A Retreat to Focus on My Professional Identity- Reflections One Year Later
A year ago, I went to the desert on a solo trip to rediscover myself and my professional identity. It was so powerful, I just did it again! (See old blog here)
I cannot recommend this time away enough for anyone seeking to develop a stronger sense of who you are and what your work/life is truly about. A professional identity checkin is a reflective process that requires us to step away from distractions and external forces so we can see our truths for ourselves.
Last year, my trip was fueled by a deep need-even desperation- to find myself, reconnect with myself, and make sense of my inner turmoil and identity confusion. I was more than my job title, but who was that? How did I see myself?
My career felt off track, my life journey felt unstable, and getting “back on the horse”, so to speak, by using traditional approaches and tools wasn’t helping me address (what’s most often neglected) the internal, existential side of what fulfillment and success mean to me. How do I define my own career?
To hear those thoughts, I needed solitude to allow them to surface.
Last year compared to this year
Last year, it felt scary to go on this trip. This year, I was anticipating it as a special time for me. I knew it would feel both hard and rewarding, but allowing my inner wisdom to reveal itself was the goal.
As a professional identity researcher, I’m also studying how our professional identity is connected to our sense of career belonging. I don’t believe in “career paths” anymore because they're a harsh master full of “shoulds”! Career belonging is the sensation when you know your career belongs to you, no matter what, and you feel seen, known, and valued for what you do. It’s a bigger essence of work (hence Big C Career stuff).
Employers offere Identity Retreats as Professional Development
I believe taking a retreat to find, define, and refine yourself in relation to your work and career is a tool most of us would benefit from in our professional development journeys.
In fact, I’d love to see managers and companies recommending (and paying for) a 5-day professional identity reboot/reconnect retreat for their staff, as part of individual performance plans, especially to target issues of employee engagement and purpose in the workforce. (I’m chewing on this further).
My advice from my latest professional identity retreat is this:
Go on a self-discovery retreat of your own (the less distractions the better). It’s like an identity health check.
Don’t plan anything. This isn’t a scheduled set of activities, let yourself flow with simple desires that feed and inspire your soul. Observe what’s been hiding inside and rest (journaling, Gazing at the sky, reading a book, walking in nature, napping, painting, eating a delicious snack, day dreaming, feeling your emotions, etc are great starting points)
Give yourself the gift of disconnecting and being alone for a few days (no internet)
Get curious about yourself. Make friends with yourself. Enjoy your own company. Laugh and cry with yourself. Love yourself.
Capture what unfolds each day (videos, audio recordings, journaling) to let your thoughts come out, see them and engage with what’s there