People lessons from natural disasters

A month ago I wrote a post about the career lessons you personally can learn from the January Floods in Australia.

The natural disasters haven't stopped however. Major fires in Perth and now a harrowing earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. What we know is that we are resilient and with the right support we will pull through as individuals and as a community. Here are some further thoughts and reflections on the impact of traumatic events:

1. Everyone responds differently to a traumatic event. Be patient with all people as they each process what’s happened in their own way.
2. Take note of the important things in your life and where they come from. Life isn’t just work, but work is part of life.
3. Community is (almost) everything. The team work displayed in the recovery effort has been amazing. In your own career having great people around you is critical. As the Canadian Blueprint for Career Development says: “Engage your allies, and be a good ally”.
4. Sustainability ...... lets not take anything for granted especially Mother Nature and our planet!
5. Events make us reassess life. What is your sense of meaning and purpose? Why do you do what you do? Is 2011 the year to reassess your career direction?

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial skills in our lives. And resilience. One lady in the Brisbane floods lost everything in their storage facility which contained the belongings they salvaged three months prior from another storage facility...that had burnt down. That’s resilience.