What would you write in a graduation card to yourself, age 21, from your current perspective? Would it be the usual “The World is Your Oyster” or “The Adventure Begins” or even the Dr Seuss’ inspired “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”
My advice to myself at that age? After suggesting that I choose to travel or live abroad for a couple of years – which I did by accident – I’d suggest “having a strategy (including risks), even when you’re not sure where you’re going”. (To soften the killjoy vibe, I’d also give myself €100 to spend on something frivolous).
Too often, I meet people who have floated along, allowing their lives to be shaped by the expectations of others – their parents, social group, culture or even a partner. They fail to ask themselves: “Who am I, what are my values, what do I want and what’s my strategy for getting there?”
These questions are not easy ones and it might take years of personal introspection and career exploration to find answers. But by choosing not to choose, you’ve actively made a decision; your life will be lived according to the whims of others.
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Intentionally designing for happiness involves proactively shaping your career and personal choices. It’s about understanding your needs, exploring possibilities and taking action to create a fulfilling life rather than passively accepting what comes your way.
Risk is inherent in any life design process but it can be managed by having a basic sense of direction, examining opportunities and doing a bit of scenario planning to help reframe challenges. This approach has some big benefits too: it reduces stress, needless anxiety and time wasting.
Personally, it took me some time to live my life intentionally and sometimes I still fall back into old habits. But a few years ago, when my husband and I were parenting two teens and I’d lost my energy and sense of self, my uncle suggested the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
The academic authors had designed Stanford University’s most popular course; one that helped students navigate their life well by making conscious choices.
Drawing on design thinking principles, the book provides a phased approach to crafting a life that aligns with your values, passions and beliefs. After using this myself and with clients, a structured approach to life now seems as logical and obvious to me as a methodical approach to business design.
What are personal risk registers
In work and in life, there are some things you can control and many things that you cannot. It’s the unknown risks that can cause us the most stress. The nagging whys or whens that keep us up at night.
People who work in risky businesses, like airline pilots, sailors, deep sea rig divers and health professionals, are constantly planning, scanning and mitigating for risk. Successful businesses do the same by using processes and structures that allow them to gain clarity and choose the right direction at the right time.
Senior management teams develop strategies, implementation plans and look at what things – market conditions, costs, personnel and skills gaps – might derail them. Company boards have a risk register, which is a document outlining and rating the potential risks.
Why don’t we do this personally? It’s a very insightful tool and one I think we should all be using throughout different career stages.
What’s on your personal risk register right now? You might start with larger risk categories that are aligned with your life strategy such as: professional, financial, personal, social and health and make a list or ask yourself relevant questions.
Let’s say you’re an accountant, a CEO, a venture capitalist, a scientist, a teacher, a dancer or an artist. How are you aligning your life to make sure that in your current career situation, you have the best chance of succeeding professionally while also maintaining good personal relationships and long-term health? Do you need to make some changes?
What are the risks that might derail your plans? Professional risks might include limited professional pathway options, skills or educational gaps, relevance of current qualifications, redundancy risk, low career longevity, inadequate salary/ compensation package, poor opportunities for progression, cultural barriers, burnout, time out for caring responsibilities or lack of family friendly policies. How can you actively address these risks?
Financial risks might be salary levels in your chosen profession, income instability or precariousness, potential for a recession, low levels of savings, inflation, divorce, death of a partner, illness, unexpected expenses, educational, childcare or caring related expenses. Personal risks could include poor relationships, family dysfunction, children, community, networks of support. Among social risks are absence of community, poor sense of purpose and belonging.
When it comes to health questions, how am I looking after my physical, mental and emotional health now and into the future? What healthy habits can I build? What poor habits do I need to address?
Once you’ve come up with your list or spreadsheet, it’s time to colour code. Mark red for urgent or most likely to happen, amber for medium-term or possible and green for unlikely or sorted.
The meritocracy myth
Some hidden risks are beyond your control but are worth assessing too. How might your age, gender, sexual orientation, parental or partnership status, nationality, skin colour, social class, health condition or impairments or religion limit your professional and personal goals and happiness?
Meritocracy is a myth. Despite everything we hope to believe, and laws prohibiting such discrimination on the above grounds, the world is not equal and jobs are not always assigned on merit.
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Sometimes, the person who gets the job was just the next in line or they’re similar to the boss or they play the same sport, went to the right school, or they’re political operators, or they’re well connected or they’re simply in the right place at the right time.
However, you can reduce the risk that you’ll be sidelined by actively, intentionally choosing an employer who values diversity, equality and inclusion. Despite the international rollback in this area, many companies still value diversity as an integral part of their culture and business.
You can look up employee reviews online, scrutinise their company websites and see if they’ve been part of rigorous assessment and improvement programmes. There’s also the handy paygap.ie website run by data journalist and public information campaigner, Jen Keane, that shows both the gender and promotional pay gap.
Naturally, we tend to be optimistic that we’ll easily reach our personal life goals and it seems like a downer to think in advance that some barriers might be put in our way. But humans are not actually very good at assessing risk – especially their own risk, according to Marie Helweg-Larsen, a professor of psychology at Dickinson College.
People rely more on their gut feelings and emotions such as worry, fear or anxiety instead of doing a deliberate risk analysis. By actively designing your life and using a personal risk register, you can better manage the uncertainties and build a happier future for yourself and your loved ones.
Margaret E. Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie
