Thriving

Many things in your life are out of your control. You cannot, for example, control the weather. Right now a lot of people and governments are talking as if they can take control of the climate on this planet. We will see how that plays out, but I am not holding my breath. If everybody on the planet decided to hold their breath there would be a lot less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere…and nobody would be around to enjoy our new and improved climate conditions.

Moving on, and to put it positively this time around, you can only steer the wheel of your own car or truck or tank or whatever you happen to be driving. This is not a very comforting thought to be meditating upon when driving down a narrow and icy road in the early morning hours of New Years Day. Yes, many people you meet may have been drinking. And yes, lots of them are likely dead tired. One wrong move and you could be in the ditch or just dead.

Third, you cannot control what the government does. Somebody somewhere in the upper echelons of society may make a decision that affects you greatly, and there is nothing you can do about it. True, you can vote in a certain way, speak out, and maybe even lobby certain groups or individuals to do what you think needs to be done. But at the end of the day, Stephan Harper or Paul Martin, or any number of other civil servants, are calling the shots – not you. Everybody wants to rule the world and few people actually do.

Fourth, you cannot control the actions or attitudes of others. You can influence other people, but trying to control them is not such a good idea anyway. Hiring an airplane to fly over your girlfriend or boyfriend’s house with a banner reading “Will you marry me?” would make you a rock star in the romance department. But if the banner was a bit longer and read “Marry me or I’ll let all the air out of your tires every day for the rest of your life you big lummox and I am not kidding!!!!!” you might not get the same response.

In your quest for a more compatible career, the sobering reality is that all the polishing and preparation in the world is not going to make much of a difference if the company or organization you want to work for doesn’t want you to work for them.

What you can do, and what I am encouraging everyone reading this to do (including myself), is to attempt to take control of your own attitudes and actions so you can move beyond surviving and towards thriving. Here are a few suggestions as it relates to pursuing a different career:

You can go out and get the skills a company wants
You can make short-term and long-term goals
You can make a plan to guide you towards those goals
You can search for the information you need to move ahead
You can train your mind to focus on positive thoughts
You can talk to people who do what you would like to do

Some who are reading this may feel that there is so much that you can’t do and very little that you can. May I encourage you to still focus on doing what you can do, even today.