Can Carnival Celebrations Cultivate Career Creativity?

Can sequins, bright colours, feathers and loud pulsating Caribbean music teach you significant, thought-provoking lessons about maximising your career development efforts?
No?
An understandable assumption, but you’re wrong... and I'll tell you why.

Do ever feel exhausted when you think about your work week ahead? Wonder how you managed to make it through another weekend without getting enough rest or switching off and having enough fun?

My recent annual pilgrimage to the streets of West London – to ‘play mas’ (participate) in the Notting Hill Carnival reminded me of a few things:

• Actively participating in an activity / hobby you love is so good for you… it’s incredibly ‘freeing’ 
• Hanging out with a group of friends that you – generally speaking – don’t see nearly often enough is food for the soul 
•    Switching off from work for a few days (whether to dance down the road with a drink in your hand or go out of town to get away from it all) gives a fresh and creative perspective on day to day life – including your career.
  

So… incredibly energised and inspired by my weekend of carnival celebrations, I decided to have some fun pulling together some career development lessons that we can glean from some of the most popular soca tracks from 2013. Get ready to jump and wave your way closer to your career goals:

1.    Track 1: Float: - (Arguably?) The world’s premier soca artist, Trinidadian Machel Montano has had thousands upon thousands of revellers at carnivals worldwide singing along to his catchy hook… “We not staying down… we getting off the ground!”

#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage1: Float past your challenges

Even when feeling down, out and overwhelmed in your job or business – have the confidence in yourself to know that you can ‘float’ past your current challenges and onto something better. Machel references ‘floating like Superman’ in the track – and if you find the motivation to get you from A to B, I know you can also find your own internal superhero when you’re up against it!

2.    Track 2: Possessed: - Machel is back and this time teaming up with fellow soca artist Kerwin Dubois and… stepping out of the realm of soca as fans know it, they have collaborated with world-famous South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The uniqueness of this track made it one of the most popular songs at Caribbean carnivals all over the world in 2013.
#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage2a&2b –

 2a) Fight the temptation to be complacent & 2b) Good teamwork is magical: 

 Even when you’re at the top of your game (like Machel), doing something different… truly different in a strategic way will help ensure that people don’t take your talents for granted and instead will make people sit up and take notice. In career terms, although your boss/team may recognise how good you are - you too can increase the quality of your work through a strategic (potentially surprising) and mutually beneficial collaboration. Perhaps you can work with a colleague from a different department or a fellow entrepreneur who has similar, complementary goals. Even if you’re flying high in your career… you can pull a rabbit out of a hat by challenging yourself and stepping beyond the expectations of those that know you… and this can keep a job that you have been in for awhile exciting for you too.

3.    Track 3: Call my name: In this catchy up-tempo track, Destra encourages a boy to call her. With lyrics including “Call my phone… dial my number anytime… call me whenever” - this classic ‘boy meets girl’ scene is a familiar one. Nonetheless, some of the other lyrics in the track inspired another career development lesson.

#SocaCareerDevelopmentMessage3: Expect the unexpected / Be prepared for any opportunity.

I came to this interpretation through taking the notion of ‘calling’ a bit more figuratively – i.e. responding to an opportunity (nothing to do with responding to someone you’re attracted to – that’s a whole different career strategy and not one I advocate!)

Remember, you may have a plan to work towards a promotion… or even a slight change in career direction within 12 months. You have a plan, you’re working hard and you intend to get there. But what happens if the phone rings with an appealing opportunity after 4 months… instead of 12. What happens then? Are you slightly spooked by not feeling ‘ready’ or do you train yourself to be constantly poised to take advantage of whatever exciting opportunities may pass your way – even if it’s on a different time frame to what you envisage.
Do what you need to do to be ready move your career along as you desire… even if it involves an unexpected twist or two along the way. 

So there it is. Creative Career lessons inspired by carnival celebrations. If you have ever felt like you are spending an uncomfortably disproportionate time working versus 'living' then the above has hopefully put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

This is a blog post I didn’t see coming but I felt so moved by the carnival fun I had recently and thought my Limitless Community would also feel inspired… at least by my enthusiasm if nothing else. I would LOVE to know your thoughts about this post… please take a couple of moments to comment below…

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Gina Visram is a career coach, speaker, mentor and author who works with ambitious, multi-tasking women (and men!) who are ready to work hard at being successful in their careers and personal lives - on their own terms. She has recently published Happily Ever After for Grown Ups: A Post-Wedding, Blues-Busting Guide for Newlyweds" and is committed to helping people get over overwhelm and achieve the career success/life balance they seek. For more information and to sign up to her free newsletter visit www.limitlesscoaching.com.