Together

Although I haven't posted regularly for a while, work/life fusion is never far from my mind. I believe in the subject matter here, plus it will always be my place of firsts. This was my first blog, the first place I ever wrote in public and the first time I ever invited anyone to join me in an open conversation about careers and work.

I also feel lucky to have a place like this because only a few years ago everything here would have been scribbled in a notebook instead of blogged out in the open. Which means none of it would have been found or changed or improved by anyone other than me. Without the open conversation on this blog I'd still have no idea about the difference it makes when you realise you're no longer struggling or battling alone.

Many, Many People: Together

[Image courtesy of TheBigTouffe on Flickr]

Blogging together has taught me that we can make a difference and our collective voice on this subject grows stronger every day. By sharing and exploring individual work/life stories we've seen ourselves struggle with the same things. We see the same doubts, the same fears and the same feelings of being alone in ourselves and other people. We've seen these things and realised we're no longer alone.

The feeling of being alone is real enough but it's also a red herring. We're not alone. We never were and never will be. Of course our career stories are all different but we're also tied together in so many countless and unshakeable ways. We go to work, we come home. We meet new people, we get along. We argue, we resolve our differences. We succeed, we fail, we struggle, we fall, we pick ourselves up and we start all over again. In short, We experience and it's our experience, alongside the experience of others, that helps us make the right and best choices for our situation. We're all making unique choices and that makes us the same.

Right now I couldn't tell you what the future looks like for this blog but I can tell you I am proud of its past and what it stands for. I'm also proud of myself and everyone else exploring their experience - past, present and future - in the battle to improve and do as well as they can. Our potential, our confidence and our progress together will continue to grow.

Thank you for reading, writing and sharing your experiences as always,

Paul

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We Always Choose For

A while ago I gave myself the task of figuring out a few simple things...

What I'm doing, Why I'm doing it and Where it's taking me.

Thanks to this task, every now and then you'll find me visiting and revisiting past decisions and choices I've made (big and small).

Now this might sound like a recipe for driving yourself around the bend but there's more to it than that.

For a start, you get a better handle on the whats, whys and wherefores when it comes to your career (and Yes, I'll happily admit the wherefores were new to me too) and they would be worth the ticket price on their own but, every now and then, I've also come face-to-face with a cracker of a brand-new-and-wonderful fact.

To give you an example, I recently discovered that,

Almost all of the time (and especially when it counts),

I have always chosen for.

Oh Yes, You do it too.

[Image courtesy of Auntie K on Flickr.com]

How We Make Choices For (as opposed to against)

A simple study of past decisions helped me realise that I have nearly always made choices for positive reasons.

OK, a sample of one doesn't make an expert but I'm convinced you make choices this way too.

Think about it for a moment...

There's something fundamentally positive at work when we make choices, even when we're not sure we're doing the right thing. Perhaps it's even more obvious when we have the hardest choices to make. When times are tough and/or the pressure is on, we choose for (and with) the things we really believe in.

I'm not talking about easy choices like, "Hmm, Shall I have chocolate or cake?", I mean the ones where there are sacrifices. When it's not at all clear cut or black-and-white. To give you a working example, maybe it's the honours graduate student who waits tables to put herself through college; or maybe it's the fully qualified physiotherapist who does shifts in a factory while his overseas qualifications await recognition in a new country (oddly specific but career facts often are).

In my case, I made a big decision a few years back to take my career into unknown territory. To head for the place where our individual choices and decisions come from. At the time it must have looked like I was choosing against the people around me or rejecting my more familiar work. Of course this wasn't the case but it was only recently, while reflecting on my choices (and their outcomes) that it stood out so clearly.

When it comes to work/life, we always choose for.

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Proof that You're Making Progress

Everything we do on a job search counts towards the final goal

Every effort, every rejection, every unreturned email and phone call plays its own unique part in the end result.

It doesn't feel that way sometimes

But those feelings couldn't be further from the truth.

Infinity: The art of reflection [Image courtesy of Mrs Logic on Flickr]

Let me make a comparison,

In October 2008 I said the following on this blog...

When choice - even limited choice - is available,

knowledge and understanding are available too.

Reading it back today, what I really wanted to say was this...

Our choices always teach us something.

I'm still the same person but for some reason I'm now a bit clearer. A little bit sharper and more to the point.

[By the way, I could choose from a hundred other examples that show the same thing. How "No one is born with knowledge of work. Knowledge of work is something we have all acquired." now becomes "Anyone can learn anything about work." How "Personal success is a particular way of considering success. Not better or worse in comparison to anyone else, just appropriate to your unique perspective." can be simplified to "Measure success by the way it makes you feel."]

If I hadn't said or done any of the above, and then looked back to see how to improve it, I wouldn't be able to prove that you can make the same progress.

When it feels like the right time, take another look at your job search. Look at what have you said and what have you done. How could you do things differently now? In what ways are you clearer now or easier to understand?

A job search is just another way for us to learn about ourselves. To get closer to the facts, to keep the things that feel right, work hard on the things we want to change, speak as clearly as our voices will let us today and do our best to be even clearer tomorrow.

A job search can be proof that you're making progress.

All the best for now,

Paul

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