A Paradigm Shift Will Profoundly Impact Your Life - Sometimes Suddenly, Sometimes Gradually
This story will resonate with many of you . . .
Change is the Only Constant in Life
A job. A move. A birth. A death. War. Culture shift . . .
Any number of things can and will have a huge impact upon our lives.
Whether for good or bad totally depends upon our response.
What I am about to share took place in several stages over the span of about 10 years. Many of you will be able to relate . . .
First let me say that working a job at someone else's whim has never been my thing.
Of course, not knowing any better, that's all I had done for most of my working life.
The first stage in this period of time took place in Tulsa, OK.
I was working at Spartan School of Aeronautics as the Career Center Director, a job that I dearly loved.
My first position there was in Correspondence Recruiting, enrolling students by phone and mail.
I excelled at it and won several student retention awards. The students sensed that I truly cared for them and their families.
So, when I took the position as Career Center Director, that same level of trust went with me.
Teaching and preparing graduates how to find work, traveling the country to help employers meet their personnel needs, and creating some marketing content for aviation industry continuing education programs were all things right up my creative alley.
It was just a downright fun job.
I had a lot of respect for the president of the school and also my immediate boss, the VP of Student Services. Their business sense and positive outlook on life motivated me greatly.
Well, as they say, nothing lasts forever.
Constant Change is Not Always a Bad Think
One day, my boss came and told me that not only had the president decided to move and take the same position at another school, but he had asked my boss to go with him.
The wind had been let out of my sail.
It wasn't long before the new president of the school arrived. I realized immediately that this was not someone I wanted to work for.
My heart was just not in it any longer.
About this time, I was visiting a friend in OH who told me of a sales position in his company, which was involved in association management.
I was able to get an interview and the next thing I knew my family and I had moved to Ohio.
Three months later, I resigned.
The person I worked for was a tyrant, an absolute micro manager. This was something I had never experienced. Even in the Navy.
It didn't go well.
So, what to do. I had never been in this dilemma before. I worked a couple of part time jobs to take care of a growing family.
Soon, I came across a position for a branch sales manager for a large staffing company in Columbus, OH.
In my mind, this was similar to the career services position at the aviation school.
It wasn’t.
However, for the next five years, that's what I did. I became the branch manager soon after.
Staffing services is a high stress, high turnover business. Lasting five years was very unusual and I was nearing that mark.
Here’s what I learned through these initial changes -
Having your life wrapped up in a job that trade time for money is not the best way.
Knowing someone else had the power over whether you kept your job or not was stressful.
I didn't understand how NOT to do that, but the door had opened slightly.
I could sense there was another whole body of knowledge of how to go about life of which I was completely unaware.
Think back over the major events of your life, either expected or unexpected.
What was your response?
What did you learn?
Did it open up new possibilities for you that you had not previously been aware of?
Feel free to leave a comment about it.
Stage two of this long paradigm shift in my life, which I will post about soon, happened rather unexpectedly . . .