In 2023, I gained five valuable experiences that significantly contributed to my personal growth for working in conservation/ecology, and I’d like to share them with you:
1. Expand social circle:Conservationists have some of the most fun get togethers, with amazing stories and funny jokes from our amazing times in the field. Never miss an opportunity to mingle with a conservationist. However, we rarely discuss about essential life topics, such as investments, business planning, etc. I found engaging with friends from other sectors such as finance, entrepreneurship, medical sciences, humanities, etc. to be enriching, offering invaluable advice and perspectives that shed light on my work and ideas from unique angles.
2. Transform setbacks into lessons: Facing rejections for grants or positions is tough. I used to perceive rejections as personal and felt victimized, affecting my morale. However, when I found the reasons behind some of the rejections, e.g. via follow-up feedback, they were quite helpful to calm me down and to improve my performance for next application.
3. Acknowledge the learning zone: Working in conservation is quite demanding, from uncertain work conditions to unusual schedule, often compensated with low payment. I found myself mostly within my performance zone (daily activities), without any aspiration to expand my learning zone (gaining new skills). I decided to commit to new challenges to trigger my learning zone.
4. Avoid mixing work and leisure: I enjoy working in conservation, in fact I perceived that whenever I am out in the field working in conservation, that is my leisure time too because I enjoyed it a lot. What other discipline has this privilege of great joy while working? But we should devote specific time to leisure without any work in mind or action to improve our mental health. Just chilling out with friends, family, etc. I love playing cards, billiard, bowling, etc.
5. Coexistence with “uncertainty”: Working in conservation inherently involves navigating uncertainty. Decision making under #uncertainty in life/work is a main struggle for many of us working in conservation sector. I found helpful to make decisions as I live in certain circumstances, even though they were very fragile and uncertain. I never regretted it.