Breathe.

Years ago when our kids were young, my husband decided he wanted to buy a sailboat. Did I, his life partner, know how to sail? I did not. (I don’t really even swim.) But he was enthusiastic and he made a good point that our kids were growing up very quickly and time together for us as a family was slipping away. The opportunity to trap the three of them in a boat on Lake Erie with little cell signal was appealing!

He found an acceptably sound used sailboat and we set about learning to sail it. By which I mean, he learned to sail it, I spent a lot of time shrieking. “WE’RE GOING TO HIT THAT. WHICH LINE? WHEN DID THE DOCK MOVE?”   

After several weeks of sweaty, damp, filthy efforts, my husband looked at me and said, “If you could just not panic first this would go better.”  

For me, sailing was baffling and came with risk. Panic seemed like the right answer.

Our current chaotic job market, AI, fraud, and capricious hiring trends can seem baffling and come with risk.   

BUT!

Panic is rarely a good sailing strategy OR a good career strategy.

Sometimes, the smartest thing we can do is stop, take a breath, and figure out where we actually are before deciding where to go next. Coaches across our industry often advise clients to stop, breathe and assess. Giving that advice is both practical and useful. Taking it may not be. Résumé writers, career coaches, interview coaches, and other professionals in our industry are navigating a great deal of uncertainty, too. Clients are worried. Businesses are changing. AI tools are multiplying. New competitors are appearing seemingly overnight. And we’re all trying to determine what the future of our work will look like.  

It’s easy to feel that we must immediately master every new tool, reinvent every service, redesign our websites, launch new offerings, and post on every social media platform known to humanity.

Preferably before lunch.

But let’s breathe for a moment.

Not every new trend requires an immediate response. Not every new tool deserves a place in your practice. And not every change means you need to start over.

Instead, take an honest look at how you serve clients.  

What are your clients asking for? Where are you getting results? Which services get results and which ones consume more time than they’re worth? What are your strengths? Where would additional training or a new skill make a meaningful difference?

Your ability to listen, ask the right questions, recognize a person’s strengths, exercise sound judgment, and help someone navigate a difficult transition remains enormously important. We don’t have to reject change to protect our value. We need to understand change well enough to use it wisely. Take a breath. Assess your practice. Identify the next right step. As an association, we have a responsibility to do the same thing.

At PARWCC, our work is about helping career professionals grow, adapt, and serve their clients well. That means being willing to evolve while remaining grounded in the principles that make professional service matter.

We can embrace innovation without abandoning experience. We can question old assumptions without dismissing everything that came before. And we can prepare for the future without pretending we know exactly what it will bring.

Here’s what I want us all to remember this month.

1. When things feel overwhelming, pause before you panic.
2. When something changes, assess before you react.
3. When a strategy stops working, adjust before you abandon everything.

And when you aren’t sure what comes next, give yourself permission to figure it out one step at a time. A favorite tiktok-er I follow finishes his videos by saying, “Unclench your jaw, you aren’t in trouble.”  

You are not alone in a sea of risk and panic.  You are one of a membership of professionals.  We’ve got each other.  And just like on our little family sailboat, we’ll get where we need to go.  

Warmly,

Margaret

P.S. Shameless plug – if you think more training is appropriate for your practice, PARWCC programs ALL have a self-study option that you can take when sitting in a live cohort doesn’t make sense for you!