OH BOTHER, WHAT TO DO
Monday, Feb. 17, 2020
Chatting lately with colleagues – recently retired, semi-retired, and some who are just plain tired.
Exhausting sometimes, listening to so many things they are not doing, until they let their mind race ahead, brains engaged, their transmission in gear.
Someone famous said this. Many authors have them attached – I don’t know the first author, but I’ll happily endorse this wisdom:
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
What tools are in your tool-box?
Don’t edit your resume; simply close your eyes, recall instead what you’ve done, not lately, but over time, remember what got your engine roaring.
What did you love doing?
Why were you so good at it?
Why did you love about doing it?
I realize there are ‘new careers’ lurking in my past, inspired in part by people I see re-inventing themselves – not so much with job changes or going back to school, but by starting new enterprises they’ve imagined. Cobbled together – experience, skills, and ideas – presto, something new emerges.
Failing to try, is no success by any measure or definition.
Failing, failing forward, failing often, failing again and again – at anything, is a path to success; it always has been and always will be.
Most careers are not rocket-surgery; they are competence most of us have in one field, or two, or ten; then add people skills and problem-solving. Easy-peasy.
We can all do just about anything, and anything we do can be done superbly if we want to if we care.
Our life, our livelihood, and our face to the world – should be something we love, something we do well with integrity.
