Tag: Work

Evolution

My first couple of jobs were rewarding. I liked the sense of identity, the purpose and lifestyle having a job afforded me.

When I was younger I liked being a student. I graduated from high school and went on to college, even grad school.

At some point I tired of being a student. I wanted to evolve and grow. That is when I got my first job.

After more than a decade of working jobs I strived to take the Next step and evolve again. But what is the next step? Being a student just happened. I was told to go, I liked it and continued. Getting a job took persistence but there were opportunities and I took them. Finding the next step is not so clear. Where do I go, how do I make money, support myself and my family?

Those questions and the answers you live with will be how you spend a majority of your years on this earth.

It takes a team

Change and growth is impossible on your own. Staying focused and motivated by yourself is impossible. We are emotional creatures. We base almost all our decisions on how we feel. As a result we are a mess of contradictory objectives. When the pressure is on, the boss is looking at my numbers, or wants to see a report, hear a presentation, when I am accountable I am scared. When I am scared I am motivated.
Hopes and dreams come at us at all times. We seldom can control our emotions. Because we are constantly taking in information and processing our goals and motivations change constantly. They can become opposed in an instant.
You might say on one hand I don’t want to have to work hard. Then almost with the very next though think about how you want to accomplish more. I quit the highest paying job I ever had because I did not travel six days a week. My priority changed. Would I make the same decision now? I am not sure. I am more apt at staying in pressure but at the same time I was sacrificing for the money. I missed my home, my family.
This scenario plays out large and small all the time. One second I want to reach my sales quota and then 30 seconds later I feel tired and wish I could cut out early and go watch a movie. You may want to move one second and then the next want to stay a couple more years where you are at. To stay focused takes more than just you working on your own, it takes a team.

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.

The objective

Very few of us live in a black and white structured league with records and playoff systems and a shiny trophy at the end. We have only one quantifiable metric we can measure, money. The outcome most of seek for personal growth is to increase the amount of money we earn in a given time frame. You are trying to get you more income. Your goal is to make more than you made the year before. To keep moving up the scale and see how high you can get.
Making more money than the year before is the objective. You can measure it. One number is greater than the other.
From here forward that is the objective you are trying to reach. If you accept that, keep reading. If that does not sound like you there is no point to continue.
I am not saying growth and making more money are the only things in life that matter. But in the narrow confines of this work that is what we are talking about. I am not going to talk about much other stuff here.

Lies

Do you lie to yourself?

Do you feel like you have a plan? That you know what you need to do to be successful?

Yet you struggle to make your house payment, have credit card debt, no savings or retirement and work a job that makes you miserable for a boss you don’t like?

Stop lying to yourself. No plan includes those things. You don’t know what to do.

Now is the time to fix it.

On trial

I am kind of having a crisis of identity. I notice I write these posts on Monday mornings. I am working sales but I hate going to sales meetings with nothing to show for it. On trial and failure. I guess everyone would do it if it were easy?

I feel anxiety gripping my throat. I can’t breathe. I can’t move forward and get a ‘win.’ I can’t let go and accept defeat. I put myself in this situation thinking it was sink or swim. Who knew there was a third option. Just get ground down. I hate doing sales when there are no sales.

Skills

Being a chaplain requires certain credentials, skills, training and experience. I possessed those things in the spring of 2003.

Consequently I took a job as a hospice chaplain. I was assigned a group of patients already on service to provide spiritual care. As more patients came on I provided care to them as well. In the course of my duties I was asked to conduct worship services, funerals, weddings, baptisms and various other tasks of the clergy. It was a job I had spent years developing the skills necessary to conduct.

I did not have to think about drumming up business, finding customers or selling people on my offering. When I took the job more than enough opportunity was given to me. As I continued to work and became known in the community the ancillary requests increased as well.

I stopped working as a chaplain In the fall of 2009. I longed for adventure and competition. Two things being a chaplain did not provide. I went into sales.

In sales the goal was specifically to drum up business, increase market share and find new customers. I am not sure how good I was at sales. However, I did possess a skill for getting sales jobs.

I was good at applying, getting interviews, being offered positions and moving up in salary and rank. From the time I left being a chaplain to the spring of 2017 I had tripled my salary and held executive leadership positions.

Now I scribble blog posts and advocate for objective focused growth. I was paid a salary as a chaplain and as a sales leader. I made money because my skills were seen as valuable. I was paid a regular salary in exchange for my loyalty to the company and cause.

How to I survive doing this?

I am an introverted person. My writing is personal and reflective. Does it appeal to anyone else? How do I consistently share it in a way that is mutually beneficial to the writer and reader?

Already achieved

I write like I am keeping a journal so it is an evolving piece of work. Since I am always learning I never completely finish or reach a conclusion. If I truly want to “sell” I need to move away from chronicling my present journey and telling my past story.

Not just telling my story but using the completed story as my example.

That is the solution to the chicken/egg problem. That honors my past. That gives me direction.