Future Leaders with the Prince's Trust

Throwback to the end of February, I attended an event with the Prince's Trust called Future Leaders. 

The event's aim was to help people discover their authentic selves and unleash their inner leaders, not in a manager-leader sense, but as in leading your own life (I think). Future Leaders helped me discover what has been holding me back mentally and helped restore my confidence after it took a dip.

We looked at elements that drive our behaviour and who we are such as our inner critics, our core values, our ikigai and how elements of it relate to our ideal job. We shared our stories and reframed them in a more positive light to find the values and gifts in them. We ended the day by going through things we can do to self-care.

Inner Critics

We all have inner critics - the voices in our heads, the event broke them down into the archetypes below. When you realise and understand your critics, separate them from yourself because seeing them as a separate entity makes learning to control it easier. When your critic starts controlling you that's when it becomes unhealthy.

I learned that my inner critic is mostly "the general" and I don't see it as a bad thing. I hold my general accountable for some of my good traits such as my proactiveness, my desire to keep learning, keep creating, keep improving. But on the other hand there are times when I let it consume me without realising, I start to feel like no matter how much I do, I've not done enough, which escalates into other negative thoughts. Since this realisation I've gotten a lot better at recognising and preventing that feeling from taking over - mostly through learning how to manage my time healthily and bring balance to my life.

*Not my diagram*

Core Values and Ikigai

During this activity we reflected on aspects of ourselves and how that fits in with our career goals. This activity reconnected me to why I chose a career goal in animation in the first place.

*Not my diagram*

What do I love? Stories, art, life, people (friends, family, members in online art communities). What the world needs? Joy, kindness, passion, creativity and education. What am I good at? Learning, digital modelling, technical problem solving, creating, sharing and being kind. What can I be paid for? Working in the animation industry which combines all these elements.

As an additional thing to understand myself better I've taken a few quizzes on good&co who give you your own personality guide pdf for free. Also there's https://www.16personalities.com/ 

Self Care Dos and Don'ts

Dos: Talk to someone close to you, go for a walk (after isolation ends), journalling (paperchase do some great ones, see mine below), practice gratitude, listen to your favourite songs or podcast, practice mindfulness, have a bath, use aroma oils or incense, do a puzzle, play a game, read a book, make fun social plans (after isolation ends).

Don'ts: Keep feelings locked in, isolate yourself from total communication with others, overuse social media, excessively drink or abuse substances.

Apps: Headspace, Calm, Insights Timer, Reflectly.

The below video series "Taming Your Gremlin" was recommended, I haven't got round to watching it myself yet.