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Wellbeing at work starts with your space,
whether you commute to an office or work from home. I've been working from home for a little over a year now and have been slow to create my space. But with some encouragement from my friend Tom Drews and his keen eye, I am making progress--I still need to tweak some lighting and adjust some design features, but now I can finally ditch the virtual zoom background and show up in my real life space. It's tough for me not to seek perfection after seeing so many lovely virtual backgrounds and others with fancy office settings (that I covet just a little bit), but I am happy to feel happy in my office.
Don't get me wrong, I love the creativity of zoom backgrounds and how they can express people's personalities, and I am very grateful to have them for those of us who don't have a space that can be shared far and wide, but my DIY office re-do was beginning to nag at me. I just couldn't get it done. I wondered why I was feeling reticent to show up in the space where I actually am.
And I had some insight recently: In the professional arena, most of us want to be valued for our work, and many of us want to be appreciated for who we are...and our zoom backgrounds somehow reflect us and our work and we want you to like them (and therefore, us and our work). Heck, some of us even want you to LOVE them because it shows you how cool or creative we are! It feels vulnerable to show you my house and what I have in it. This vulnerability at work can be difficult sometimes. So, I just avoided it.
Until now. I am willing for you to not like my zoom background or you can like it--it doesn't matter 🙂 It helps me feel grounded to be in the space where I actually am when I show up online. And since I can feel comfortable welcoming you into my space, I hope that hospitality can ooze over into your feeling comfortable in the space that we create together online in coaching sessions.
I am ready to show up in my real life online. How about you? Are there places or spaces in your life where you could show up a little bit more honestly and bring a little bit more of your whole self?