Miscellaneous – Grace Appleby

Honest 2021 Resolution

I don’t tend to set New Year’s resolutions. I’m not sure if I’m put off by the likelihood that I’ll forget them in 2 weeks and give up, or if I dislike the idea of waiting for a calendar flip to make life changes.

Anyway, this year I’ve set a few small (and hopefully achievable) goals based on areas of weakness that I’ve identified in myself – you could call it self-improvement, I guess.

I write the way I talk, so today, I want to ramble (in typical ‘me’ style) about one of them.

Goal: Push Yourself To Learn

Some may call it lazy, when I’m being kind to myself, I call it efficient… but I tend to take the easy route in life.

“Work smarter, not harder” – am I right?!

However, I’ve noticed that this approach is starting to be a detriment to my progression, both personal and professional.

If I don’t know how to do something, no matter how small, and someone in the room does – I will always ask them for help before working it out myself.

Now, I don’t know if that is sensible or not (afterall, Google can’t solve all life’s problems), but I’ve noticed that I’m not pushing myself to learn anymore.

I had a job last year, where I was the only person with any real marketing/digital knowledge. Consequently, when faced with any obstacle, I had to work it out myself.

After the initial despair of feeling like “I can’t do this”, I’d resolve that I, in fact, had no choice, because if I couldn’t do it, no-one else could do it for me.

Although tiring, I found this experience to be exhilarating. I taught myself so much in such a short period of time – yes, I didn’t always get it right on the first try, but I progressed extremely quickly.

Now, I have the privilege of working a job that I absolutely love, with a colleague who is dedicated to helping me grow as a Digital Marketeer. But, I must admit, I’ve become far too comfortable in the presence of his expertise and am becoming lazy in my own learning.

I ask questions that I already know the answer to, and seek approval for work that I should be confident in alone.

Recently, I’ve started some voluntary passion projects outside of work and I’m starting to explore these unknown territories again. I’m working things out on my own, and it’s frustrating… but kind of great.

So, that’s one of my honest goals for 2021 – to stop being lazy and to start pushing myself to learn more, because it’s important but also because I love it.

I’d genuinely love to hear what other people have set as their self-improvement resolutions/goals for 2021, so please reach out if you fancy a chat about them.

New Beginnings

Most of us are experiencing some kind of ‘new’ at the moment, be that a new working environment, a new way of living, or a new job entirely.

‘New’ is somewhat synonymous with ‘change’. In order for something to be new, it must be an addition or an alteration of what we currently know.

A lot of us fear change, or more-so the unknown.

How do you view change?

I try to view change as new opportunity, although it’s easier said than done, especially if said change was not something that you chose for yourself.

Change can be scary, but that’s not a bad thing. It is when we feel most uncomfortable that we are growing. If you never did anything that scared you, you’d never achieve much. We need to push ourselves in order to thrive.

My current job was technically my first ‘proper’ job (full-time) and I really settled down there. I learnt more about myself and what I’m capable of than I could have ever imagined. I made friends and developed a routine. Although the position was an internship, I had been offered a permanent role upon completion, which I was thrilled with. However, this job was never meant to be a long-term role for me. I applied intending to work throughout my last semester of university and bridge the gap between graduating and finding my next role. That’s what internships are for: learning and gaining experience that can launch you further into your career goals.

But, I got comfortable.

Comfortable isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, I felt very lucky to have had something to settle into. However, I didn’t want to be in that state in my first job. I wanted to be constantly pushing myself and making the most of this time to learn and grow.

It took some dramatic events for me to realise that I had settled and that I was letting myself down by doing so. That sounds like I’m being a bit hard on myself, but I don’t have any regrets. You learn from everything in life. Nonetheless, I’m glad that I had the courage to push myself again after a period of coasting.

I start a new job on Monday and, whilst I’m incredibly excited, I’m nervous too. Hopefully, this job is going to push me a lot and teach me a great deal. It’s probably going to be difficult, hence the nerves, but that’s also exactly what I’ve been searching for. Something to get my teeth stuck in to.

What kind of change are you experiencing at the moment? In spite of fear or nerves, are you looking at the opportunity that it’s presenting you?

Strengths and Weaknesses

Okay, let’s be honest. If you’ve ever been asked the following question, be it by an interviewer, teacher, or friend, have you answered genuinely?

“What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?”

I think it’s quite normal to lie when faced with this question. Why would you want anyone to know your weaknesses? Surely that just damages your image or your chances of getting the job? Right?

I have always had a set answer prepared for whenever I would be asked this question. Of course, the strength was genuine, but the weakness was a merely a strength that I had twisted to sound like a challenge.

Essentially a dishonest answer, yet I understand why I used to twist the truth. It takes vulnerability to be honest, you have to be prepared to be rejected based on the answer that you give.

In my last semester of university, I had to do a group project with 3 girls from my class. We would be marked as a group for the final task, therefore, it was in everyone’s best interest to work to the unique strengths of each person.

The project highlighted some aspects of my personality that I was already very aware of, such as my sense of organisation. For this reason, I took on a role that involved planning and structuring our workload.

However, I similarly discovered elements of my character that I had never really paid attention to. Probably because I did not want to, as these were the characteristics and skills that I would class as my ‘weaknesses’.

More recently, I’ve had some very interesting conversations with influential people in the marketing industry. I have tried a different approach and been honest when faced with this question, exposing the skills that I wish I could be better at.

Doing so has taught me a great deal. Vocalising your insecurities can be a very empowering experience and can often help you to identify the reasons why you are ‘weaker’ in said areas.

I am now more aware than ever of the skills that I would like to improve on, but I am equally now clearer on exactly how to better myself in these areas.

If I could give any advice this week, it would be to reflect on yourself.

Be honest with yourself – What am I good at? What do I feel insecure about? You need to identify your genuine strengths and weaknesses and try to understand why they fall into each category before you can vocalise these to others.

Most importantly, be kind to yourself in the process – we’re all still learning all of the time!

Revamp

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet (she says to her audience of no one) …

Currently, we’re all going through some uncertain times and, whilst we can’t do a great deal to change that (except wash your hands and stay home), we can definitely do our bit to stay positive and focus on spreading positivity as if it were a virus in itself.

This website is technically a revamp of an old family artefact that was built in 2009 (when I was in year 6). Vearsappleby.co.uk is our family domaine, and it was only recently that we realised that our little website was still live. I’ll insert some pictures below to give you all a good laugh.

During the interview for my current job, the interviewer mentioned that he’d seen the domaine name in my email address and checked out the website. I must admit that I’d forgotten that my email address even had a domaine attached to it. Mortifying. Therefore, I’ve decided to use all of this newfound free time to sort it out (delete it) and start again. My family kindly agreed to let me use the domaine for a new little website of my own.

I’m not entirely sure what this will be yet – possibly an online portfolio, more likely another blog through which I can over share (the real OGs will remember my Year Abroad blog of 2018/19), but, either way, I’m quite excited to have a little corner of the internet to make my own.

Here’s to not letting unfortunate situations dampen our spirits!