Your Vocation Calling

The Power of Reaching

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What are you reaching for?

Hating What You Do

I have a friend who has been stuck hating the same job for the past two years. He HATES what he does. Sadly though, it seems like every time we chat and the question of ‘So, how are you doing?” comes up, I always get a flat lined “I’m doing…” or some sarcastic variation. Then there is mumbling/grumbling about how impossible it feels to find something new.

“Have you been sending out your resume?” I ask.

“Nope.” He replies.

“Have you been looking for options?” I ask again.

“There’s nothing out there anyway.” The unspoken next line is something like: “I’ll be stuck for the rest of my life.”

Well, two years so far…and that’s as long as I’ve known him.

I’m not sharing this in judgement. I know what it’s like to be so broken you don’t know how to move forward – to be totally lost, and to have weeks bleed into months, and months burn into years with zero (or really hard to see) positive change.

It sure seems like the harder it gets, the more tempting it feels to look – and keep looking – down. And down becomes your mindset….and if you don’t change that downward focus, it’s where you end up. Down.

What Are You Reaching For?

I’ve been reading Zig Ziglar’s “See You At The Top.” What a powerful book!

If you want to reach a goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. – Zig Ziglar

You have to envision where you are wanting to go. You need to see yourself getting there, and what getting there will look like BEFORE you actually do it. ‘See the reaching.’

The sad truth, which I have read multiple times over the past few days in Zig’s book, and have experienced in my own life, is that this ‘seeing the reaching’ can be positive as well as negative!

If you all you can see and envision are your feet, and how awful your job is, and how you’ll never find a way out because ‘nobody is hiring these days anyway’ you’ll wind up in the same dead end job you’ve had for the past 2 years….for the past 3 years…for the past 4 years…for the past…. you get the picture.

It’s a powerful point, and a scary one if you’re not looking where you’re going!

What are you seeing these days? What are you reaching for? And if you were to change nothing in your life for the next three years, will you be happy about the result? 

Need some help with reaching for the right thing? We can help! Just sign up -the sign up box is on the right! I’ll send you an e-book to help you get started!

 

 

Taking Time To Matter

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Work isn’t meant to be empty. It’s meant to connect our skills and passion to someone else’s need, and when that happens, our work matters. It becomes meaningful in ways that engage us in mind, heart and soul!

The Trap of Doing 

I see amazing people where I work. I see medical staff who have a list of procedures to tackle each shift that would likely make my mind melt, but I love to watch them step outside their processes and engage the people they serve. I see hand holding. I get to see busy care workers sitting close and listening as one of their charges shares a random story or event of their day. I see food being served with care and love. Smiles!

Then I see others who get sucked into their task list. They don’t make eye contact – too busy for that. They don’t see the lady sitting in the corner, her head down all by herself. And because they didn’t see her, they didn’t stop to see what was wrong or just to say hello.

The care worker finished the task on the procedure chart, and maybe it was a vital thing to do. Maybe it was time sensitive. Maybe they were keeping a supervisor happy, but they missed an opportunity to matter to someone they are there to serve.

Taking time to matter to someone you serve doesn’t have to break a process on your to do list. It should become a part of it!

How can you take or make more time to matter to someone else today?

Tempted To Settle With Your Life?

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One of the hardest things, at least for me and my journey to find meaningful work, has been to be persistant in a new direction.

Figuring out that I needed to change direction took a lot of time, by the way. I first needed to realize that the depression, boredom, dissatisfaction, and general sense of ‘I can do so much more than this, and I LONG to do so much more than this!’ were not feelings that I needed to suck up and live with.

Look around you! I would yell at myself, if I dared to think I should try to do something different. There are so many people around you who have to work two, three, even four jobs just to make ends meet – and you’re complaining about working one full-time job that ‘doesn’t fully engage you?’  Suck it up! Be grateful for what you have! 

Months burned by under that line of thinking. And on some levels, that line of thinking is totally true:

  • I should be grateful for my work. And I am. I was.
  • There are lots of people around me who work their tails off around the clock just to pay their bills, and I am and was blessed to have only one place of employment.

Those were true arguments for sure, but after careful examination I discovered the truth behind them: they were fueled by fear.

I was afraid to try something different. I had settled for underemployment.

I am blessed and so thankful that God has opened a new door of work for me. I LOVE and feel completely engaged by the work I do each day. The boredom is gone. The depression is gone. I even get so excited and engaged by what I get to do, and the people I get to do it with, that I can sometimes find it hard to sleep!

But there is still a battle going on inside of me, and on multiple fronts:

  • Impostor! I’m trying something new in a few arenas of life right now. While I’m doing things that I know I was created to do, I sometimes catch myself thinking that I’m not really qualified for this! (Even though doing this kind of work was what I was longing for back in my underemployment stint.) The impostor voice whispers: back down! You can’t do this! You’re totally going to fail if you keep going! Go back to where you were before, at least you had MORE skill than the job required! It’s safer there! 

 

  • Change is MESSY.  Everything got thrown up in the air with my career change, and my wife and I knew it would happen. Instead of working nights, I’m now working during the day. We homeschool. That used to be mostly me working with our boys while my wife worked a full time day job. Now she works with the boys and is holding down a high potential casual/on call position while I’m working. That’s MESSY as we try to get used to our new roles. Change whispers a constant message of: Are you sure you made the right choice? Look at all the upheaval you’ve caused! Maybe this wasn’t the right move…

 

  • Finances are messy.  My wife’s pay periods used to be on the weeks I didn’t get paid. In other words: every week we would have a cash injection. It was great! Now, we’re working off  my wife’s casual income and my full-time pay check. We’re still trying to get used to it.  Financials yell at you, they don’t whisper. And they’re mean too. What? You’re not saving anymore? You’re failing. You’re only making minimum payments on your cards? Failure! You know better than to have those blasted credit cards anyway – Loser!  (At least that’s how my finances feel at times.)

All of those voices feel like they’re trying to pull me back to the way things were before. They also seem to tempt me into keeping my head down, and not try new things. To not rock the boat, just settle with what you have already.

I wonder if they are speaking to you today, too? And I wonder what will happen if you listen to them….or more importantly, what will not happen?

Not Knowing Your Direction Is A Good Thing

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When someone says, “I don’t know,” say, “Great! Now we can start thinking.” Our awkwardness with not knowing is one reason we think so little.

The moment of uncertainty is the tipping point of trajectory. (Dan Rockwell How Quick Answers Make Us Stupid. )

I enjoyed reading this post from Dan Rockwell – and I found the last line of this little quote to ring so true when it comes to working on and working out new pathways in our life/career: “uncertainty is the tipping point of trajectory.”

I might dare change two words in that quote: “uncertainty can be the tipping point of trajectory.”

It’s what you do with uncertainty that matters.  Career uncertainty can draw us to stick our head in the sand, and hold the course – fear leading us to stay where we are. No trajectory change.

It’s when we feel the fear and dare to step in a new direction anyway that we’ll see a different trajectory, don’t you think?

What actions are you taking today, even if they’re small ones, to cause a change in your career trajectory?

Be bold! Be brave! You can do this.

Working from your heart

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Yesterday I had the greatest conversation with a friend of mine.

He is retired, and struggles with a wide range of illnesses, which have left him in a wheelchair unable to speak above a whisper.

He has had a full life of public speaking, of leading organizations, and of public relations… he loved every minute of it.

He was especially happy about his career in public speaking, so I asked him what his secret was to being a great public speaker.

Without hesitation, he answered: “Be yourself, and speak from your heart.”

What a great answer!

Made me think some about work too. Doing the work you were created to do should help you be more of yourself, and should engage you from the heart.

What’s your work like? Do you find yourself doing things that seem to draw you away from who you are? Do you feel like you’re performing empty, almost mindless routines each day, or do you find yourself working from your heart?

If you’re not happy with your answers…is it time to start moving in a different direction?

Quiet Purpose

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I watched this short video by Dan Pink yesterday, and found his point around having a ‘Quiet Purpose’ to be so interesting.

Quiet Purpose according to Pink:  (In a nutshell) Having a strong sense of purpose is a powerful motivator at work and in life. But we don’t have to equate a sense of purpose with something massive like altering climate change, or ending poverty though these are both worthy purposes.

Quiet purpose can be about developing awareness of how our work, and our interactions with others, is making a contribution to their lives. 

Here’s what I’m thinking: if you’re slogging through a job you hate today, maybe working on your career change strategy…but slogging none the less, why not consider your quiet purpose for today? Why are you coming to work? What contribution are you making to someone else’s life?

Maybe awareness of your quiet purpose will help you as you move forward to finding your calling?

What is your quiet purpose?