Do You Really Need A New Position or Do You Actually Need A New Perspective?

Have you ever heard the old adage, “The grass is always greener on the other side?”  A better description would be “The grass always APPEARS greener on the other side.”  It is a part of human nature to want more, to compare ourselves to others and think that our lives or in this case, careers are more exciting or the companies they work for are super wonderful. We may even go as far as to say, “If I had (fill in the name)’s career, I would be so much further in my life.” Or “If I worked at (fill in the company name), I would be happier and better appreciated.”  However, once we get to the “other side” we find that the grass was painted green and isn’t even real and not only that, we have now been assigned the task of painting it green. By this time, unfortunately too late, we realize that the grass really isn’t greener on the other side at all and are now full of regrets. We now start looking at the “greener grass” over there and we're even more bitter. This time, however we are blaming a supernatural conspiracy on why these companies are incessantly blind to our superior capabilities. Our eyes are closed to the fact that we are the common denominator.  Nope. It has to be God's fault. Meanwhile, my resume looks like a game of Frogger because I’ve had 10 different jobs in 10 years (yes, I just dated myself, you can google the game Frogger). The problem is that these statements often divest us from owning responsibility for the outcomes in our lives. The truth of the matter is in most situations, we have control over our own experiences. It comes down to our choices. Was it really that I was screwed out of a well-deserved promotion, or was it all of those times I finished my projects late that contributed to my being passed over? Was it that they were “setting me up” to be fired or was it that the fact is I only showed up to work 50% of the time or was late 30% of the time?  Was it simply there was a better, more qualified candidate that earned the promotion?  Is our perspective getting in the way?

Here’s the good news!  We can be free from the bondage of the blame game. We do have the opportunity build a career strategy that allows us to own our outcomes and make better career choices. The first step is to review our perspective.

Do you really need a new position or do you actually need a new perspective? You decide.

We’ll discuss step two next week as we make 2017 the best year of our career! 

Warning:  There will still be some who will read this and will take immediate steps to look at all sides of their career before making their next critical career decision. Congratulations!  You are taking the first step to freedom!

There will be others who will read this and be deeply offended because they are in denial. After all, how can it not be God’s fault?  Guess what? No one has to know. It has been said that if you throw a stone in a pack of dogs the one that was hit will yowl the loudest.  It’s your choice. ​ 

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