Finding Strength Through Your Struggles: 5 Tips to Help You Through Your Career


Photographer-Alfred Sarpeh
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This week left me feeling drained, both physically and mentally, but it also left me empowered. At the beginning of the year I asked God to stretch me and help me shine so that I could live a more impactful life. Well this week was the hardest and most hectic work week I have ever endured, and I'm thankful for it. I hope I never have a week quite like this one again, but I am so glad God brought me through it because I was stretched in ways I have never been stretched before. God allowed me to shine in the midst of various struggles and that is a blessing. My job is very detailed oriented, fast-paced, and extremely stressful at times. Only the strong survive in that type of environment, and I'm not only surviving, I am thriving! How? Keep reading:

1. Pray for strength and exemplify strength. Never ask for easy. Yes, there were times when I felt like giving up, but giving up is not an option when you are a leader. I asked God for strength multiple times because I knew that his strength would give me the power to lead effectively. I also needed to show my assistants and other team members strength so that they would feel confident and empowered. I did not wish for easy, because easy does not allow anyone to grow. Strong leaders are not made from easy situations. Your boss, his/her boss, and the CEO of your company did not earn their positions by coasting through easy situations. They earned their positions by dealing with challenging situations that stretched them and sharpened their skills.

2. Delegate and ask for help. As a manager, I have learned that leaders do not win alone. Leaders have a team they can rely on-a team they can trust. When I started feeling overwhelmed because I was trying to handle all my tasks at once, I decided to give some of those tasks to my assistants. When you delegate correctly, you remove some pressure off of yourself and help other members of your team shine. Part of my role of a manager is developing my assistants so I purposely give them tasks that will allow them to stand out.

3. Always thank you team and let them know you appreciate them. I could not have survived this week without the help of my assistants, and I made sure I let them know that. Their presence made it easier for me to be successful this week. People work harder for you when they feel appreciated, so I told my assistants that they were my MVPs because they are!

4. Have backbone. When I first became a manager, I learned that you have to be straightforward, tell people when they are wrong, and call them out on their nonsense. This was a struggle for me at first last year because I'm a very nice person and I don't like to hurt feelings. However, I quickly learned that tough conversations are necessary. I have no problem telling people when they are wrong these days, especially when they are exercising poor judgment and making expensive mistakes. I called a lot of folks out on their nonsense this week and my boss thanked me for it. We were able to fix a lot of issues because I was not afraid to tell people when they were wrong and offer the correct solutions to the problems.

5. Conquer with confidence. No one is going to hold your hand at work so you need to trust your judgement and believe in yourself. The pressure was high this week and I had to make decisions quickly. There was no time for me to second guess myself. The decisions I made were beneficial to the business and I knew they would be because I have good judgement.

I hope this article helped you in some way. I hope you feel empowered. Most importantly I hope you will find strength through your struggle! If this article resonated with you and you want to read more blog posts about career, leave a comment below:)

4 comments

  1. I loved this post very inspiring thank ypu for your words of encouragement this post has showed me a few things thanks for sharing
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