How Embracing Uncertainty Can Fuel Your Career Growth

Written by Kacey Ondimu

During a psychology placement fair, I was immediately drawn to taking on a support worker role for autistic children. After an interesting conversation with the team, I knew this position was for me. It aligned perfectly with one of my career aspirations, which is to become an educational psychologist. I also knew it would be a fulfilling experience for my career growth.

My first hurdle

On one of my sessions, for the first time ever, I experienced a child trying to abscond. Luckily, I was with an experienced main support worker, and together we resolved the situation. I always knew the job wouldn’t be easy and to expect challenging behaviours like this, but no matter how realistic my expectations were, it did not prepare me for the stress I was going to feel.

When the situation unfolded, I felt immense panic, but externally I had to remain calm. Immediately after we had resolved the issue, so many thoughts flooded my mind: What if I am not fit for a job like this? Was I too reliant on the main support worker to rectify the situation? Can I handle working with unpredictable behaviour like this on a full-time basis? Am I not good enough to work in this job sector?

Unfortunately, these thoughts clouded my head and placed a huge burden on my shoulders.

Reflecting on the fine line between critical thinking and irrational overthinking

Upon reflection, I have realised that I need to control my irrational thoughts and stop being so harsh on myself. As I stopped overthinking the situation, I realised I truly did my best in this novel experience. My self-condemning thoughts were a testament to my desire to be perfect at the job. It also revealed a flaw in my thinking: I failed to understand that the whole point of the placement is to learn from the main support workers (which is exactly what I successfully did!).

Instead of striving for perfection immediately, “perfection” should be the end goal. I put perfection in air quotes because I now understand this will never be the case with anything in life. Learning how to deal with unpredictable situations with ease comes from experience, and who I become from these experiences is more important than who I have been. This means dwelling on the fact I didn’t take full control or take more of a lead in rectifying the situation is redundant. Instead, my thoughts should be centred on how I cannot change the situation, but I can control how I respond to it in the future.

Redefining success beyond perfection

Moving forward, I have decided to make a conscious effort to embrace learning experiences in a positive manner instead of perceiving them as failures. In order to reframe my thoughts, I will practice mindfulness through journaling.

I believe journaling will be an amazing way to stop my overthinking and self-critical patterns that I struggle with. It is something I have previously done, but it is definitely something that needs to become a constant in my life to stop my thoughts from ruining my perception of my abilities in my career.

However, I do understand that not all of my thoughts were irrational and need suppressing. Markedly, the question that replayed in my head of “Can I handle working with unpredictable behaviour like this on a full-time basis?”. The answer to this question is...

… If I am being completely honest, I can’t answer this question. This is because the only way I can answer this question is by gaining more experience.

Thus, I have successfully put a plan into action to answer this question, as I have converted my placement role into a part-time job with the company!

Working with autistic and disabled service users is something I 100% see forming a big part of my future. Whether that’s on a voluntary basis alongside a different career or as my main career path as an educational psychologist is still unanswered. But most importantly, what’s answered is knowing I never want to give up on the rewarding role of working with these young service users.

The biggest lesson I have learned is to not break yourself by striving for perfection, and it's okay to have some unanswered questions about the future. Embrace uncertainty as a step towards career growth and personal development.