You do a very hard job, in a stretched organisation, in a definitely stretched world.
When work challenge is permanently high like this, the difference between I can and I can’t, manageable and not, is often the level of support we have. Have a look at my favourite matrix below for a good representation of this. When support and challenge are both high as in the top right corner, we feel more ease and empowerment.
That’s not to say anything will make your work 100% easy, but we are looking for things that bring more ease and enjoyment each day, and over time this adds up.
If you accept that your role, organisation and world is challenging. It makes perfect sense to make sure that our support matches this and remains high most of the time.
We often think about support from an external perspective – asking someone for help perhaps – but we can often also benefit from thinking about how we support ourselves too, which is something we can control and maintain more easily.
When we combine high external and internal support, it adds up to us feeling more resourced, which in turn makes our challenging work easier to navigate and enjoy.
In support of this, this reflection exercise focuses on exploring what support you have and would like in your work life. Give it a go and see what small shifts happen for you.
To start:
- This reflection exercise shares a sequence of questions, feel free to answer them in a way that works for you – pause or stop whenever you need to
- To start, take a moment to figure out how you’d like to approach this: Would you prefer to think, write or type your responses?
- As you notice more, what does your body need at this moment? Perhaps warmth, a drink, movement, a loo break, etc. Consider responding to this need before you start.
Your experience of support
- What other words, images and colours does support make you think of?
- Think of a time you felt supported – what was happening, and how did that leave you feeling?
- If comfortable to, take a moment to notice and be with the sensations are cropping up as you reflect on support
- What do you notice?
Support from other
- What environments do you find particularly supportive?
- What about these environments supports you?
- Which 3 people in your life do you find most supportive?
- What about these people supports you in ways you welcome?
- Who do you trust to ask for help at work?
Support for self
- What habits help you feel supported at work?
- When you’re supporting yourself really well – what does this look and sound like?
- What ways do you support yourself when things get challenging at work?
Support in your work
- How supported do you currently feel in work?
- If you were to score how supported you feel out of 10, what would you go for?
- Look around the room and find an object that reflects the kind of support you’d like in work
- What about this object reflects the kind of support you’d like?
- In what ways would you like the support you receive from others / external things to change?
- In what ways would you like the support you receive from yourself to change?
- What stands out to you from these reflections so far?
Looking ahead
- What small change would you like to make to have the support you need in the season ahead?
- What or who can help you make this change?
- Is there anything else you’d like to note before you finish?
Reflection and close
- What have you found most interesting about your reflections?
- What’s the most important thing that emerged?
- What do you want to do to close this reflection time well?
I hope you found this reflection exercise useful. I always welcome hearing your experiences and feedback, so feel free to get in touch if there’s anything you’d like to share.
