Thrive Sustainably in 2025

I hope this message finds you feeling energised and ready for the year ahead.

Today, I want to share some thoughts on a topic that resonates deeply with all of us: sustainability.

Often, when we hear sustainability, we think of environmental conservation and climate change.

However, it's equally crucial in our professional and personal lives. Sustainability is having the bandwidth to manage and enjoy our professional and personal lives. It is going beyond survival mode to have good levels of well-being and ultimately thriving.

Almost twenty years ago, I tried to promote a program called Professional and Personal Sustainability because I was increasingly concerned about the well-being of the workforce in our sector.

At that time, we addressed workplace stress in reactive ways. Critical incident debriefing and employee assistance programs (EAP) were undoubtedly useful for dealing with critical incidents and personal stressors, but they were episodic and did not focus on the critical skills of self- leadership, self-care and self-compassion that are necessary to thrive in the long-term. They also ignored the critical responsibility that leaders and workplaces had to ensure that workplaces had realistic demands and workloads and were psychologically safe and mentally healthy.

As we are starting to gear up for the year ahead, it’s critical to reflect on the habits and practices that support our well-being and capacity to thrive.

I often hear of how we as caring professionals compromise our wellbeing for the demands of our roles - a theme that came up regularly in my caring costs series. This happens because of unreasonable demands that are placed upon us due to:

- societal expectations

- funding models that are hard to sustain

- workplace expectations – unreasonable demands

- client’s and their family’s/carer’s needs and expectations

- and of course, the unreasonable demands we place on ourselves.

Sustainability

In our professional lives, sustainability means creating a life-work style that's not just productive but also nurturing. It involves building an approach to work where continuous lifelong learning, compassionate leadership and mindful self-leadership thrive. We want to approach work in ways that ensure it is a source of inspiration and growth, rather than sucking the life force out of us, leading to overwhelm, stress and burnout.

Sustainability is about maintaining a life-work style that allows us to flourish, building enough energy to easily manage our personal and professional demands.

As we balance our work and life, we need to prioritise deep self-care and practice self-compassion. This means recognising our limits and setting boundaries to look after our mental, emotional, and physical health.

The Interplay of Professional and Personal Sustainability

The critical interplay between our professional and personal sustainability lies in how we navigate their interdependence.

Too many of us give our best energy to work and feel gutted at the end of the day, leaving us little for ourselves and our loved ones.

Creating a sustainable approach is critical but easier said than done.

Moving Forward: Our Commitment to Thriving Sustainably

As we move forward into 2025, I encourage each of you to reflect on how you can incorporate sustainability into your daily routines. It might mean setting clear boundaries, finding time for self-reflection, or fostering a more supportive team environment.

In the spirit of the concept of sustainability, I have decided to change the name of my Professional and Workplace Resilience program to Thriving Sustainably.

Thriving Sustainably is dependent on workplace factors and individual factors, depending on leaders and workplaces that support employees’ life-work balance, and to have a healthy workplace environment. Thriving Sustainability is also an individual responsibility, where we are each responsible for creating self-care practices and habits that ensure our long-term well-being and success.

Thriving Sustainably is scheduled for Monday, 30 June and will be offered again later in 2025. I look forward to exploring with you how we can all develop a life-work style that truly supports our ability to thrive.

If you are keen to support your colleagues to Thrive Sustainably in 2025, please reach out as I can deliver this program in-house for your workplace.

I hope this message finds you feeling energised and ready for the year ahead.