ABSTRACT
Borrowing from the psychology of sustainability, this chapter encourages readers to explore what they can do to facilitate their continued professional growth and well-being over time while working in an industry that is as challenging as it is complex. Starting with a discussion of the impact increased automation has already had on the role of translators – and will no doubt continue to have following recent advances in AI – this chapter draws readers’ attention to the importance for professional translators to engage with changes in the profession through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) throughout their entire careers. As well as discussing CPD planning for translators, it invites the reader to consider seeing CPD as a way for them to invest in their future and, ultimately, their well-being. Chapter 9 then moves on to explore the concept of self-care for professional translators. Using existing research into ergonomics to identify some of the key physical, cognitive and organisational stressors for professional translators, it argues that self-care can be seen as an ethical responsibility for the budding translator and proposes a self-care model they could use over the course of their career. Inspired by similar models in caring professions such as nursing, the objective of this model is for starting translators to find ways not to burn out and leave the profession after a few years, as this in turn could undermine the very sustainability of translation as a profession.
