delete
deletetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetteteetet
deletetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetteteetet
deletetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetteteetet
deletetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetetteteetet
Career Resources
Growing thick skin usually comes with life experience. Having all manner of shit thrown at you toughens you up and it becomes easier to deal with the next time around. Like a boxer who gets punched in the face the first time vs. the hundredth time. Banking certainly flings its fair share at you - take it in stride, know you’re not alone in feeling this way, and know that it gets better with time. You’ll get your confidence back.
Keeping perspective is also important. You’ll learn to prioritize when and where to give a fuck. Don’t worry.
Grow up playing CoD and CSGO.
All jokes aside, it will come from life experiences. I personally had what many of my friends consider a “rough childhood” so it’s very difficult to actually bother/upset me. I think I always try to have perspective and remind myself that things could be significantly worse. It’s cliché but works for me
in short
do hard things deliberately - distance running, jiu jitsu, open water swimming, murphs
help the less fortunate and listen to their stories
read stoicism, war novels, and stories of suffering/atrocities - it is hard to feel sorry for yourself after reading man's search for meaning or if this is a man
exercise patience - this comes with time
Agree with this 100% except patience. The important thins here seems to be experience not time and if you're in an environment that speeds things up in terms of # of experiences you can have per unit time, it's like accelerating time.
Could you please recommend some war novels and stories of suffering/ atrocities?
How to balance IB life and extreme sports?
for war: https://jockopodcast.com/jocko-podcast-books/
specifically, about face and marine sniper (my 2 faves)
suffering: I mentioned that in my OP, man's search for meaning and if this is a man (part of a trilogy but this one talks about his time in the camps)
balance: balance is a myth, everything is tradeoffs. think about what's a priority for you and go from there. it's impossible to be a star analyst in great shape with a full social life and upwardly mobile networking/career wise. these tradeoffs can change over time, and while I never worked in IB, I worked some long hours to set the foundation of my business early on and I made the tradeoff that I couldn't be a successful FA and also become WAY better at surfing, travel my ass off, learn new things, etc., so while I kept those in my longer term plans, I knew that I had to make some sacrifice early on and had to choose what that sacrifice was. for me, it was easy - I will not ever be out of shape and sacrificing sleep incessantly is unsustainable, so what if I don't get better at surfing, it's still fun, so what if I don't learn a new language/skill, I gotta pay the bills. that of course shifted as I gained more career momentum (life gets easier the more you just stick around and don't blow yourself up), and going through my recurring exercise of reflecting on my priorities helped me a lot.
more on balance: you have to make time, and realize there are no tricks, only tradeoffs. once you identify what your life priorities are, the tradeoffs will be easy. and always keep in mind they're temporary. like now? I focus less on work and more of the other stuff that's always been a priority, I of course want to do well at what I do but it doesn't require the same amount of time that it used to in order to achieve my goals, ergo I insert other stuff there
.
Step 1: Realize it does not matter what kind of student you were, it only mattered for getting the job
Step 2: Stop being a gigantic pussy that cries about work, do it and do it well
Step 3: Learn how to control your emotions, crying over anything that isn't a massive personal loss or intense physical pain is pathetic
Step 4: Make time for lifting heavy things and doing cardio, exercise lowers stress across the board
Grind it out.
I'll echo the stoisicm point above--helped me tremendously. Also, surround yourself with confident people, ask them why they are confident, and then mimic their actions. You'll find yourself quickly getting confident and growing thick skin.
Topical steroids, derma rolling, consistent heat exposure.
Learn to ride horses
Aerobic and anaerobic exercise has had proven results in helping with anxiety. Physical and mental stress activate the amygdala, in slightly different ways but training hard over long periods of time e.g. long runs, long rucks, long grindy WODs will all condition you mentally.
There is a reason military selections are incredibly physically taxing, you can’t really replicate mental stress, so the way to do that is to put you under immense physical stress and force you to make decisions.
Happy to chat more on this.
Unironically I am a 240 pound 5 foot 8 petite man. Where do I even start building up the stamina? I do a mile walking in 20 minutes 🥹
At your ht/wt I’d start with something low impact that can get your HR up. Honestly joining a CrossFit gym would yield great benefits for you.
As a coach you learn to scale workouts, they will work with you directly to find a weight distance/caloric goal etc for each workout. You have to do zero thinking, you show up, be and athlete, do the workout and go home.
Many will disagree but the reason I think this will work for specifically is that you will have the chance to build muscle, and lose fat at the same time. There are a few studies out about it.
So at a glance: Join a CrossFit gym and target going at least three times a week for the first few months. Talk to the coaches about your diet.
Thick skin in reverence to ?
Thick skin comes from experience and circumstances. In short, life will throw you many curveballs. If you haven't experienced much of that yet, you've been fortunate but that fortune doesn't prepare you for the tough parts. Success in life is more to do with how you handle difficult times vs. always winning. The old message of "get up, dust yourself off, and get back on that horse" is how one is truly measured.
I like the idea (upthread) of doing hard things to challenge yourself. Nothing dangerous but get way out of your comfort zone. Be prepared to fail, have setbacks, etc. Once you are able to persevere, your new ability becomes your new normal. Keep on moving the bar. It's a good way to live and will give you an inner confidence to deal with many of life's challenges.
I think there's some misalignment here
You say you went from being a top student to someone who cries when reading IB materials... But my question is, when has being a top student ever equated to a thick skin and / or confidence? Sure, being a top student may make you confident in your studies, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a confident person (e.g. confident in a new group of people, confident dealing with conflict, etc.)
What I think's happened here is you've gone from one scenario to another in what, ostensibly, is similar circumstances: reading some material, attempting to understand it, and then using that understanding to action something
The difference, however, is whereas you felt confident before, now you don't - and this (and I'm reading between the lines here) is because formerly that "actioning" was writing a report by yourself under your own terms, whereas now that "actioning" is driven by someone else, who's asking something of you, and - having likely always received praise for your efforts - you're now often getting little to no affirmation, or - at worst - criticism
So while there is a "thick skin" element here, it seems (from my pseudo-psychiatrist leather wingback I'm now reclining in, smoking a pipe) that it's more so a confidence and self esteem issue
There's no immediate fix for this - as a lot of the other commentators have said, thicker skin comes with time and experience, and cannot be manufactured over time (although you can, of course, expedite its development through reading relevant books, doing physical exercise, playing team sports)
What, however, you can do is try and change your mindset
Instead of negative feedback being a reflection of you as a person, it's simply a reflection of your work at this stage in your career: see it as an opportunity to learn and improve
Trust me, a senior who delivers criticism of your work, but sees a steady and consistent improvement in the quality of that work over time (requiring less negative feedback as time goes on) without any pushback from you will grow a huge amount of respect for you and will see you as a hardworking and trustworthy team member
Eaque hic aliquam eos veniam corporis culpa. Similique qui fugit eaque est. Quasi esse qui magni ea consequatur et voluptas sint. Rerum exercitationem quibusdam nesciunt ex odit odio.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...