Page 25 - Retail Pharmacy Assistants - October 2020

As a woman in a position of influence, what’s your advice on achieving goals – career, profession, fitness etc.? What’s your advice to pharmacy assistants who may have big career goals? Goal setting is one of the most powerful things a person can do. Anyone can dream, but a dream only becomes a goal when there’s a plan. It’s important to constantly ask yourself ‘why’ you’re doing anything. Where’s the purpose and what’s the desired end result? Once your ‘why’ comes into clear vision, goal setting becomes easy. Whether or not you want to own your own retail business or become a pharmacist or save enough money to buy a home, know your ‘why’ and then outline clear steps to achieve it. Also, set big goals, ones you think you cannot achieve. You never know when you’ll surprise yourself with the impossible. When I learned to clip into bicycle pedals at 28 years old, I never dreamed I’d become a professional triathlete and win an Ironman, but here we are. Each year the goal became bigger and a bit scarier, but somehow, I always managed to reach \\\[each one\\\] – sometimes even before I thought I could. 2020 has been a pretty challenging year for everyone. What has it been like for you in terms of your athletic career and your business? How have you stayed resilient through all the challenges? ‘Resilience’ is definitely the key word for 2020. Covid-19 has thrown the world upside down and we’ve all had to adapt in countless ways. For me, as a business owner, two things have really helped: Don’t panic. Take a deep breath, take things day by day and just keep moving forward. When the future is unknown, break things down into small steps and don’t look too far ahead and worry about ‘what ifs’. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 23 shift all of our operations towards our online (rather than in-person) business and adapt the products we were going to sell to what people needed. For example, with no races on the calendar, people wouldn’t need race suits. Adapting to these changes quickly, we were able to improve our online operations with a new website and new marketing strategies and we’ve also developed products based on our customers current needs. Of course, there have been ups and downs, but overall, we have learned a lot and continue to adapt. What’s next for you? What are your goals for the rest of 2020 and beyond? As a Queensland resident, life is slowly returning to some semblance of normal. I’m actually planning to compete in two Ironman events (Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast and Ironman Cairns) in September, so I’ve been training a lot. I’ve had the ultimate life experience traveling the world for my job – triathlon – over the past decade, but I’m also Be flexible and look for growth opportunities. In our business, we had to quickly now ready to move on. After these two races, I plan on retiring from professional triathlon and focusing on watching my two girls grow up and growing our family businesses. RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • OCT 2020