The Lunar New Year; A year for Courage, Confidence and Inspirational Leadership

Happy Lunar New Year!

It is the year of the Water Tiger.

According to Dr Lin, from the department of Chinese Studies at Melbourne University, the tiger is considered the king of all animals in Chinese mythology and culture. As a Zodiac sign, it symbolises power, courage, confidence, leadership and strength.

The tiger can often create a sense of fear around the tiger, and it can be associated with destruction.  However, it's also associated with good luck, bravery, and good health and wellbeing.

In terms of the Tiger Year, it's associated with vitality and strength;

"It's [believed to be] a year that will bring about new changes, and encourage people to overcome all challenges and difficulties — which is particularly important for this year, when we're all trying to come to terms with all the difficulties around the world," Dr Lin, department of Chinese Studies at Melbourne University. (Evans, 2022)

The Breakthrough - Finding courage and developing self-confidence

So, continuing the theme of change, and helping people to overcome challenges and difficulties, for those of you who follow me or are part of my community you may have noticed I have been quiet throughout January.  I’ve had a number of life changing realisations over the past couple of months.

These have led to a huge breakthrough and impacted the way I feel, and how I show up in the world.  It’s been coming for a long time, probably since late 2020 when things were changing across the globe and for me personally. 

At the end of 2020, I decided to step into the world of work (as opposed to the entrepreneurial world) to get a different perspective, by taking on a role which I was confident about.  It was probably one of the hardest roles I have ever taken - not the work itself, but stepping into a corporate environment after 5 years of running a business, and experiencing how toxic workplaces can be. 

My mental health deteriorated as well as my self-confidence and belief.  I struggled to be my authentic self, I felt useless and totally disempowered.  Training for a half ironman was the only thing that was keeping me sane!

Wellbeing and the Workplace  

Working with many employees in organisations across all different sectors,  I often heard terrible stories of how people were being treated but I had underestimated the depth of the toxicity.

This experience, and the daily stories shared across social media, meet-ups and 1:1 conversations, re-ignited my passion to support those who experience unhealthy, toxic workplaces and want to make a difference, to their own lives, their family and community. 

For some, the pandemic has improved the situation and for others made it worse - leading to people re-examining what is really important in their life. The year of the Water Tiger is the year to be brave and focus on your well being by putting yourself first.

Having spent quality time with my teenage children over the school holidays, I have started decluttering (long overdue), and worked on creating more flow in my life by focusing on my superpowers and outsourcing the stuff I’m not so good at.  I’m not there yet but certainly heading in the right direction. 

The Importance of Leadership

The theme of trust in leadership has been omnipresent.  In December 2021, I was fortunate to attend a week-long training course, with Doug Faber and Stephen M.R. Covey on the subject of “Trust & Inspire” Leadership.  Attending this programme inspired me to look at how I have been showing up as a leader across all aspects of my life.

We discussed 5 fundamental beliefs of trust & inspire leaders and the one that resonated the most for me was the belief that “people are whole people”: body, heart, mind and spirit and that my job as a leader (at home, in business, in the community) is to inspire and not merely motivate.

Modelling who you are, as a leader, is also key.  Declare yourself.  Through humility & courage; authenticity & vulnerability; empathy & performance.

Looking to the future

So, as the water tiger symbolises power, courage, confidence, leadership and strength it seems the right timing for me to fully embrace who I am and help others do that too.

Through working with organisations at Change Optimised I have had the opportunity to see and experience a variety of workplace cultures and environments. Whilst I will continue to deliver organisational transformation training, facilitation and coaching programs as part of @changeoptimised, I am excited to begin my new side hustle.

If any of this resonates with you, follow me on Instagram @charlottemawle and on my LinkedIn and Facebook @charlottemawlecoachingandmentoring for news and updates.

Join me in taking on this new year with more courage and confidence where we can discover how to align our passions with our work to improve our wellbeing.

I’d love to hear your opinion on the nature of the workplace today or how you’re feeling about this year, so send me a message if you’d like to share some ideas/inspiration or just have a chat.

Also, check out https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/what-does-the-year-of-the-water-tiger-mean-lunar-new-year-2022/100785464 and https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lunar-New-Year if you’d like to find out more interesting things about the Lunar New Year and its significance.