Anne Smith

I would say my friends and family have described it as grit, but I think it's really about pushing through the fear of the unknown. I've had goals that seemed lofty or almost totally unachievable - looking ahead, they seem so intimidating, almost impossible. But then I set my mind to it and come up with a roadmap of how I'm going to do it. I create these steps and stepping stones, points to leverage bit by bit. It's not necessarily a straight shot from A to B - like rock climbing, if one route doesn't work out, you try another route. I would say being able to pivot and come up with another alternative route if your original plan doesn't work out, being flexible to figure out how to make it happen, and just keeping faith that you know you can achieve it. We all have those moments of doubt, but for me, I'm a woman of action - I have an action plan. If something doesn't work out, I can have a quick cry, a quick moment to process it, and then dust myself off and try another way.

I would definitely say finding mentors is really important - finding folks that can help share with you their experience. So much gets thrown at you at any given time, and you can come across problems that you might not expect to have, so having a good support system is really important. I found that networking at local HR events was really great, as well as exploring resources online. Being able to pull from a lot of different resources, from a lot of different experiences, from both professional organizations and from folks who have worked through the same issue before is crucial. They can share experiences they've had, pitfalls to avoid, things like that that you might not consider going into it your first time. Having a real-world person being able to tell you, 'Hey, I've done this,' and then also being able to read up online about maybe local case law that's changing - I think it's really important to have a lot of different resources to pull from.

Not being afraid to try is really important to me - that was something I really struggled with, having the courage to try something intimidating. I felt that imposter syndrome of 'I can't do this,' so being able to challenge myself and just give it a shot matters a lot. Having the courage to try and being okay with trying new things is important. I've had similar things happen in my personal life - for example, I ride horses and I've had falls, I've fallen off, it can be scary, but getting back up and trying new things makes those achievements so much more rewarding when you hit those milestones. You know that you worked hard for it and you know that you can do it. I've accomplished things this year, both professionally and in riding, that I didn't think I could do within the time frame that I had.