August 24, 2020

Imagine that you have a personal account for your hero credits, if these credits mattered to you, you would frequently monitor the balance.  With awareness of this account, you might even want to proactively top up your investment regularly. 

If you stop to think about the current situation we are all experiencing right now, it may feel difficult to experience hope. Some of us will have enjoyed lockdown and some will most definitely not have enjoyed the isolation. Each to their own. 

Feeling compassion for others at this time is overwhelming. In particular, for those who have a sense of hopelessness, trying to carry on living and working whilst also grieving, for lost family, colleagues or ways of working. Hope will not bring back what they have lost.  

What hope will do however, is help them focus not on the loss, but on trusting in the possibility that they will find a new way of living and thriving. It allows them to reset their expectations. I for one, have to operate with trust in possibilities, I have a preference for options and choices so I find that hope is something I use a lot at home and in my work. 

Self-Efficacy in this context is about the choices you make as to how you will behave as a human being day to day. It is your survival strategy. You can choose composure and you will instinctively know which behaviours and approach will be of the most help to assist you in functioning at your best. This is about accessing positive emotions when you need them and allowing yourself to have a favourable view of what it is to be human with a hopeful disposition. At these times, optimism is your friend. All of this happens on a good day and a great week. As part of this, resilience is key to being your own best hero. 

Time management is one aspect of self-efficacy that I find to be rather fluid. Not one for saying ‘no’ very often, I enjoy an element of the urgent and important tasks most weeks. Nothing like a deadline to get stuff done! Sometimes we learn the hard way. I have begun to draw the line though, and will not sacrifice my physical, mental or social wellbeing, which includes stopping for lunch, more regular screen breaks and walking the dog. As human beings we cannot function as machines. Even machines need occasional maintenance. One of the challenges I notice with working from home, is to coordinate my downtime to coincide with the needs of my family. This is definitely a work in progress! 

I’ve learned that continuing to manage myself and my workload does give me more time for family and friends. In addition, noticing feedback in all its forms, helps to regulate and top up my hero credits. A colleague once said, ‘you are the most optimistic person I know’. I remember this whenever the challenges seem huge.  With a tenacious and hopeful disposition – I know that everything will work out.

On a closing note, it will be tough with millions out of work. We can worry or we can choose to get to work on reimagining a future that supports people finding renewed purpose. A new sustainable environment that nurtures heroes.