Career PTSD in the post Covid World with Mustafa Ammar [Podcast]

Podcast #234 – Marc Discusses Career PTSD with Mustafa Ammar

Description:

This week I am speaking with Mustafa Ammar who can be found at ThePassionMBA.com. Mustafa pitched me on the idea of doing an episode around PTSD and our careers. We are calling this episode How to deal with Career PTSD in the post-Covid World.

This episode is sponsored by Career Pivot. Check out the Career Pivot Community. Make sure and pick up my latest book, Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life Third Edition.

Now on to the podcast…

Living multiple careers in one life

Mustafa Amman started his life as a pharmacist through his passion for chemistry. Paralleled with his Passion for Chemistry, Mustafa has a deep passion for international diplomacy. He has traveled and studied many cultures and how to bridge gaps amongst them for 11 years. Alongside these careers, Mustafa found passion in investment banking and has established himself in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. This allowed him to bring many investments to help multiple countries. Throughout all of his career work, Mustafa was pursuing his MBA degree. Through this, he created the Passion MBA, which is one of his current endeavors. To wrap up his many interests and careers he is also a life coach. He uses his interests, experiences, and the many things he has seen to help others achieve career and life success.

He is the author of the passion project – helping you build the career you were born to have and finding your life purpose. The book will be released sometime in 2021.

5 steps to deal with career PTSD

Mustafa defines Career PTSD, especially post covid, as trauma and damage that Americans have faced due to the disease, including the loss of security in their current careers. These career traumas are adding to the current or past personal traumas that every person is working through. Mustafa describes his 5 step blueprint to help deal with this PTSD in our world today.

Be Aware of symptoms – These include flashbacks, avoidance, isolation, and nightmares. These are just a few signs that one might be facing PTSD.
Focusing on resilience – Healthy tactics to help you build resilience in your life. These include exercising, eating healthy, and taking your vitamins. You can also use a favorite movie or song to help you through the struggles. For Mustafa, it is Rocky the movie, how he gets knocked down and gets back up. He uses Rocky and his daily struggles to help motivate him through his struggles – especially when he suffered from Covid.
Focus on your career – The hierarchy of needs (pyramid of needs). This pyramid was created by psychologist Abraham Maslov as a “theory of human motivation”. During a crisis, people tend to go down into the pyramid. People aren’t aware of their needs and in a time of trauma, they focus on the needs at the bottom of the pyramid forgetting the important needs such as self-esteem and achieving one’s potential. As humans, we need to meet all levels of the pyramid. You can’t only focus on the bottom layer without putting a focus on the top layers.
Creating a clear vision – The issue most face is that they don’t have a clear vision of what they want to do. Mustafa has created a blueprint to help people find their passion. He uses 3 main criteria; passion, values, and life vision. Ultimately what does your dream life look like?
Building a safety net – Building a career hedge-fund. You might feel secure with your current career but creating a hedge-fund or backup plan includes building a separate side hustle. This helps you build skills and find things you enjoy. This also helps build other revenue streams so that you have the freedom to leave the full-time job if ever needed. “You don’t work for the money the money works for you.”

Pivoting through Covid

Focus on your passions right now, in 10 years you will probably be doing something different. Mustafa recommends targeting 3 skills that support those passions. Supporting that passion might include learning a new skill which takes time. You will want to search out the experts in those skills to develop what you need. From there Mustafa recommends building a side hustle off those skills and passions. Many of those side businesses don’t require money, they just need the people behind them.

What if I don’t want to learn a new skill? It is more about what do you want to do and where do you want your life to go rather than just “learning a new skill”. You are creating backup plans for your future. Building that safety net and freedom to enjoy your life.

In Mustafa’s book, he has a chapter titled: It’s Never too Late. Where he discusses that age is just a value, it does not keep you from learning or growing. He believes this as a key-value to remember as you pursue and search for your purpose in life.

How to reach:

Email: dreamcareer@thepassionmba.com

Website: thepassionmba.com

Instagram: @thepassionmba

LinkedIn: Mustafa Ammar