How reframing your experiences can change your life and career
How you look at your experiences — that is, how you frame them — has a deep and lasting impact on how you approach your work, relationships, and more.
Have you ever heard two people tell you about the same incident but from two vastly different perspectives? They might have focused on unique details or other characters involved. They may have even had opposite emotional reactions to the same situation.
That’s the power of perspective. How we view ourselves and our circumstances impacts every part of our lives, including our relationships, emotions, and day-to-day work. Reframing your past and current work experiences may even change your career path for the better.
Let’s explore what reframing means and how you can apply it to your life and job.
Framing and reframing — it’s how you see things
Framing and reframing refer to your outlook on life. Framing dictates the way you perceive individual experiences and how they relate to the rest of your life.
Imagine you’re looking at a picture on your phone, but it’s zoomed in all the way. You might see some blurry lines and a few splashes of color, but you have no idea what you’re looking at. Once you zoom out, though, you can enjoy the complete photo for what it is.
That’s how framing works, too. Instead of fixating on details, you choose to look at your life as a whole so you can see your various experiences and strengths in their entirety. Viewing what you have to offer with clarity can help prepare and ground you for your next step toward your goals.
Many of us tend to undermine the importance of our skills and experiences. A simple way to start reframing is by asking yourself: What have I done that I haven’t given myself enough credit for because I view it as a regular part of my life?
For example, suppose you work full time and are a caregiver to a loved one. You might consider your ability to multitask or switch between work mode and caregiver mode as routine because you do it every day. But this isn’t necessarily an ordinary part of everyone’s lives, so it’s an important skill to remember as you think about your life and career.
How reframing can impact your attitude
If you’re not sure how you’ve been framing your experiences so far, pay attention to how you speak. The words you use to describe yourself, your circumstances, and others strongly indicate your current framing.
This is because our minds constantly pay attention to our words, make assumptions, and then look for little details to confirm those assumptions. If you regularly tell people you’re lazy, you’re unlucky, or that opportunities “just never work out for you,” then you’ll start subconsciously finding things in your life to confirm that. The result? You’ll feel worse about yourself and may not take advantage of opportunities when they come up.
For better or worse, your words are like quicksand. So why not get pulled into positive framing that can motivate you to improve your life and career?
How your attitude affects your success
If you want to improve yourself, the first thing you’ll need to work on is your outlook. Here are a few questions that can help kickstart the reframing process:
- Think of a time when one of your greatest failures turned out to be one of your biggest successes. What happened? How did it impact your perspective?
- Who are you when you’re most proud of yourself? What actions are you taking?
- What do you resort to when your back is against the wall that you wish you didn’t? How could you make different choices?
- What’s something you lived through that you never thought would end? What did that experience teach you?
Reflect: How you frame your experiences is the story you tell yourself. It’s the voice inside your head narrating what’s going on. What would happen if you took the mic and decided how you wanted the story to be told?
Anything can be framed and reframed — it’s within your control
There are plenty of things in life that we can’t control. But what we can control is how we frame our circumstances. We’re not talking about toxic positivity or pretending that certain things in life aren’t hard. Instead, we’re talking about viewing difficult situations as opportunities to grow and asking ourselves what we can learn from them and how we can move forward.
If you’re struggling to know how to reframe a challenge, try asking yourself these questions:
What can I learn from this experience? Think about the actions or mindsets you resort to in hard times that you wish you didn’t. How could you change your approach this time?
Have I encountered this lesson before in my life? Think about similar past experiences. What did you learn then and how can you build on that now?
Am I trying to control something I can’t actually control? If it’s outside of your control, picture it like a mountain — you could either waste time and energy trying to move it or figure out a way to trek around it, pausing to rest as needed.
Where am I on my journey? Look behind you — what have you already accomplished? What have you learned on your way to where you are now?
Is this opportunity a “stretch” or a “sprain”? A stretch is something that requires you to move out of your comfort zone but is achievable. A sprain also takes you out of your comfort zone, but it can harm you because you don’t have the tools you need yet. Both are uncomfortable, but the pain of a sprain stays even after taking action.
How can I reduce sprains? You may need to make changes and draw boundaries. Or maybe you need to get the tools you need — knowledge, skills, resources, or support — to turn sprains into stretches.
Reframing your work experience
Reframing can be a valuable exercise for your career. For example, you can reframe your skills from current and past jobs on your resume by thinking about how they could help you succeed in a position you’re interested in. These are called transferable skills and can range from soft skills, like problem-solving or time management, to hard skills, like web development or project management.
Before becoming a Guild Growth Coach, Lisa Reams reframed her work experience to help achieve her goals. While working as a server for her former employer, she had been striving toward becoming a manager because it seemed like the natural next step. But what she really wanted was to be a consultant. She realized a coaching role would be a more fitting next step as it would help her develop skills she needed.
To work toward this goal, she reimagined her resume. She thought about things she had done that weren’t necessarily part of the job description as well as projects she took initiative on and their outcomes — skills that matched the job she was going for. The result was a new step in the direction she truly wanted to go in her career.
Reflect: Think of a situation you’re emotionally invested in or a goal you’re working toward. If this situation were to go perfectly, how would it play out? What have you already accomplished in this area that you can think about to help motivate you? What skills do you have that can help you reach your goal?
Reframing your skills to update your resume
If you’re not sure how to approach reframing your work experience as you rewrite your resume, try following this exercise:
- Write down all the positions you’ve ever held. This includes volunteer positions and short-term work experiences, too.
- Look for any patterns with the skills you used in these roles. How could those skills apply to the role or career path you’d like to pursue?
- Think about your current role. What parts of your job come naturally to you? What parts would you prefer to do without?
- Write down the skills you need to learn for the job you want. Do you need to sharpen or learn any soft or hard skills?
- Explore opportunities that could help you develop those skills. Do you have access to learning programs that could help you get the knowledge or credentials you need? What topics would you be interested in learning more about?
Interested in setting up a session with a coach for support in reframing your work experience and reimagining your resume? Guild members and learners should log into the Guild portal and schedule time with a coach.*
*Guild coaching is only available to Guild members and learners whose employer includes Guild coaching within their benefit. If you are eligible for Guild but don’t have an account, this is your chance to create one.