like this before. It’s changed our working landscape. How do we function now? What is the new normal? Who on earth can truly give advice on what will happen in the short term or what we can predict will happen in the future? To me, it is all hearsay, no one really knows. We just need to go along with the ride and adapt accordingly based on our moral compass.

What are your coping strategies? Are you doom and gloom, looking at the news and predicting Armageddon? Or is your view that things can only go up? That we can only get better, improve, learn from our mistakes. Find a better way, a new way, a squeaky-clean new start that it is not only exciting and exhilarating but also frightening. If we were not frightened, we would not be adaptable, we would not be kept on our toes, and to be honest, we would never change. We’d be stuck in the mud.

Let’s look at this as a shiny new opportunity. A way to learn, a way to find new strategies and optimism. Do not let pride get in your way, it will hold you back from transforming into what you were meant to be.