Tag: jobs

Low key and a glimpse

10:28am I drove to the office this morning to work on a presentation for tomorrow. As I drove I thought about chaplaincy, sales and operations. The three jobs I have had in my twenty two plus year career. Being the hospice chaplain was far and away the best. Sales were far and away the worst. I miss being the chaplain. I am relieved I don’t do sales. Operations aren’t bad. But not my passion. I am not a hard charger. A visitor who interviewed me for this job described me as “low key.” I get that a lot. “Quiet” “low key” “calm presence” those are good traits for a Chaplain, not as much for a leader. Definitely not good traits for sales. As I pulled into the office I had a glimpse of remembering what it felt like to be the chaplain. To not worry about job security. To not be constantly scared of reprimand or dismissal.

Sink or swim

12:45pm I have been doing this stupid process for almost 12 years. I thought I could develop better habits. That I would learn to swim by putting myself in situations that necessitated change. Instead of swimming I just continually sink. I am a weird fucker. Good enough to get decent paying jobs but not good enough to succeed in them. My only hope is to get in a successful situation and be a part of it as long as possible. This site was a dog before I took it over. I was ignorant thinking I could save it. Of course I was even more desperate for a job/income than I was arrogant about my abilities. Now the situation is set. I am committed to doing my best. Turning it around. Making it successful. I can’t guarantee I will succeed but I will do my best. Even if that means getting out of my head and interacting with the world

Seeker

5:29am will I spend my whole life being who I am, striving to be what I am not? I am a seeker. I meet people where they are. I validate others. But those traits don’t make money. They don’t make me “successful.” I work jobs that do not reward who I am. I try to be different but fail. Then I try again. And again. I can’t stay put. I am not allowed to stay put. I can’t change. I am who I am.

Subjective lag measures

Overall satisfaction is subjective. We can continue to work on the money part and constantly assess the other. And you know what, often times when you stop and look back, even if you didn’t hit your goal it is then you appreciate the journey.
Graduation from high school is a goal, graduating from college. But those are made up goals because you are paying someone for the privilege of putting you through a system. It is a form of entertainment though it does have value. You can put that on a resume and apply for jobs that have more money. When I got my MBA I was instantly able to check a box on applications I hadn’t been able to check previously.

“It can’t be done”

The market is too saturated we don’t have the right features, I wasn’t trained. If you have worked in sales you know all the excuses for failure.

I know. I have managed many sales people. I have heard all the excuses. I have also been a sales person. I have used the excuses.

In the end there were only the jobs I hit my objective and was rewarded and jobs I missed my objective and was dismissed. I have been fired many times. I haven’t to use a baseball teen batted 1.000.

In sports the objective is clearer. You can say the defense was too hard or you didn’t have a good scheme but in the end you still didn’t score or win the game. Emotionally we naturally gravitate to excuses because they relieve the tension.

Even as you are reading this you are thinking he is a hard ass, he is too narrow focused I don’t like this all or nothing attitude. You are going back to the squares and seeing what is easiest to see and accept. And if you do what you have always done you get what you always got.

Don’t look at life as an emotional have and have not. Identify your objective, strive for it, achieve it or not then set the next objective. In your career and business life you will be much more focused and stress free.

Purgatory

I am in purgatory. I left jobs that paid my bills because I didn’t want to accept discomfort. I decided I could make more doing something I enjoyed.

Now I deal with the discomfort working a job that doesn’t cover my expenses and no clear path to rectify the situation. In trying to have the best of both worlds I ended up with the worst.

The Sacrifice of Change

You only let go of comfort when you have no other option.
Every situation has elements you want to change. But most do not pursue change. Why? Because those are part of your overall experience. They are a necessary evil in the trade off of the things you do like.
One of the areas people think about changing is their work situation. Most jobs are redundant and feel stagnate after only a couple of months. Few of us like waking up early and going to work every day but we continue to do it. That is because the trade off is a paycheck deposited in your bank account on Friday afternoon. The paycheck allows you to go out with friends, afford your house, groceries, car, phone, etc. You could change the fact that you have to go to work but you would subsequently change the fact that you receive a paycheck and many of the pillars of your life would be in jeopardy as a result.
If losing your paycheck is a change you don’t want to make you also won’t change going to work each day. Only if work becomes unbearable would you be willing to sacrifice something as valuable as your paycheck.