By Hope 103.2 NetworkMonday 6 Feb 2023Health and WellbeingReading Time: 2 minutes
In her book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, Sheryl Sandberg – the COO of Facebook – tells the heartbreaking story of suddenly losing her husband.
She reveals openly her struggles and attempts to work through her grief.
She tells of the time when her young children were to attend an event that their father would have accompanied them to. Instead, someone else stepped in to do this.
Sandberg recounts how distraught she was, that she wanted her husband and their father to do this, and not have someone else stand in.
Her friend firmly told her that, sometimes, life deals you “Option B” and you just have to grab it and run hard with it.
One of the ways I encourage people I work with to have a flexible mindset when it comes to investing their identity in their work relates to Option B.
I suggest that they hold very, very loosely to Option A (or, in my words, the “bull’s eye thinking”).
We can invest so much of our time, energy, focus and, eventually, identity in achieving success in one track, we can lose ourselves if hard times come – or Option A just does not happen.
If you listen in, however, to some of the most driven and contributing members of society, they rarely finished, or stayed put, in the initial thoughts of what they would do.
What they did do was to identify what they derived meaning and purpose from.
They found a variety of ways to express that – personally and professionally.
Option B thinking is an exercise I like to encourage.
Think of 20 other things you could do to express the loves and service drivers you have.
Don’t censor it – treat it as a true brainstorming exercise.
This helps to see that if not Option A, then Option B, C, D, E …
What could be your Option B?
Article supplied with thanks to Valerie Ling.
About the Author: Valerie Ling is a clinical psychologist and consultant with The Centre for Effective Living (a psychology and mental health practice) and The Centre for Effective Serving (a workplace wellbeing consultancy).
Feature image: Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash