Who Am I at Work When I’m Not Trying to Prove Myself?

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping basket is already at capacity.

Add to cart failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Who Am I at Work When I’m Not Trying to Prove Myself?

Listen for free

View show details

Do you remember learning how to ride a bike?Maybe you started with training wheels. And with those training wheels on, you could ride. You weren’t thinking about balance or wondering whether you could stay upright. You climbed onto the seat, put your feet on the pedals, and took off.Maybe you rode up and down the sidewalk or raced the other kids in the neighborhood. You learned to steer around cracks in the pavement and how hard you had to push the pedals to climb a hill. You might have even gotten pretty fast.You knew how to ride your bike.Until someone decided it was time to take off the training wheels.Suddenly, the bike you had been riding confidently felt like an entirely different machine. There was nothing on either side to catch you if you leaned too far. The bike wobbled underneath you, and something you had felt perfectly capable of doing five minutes earlier suddenly didn’t feel so certain.Could I really do this without the training wheels? What if I fell? What if I couldn’t do it?Maybe you weren’t convinced. So someone offered to hold onto the back of the seat.They would give you a little push to get you started, then run alongside you while you pedaled. And once you had a little momentum, something wonderful happened. You could balance! You could steer, pedal, and keep the bike upright without the training wheels.As long as you were moving, you were fine.The hard part was getting started.When the bike was standing still, with one foot on the ground and the other on the pedal, it was a different story. You had to push off, get your feet onto the pedals, and build enough momentum to balance before the bike tipped over.That was the scary part.So you asked for another push.And every time, once you were moving, you could ride. You were doing the pedaling, the steering, and the balancing. But you still believed you needed someone holding the back of the seat to get you going.Until one day, the person helping you did something you weren’t expecting.They gave you that familiar push, but instead of running alongside you, they let go.You kept pedaling, gripping the handlebars and concentrating on staying upright. You were so focused on riding that you didn’t notice anything had changed.Until you realized you couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore.You looked back.They were standing halfway down the sidewalk, watching you.They hadn’t been holding on for a while.You’d been riding the bike by yourself.And that’s the part of this story that has me thinking about our careers.Because I wonder how many of us have spent years learning, growing, developing skills, and accomplishing things we once weren’t sure we could do, yet still approach every new challenge as though we’re that child gripping the handlebars, terrified that we’re going to fall.What if we’ve already demonstrated that we’re capable?What if the person we’re still trying to convince is ourselves?Before We Go Further, Let Me Introduce MyselfI’m Cyndi Bennett, a trauma-informed career coach and Founder of the Resilient Career Academy. I help survivors of complex trauma and CPTSD recognize the patterns that may be holding them back, rediscover the strengths and capabilities they bring to the workplace, and build careers based on their own vision of success rather than the limitations trauma taught them to believe in.I’m also someone who spent a lot of my career trying to prove what I could do. For a long time, I didn’t necessarily see that as a problem. Being determined to demonstrate my capability helped me develop skills, solve problems, navigate difficult situations, and build a career I’m proud of.But as I began to understand how my own experiences with complex trauma had shaped the way I saw myself, I started questioning something I hadn’t really considered before.Who was I trying so hard to convince?And perhaps more importantly, why did I still need convincing after everything I’d already accomplished?That’s what I invite you to explore with me today. How can beliefs we developed about ourselves long before entering the workforce influence our professional identity? Why might accomplishments fail to change those beliefs? And what might become possible if we could begin seeing ourselves through the evidence of who we’ve become rather than the beliefs we learned about ourselves long ago?Want More Trauma-Informed Career Support?If you’re navigating the ways complex trauma or CPTSD can affect your career, I invite you to subscribe to my Substack for free. You’ll get access to trauma-informed career development articles and resources designed to help you recognize patterns that may be holding you back, discover strengths you may not recognize in yourself, and explore new possibilities for building a career you’re proud of.When We’re Trying to Prove Something to OurselvesThere’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to demonstrate what we’re capable of.When we’re learning something new, ...

No reviews yet