Nowadays we hear the word resilience thrown around quite a bit. The times we are living in are challenging to the point where we adults – the Gen X and Boomers are being counted on to show the Millenials and Gen Z, how to be resilient. After all we have been through Vietnam, The Gulf War and now the Pandemic.
I am allegedly a Boomer. I personally think I am a cross between Gen X and Boomer although I do have some Millenial and Gen Z traits.
I will tell you why I feel this way in this story. Also, feel free to read my post on being 58 and never working 9–5.
My first flexibility test
Let me start at the beginning — careerwise. The key to my getting into a world class airline in Mumbai, out of thousands of applicants, was the word ‘flexibility’. Pan Am wanted to know if we were flexible enough to have changing schedules, bomb threats that led to going off the aircraft and coming back on after a search was made, long waits in airports etc. They conducted 5 interviews to make sure.
Same with Saudi Arabian….
Flexibility and adaptability came into play when the airline extended our contract from 6-week training to almost a year in Jeddah. They changed the time to go back home weekly. Plus, they took our passports. There was no way for us to leave. Forget about the plans we had back home. Adapt. Or quit.
Had to work on my frustration first. How do large companies arbitrarily decide to change contracts mid-contract? I guess, when you work for a King, they can. Right?
I had to learn resilience in order to stay in a compound meant only for women. Coming from a relatively free society — this was interesting. Plus the fact that we had to produce an ID to be able to take a bus to the souk. Don’t give up and go home, Nicole. Don’t. Remember the game plan.
A few years later, I left a perfectly great salary with Saudi Arabian Airlines — no tax paychecks, imagine that — to come to America to study theology and missions. That’s another story.
The last 27 years have been a wild ride. Grit came into the picture. Developing perseverance and not quitting.
The poem ‘Don’t Quit‘ played a huge part.
Change of plans
We learn to be resilient when we work for free, sleep on floors and office couches, eat food bank food, live in cramped rooms with 5 other people. You learn to work hard and never give up when you are constantly picked over someone because of assumed prejudices.The princess turns into a warrior.
Your greatest competitor is your own potential
So how do you keep working when not only do the goalposts change but the game strategy changes as well.
Companies with changing contracts. Schools with changing strategies, classrooms, and processes due to a pandemic.
Its resilience. And it can be achieved by being flexible. I see people out of work because they are rigid in what they want to do. They end up depressed and dependent on various chemical salves to dress their wounds.
Rub shoulders with people who have never had it easy but who have conquered through resilience.
Look at the eagle. It lets the wind take it up. Stretch the wings of your potential. And soon you will find yourself flying.
So what is the key?
Flexibility means adapting. But it also does not mean being walked on by your company.
Learn when to say — that’s enough. You will know.
Think outside the box. Put aside that fragile ego. Approach the new-not-in-your-skillset-job with an attitude of a learner.
It is a win. At life. Resilience. And relevance.
There is much joy and excitement at meeting new people in new industries. I loved hanging with the help desk crowd when I worked as a tech writer for an IT firm.
And of course, now, high school teachers are the best! The humor! It’s what gets us through the day!
It’s not to say there will not be POM (poor old me) days of self-pity and a myriad of ‘why me’ questions. Of course, there will be. More often than not.
But don’t quit. Hang in there. Don’t quit. Use the training weights of everyday decisions to muscle up your resilience.
Listen to the podcast discussing this issue. My conversation with a another well traveled Boomer, Carl.
