Could a leopard really change its spots? Could you?

Could a leopard really change its spots? Could you?

If you are living outside your homeland, being different to those in your environment is not always easy to live with. You may feel a pressure to change.

The above also applies to life in general, being different comes with its challenges.

You stand out from the crowd; you don’t go unnoticed.

If you are feeling a pressure coming from others to change; my reply to this is:

If you want to change, make the change for you, not for others!

Understanding and knowing yourself is fundamental before embarking on self-change.

When the pressure to change is coming from outside, in order to please or to be accepted, we may make initial efforts to change. However, if our efforts go unrecognized, we may get tired of making the effort, hence frustration can set in and we often abandon.

To succeed in changing something, we need to personally believe in the benefits of the change!

Change involves an inner effort. There is often a price to pay to make the change happen; a trade-off between something we innately like doing and something we need to do.

I would be interested in having your thoughts on Can a leopard really change its spots? Can You?

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Author. Brid Doherty-Appriou
Photo by Charlotte Karlsen on Unsplash

Brid Doherty-Appriou

Brid is a native English speaker, fluent in French, a graduate in both International Business Communication and in Instructional Design. She is also accredited (TEFL) to teach English as a foreign language. Her professional experience spans over 20 years in an international environment, working in CAC 40 communication groups and as a consultant in Executive Search.

Recommendations

"I enjoy reading your blog as it gives very useful information to people like me – working on restarting his/her professional life after a period of expatriation. Your useful tips help to deal with this situation in a stress-free mode and help to methodically face few challenges. I highly recommend Brid’s articles to anyone who knows they have to do something to find a new job, but they don’t know how to do it”.

"During a period of professional reorientation where I needed financing, I used the advice of Brid to write my Skills-Based CV. Thanks to her advice, my Skills-Based CV convinced the financing organization. I highly recommend her articles".

"As an expat myself coming to the end of my current contract and planning to return home to Ireland, I found the article "La Perle Rare", particularly helpful. I will soon be searching for job opportunities. Undoubtedly, I do have to distinguish myself from the crowd. Following the suggestions and advice given by Brid, with self-reflection I discovered that I have an abundance of highly developed soft skills. These are skills I had taken for granted for so long never thinking they would highlight my uniqueness to a potential employer. In the past, my focus was on my qualifications and work experience. Although this focus is important, there is room for self-promotion too. Now, I shall forge ahead with a renewed sense of myself and the confidence to promote my other strengths in interviews. Thank you, Brid. I strongly recommend Brid’s blog to expats who find themselves seeking new job opportunities “. Fiona

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“You are so respectful! The way you treated the class, the topics we covered, “the test” you gave us without pressure. Thank you. You are great”. Soledad (English language student)