A couple of weeks ago, my hubby and I went to dinner with several couples who are friends with his sister and her husband. We made small talk with the group until the guy sitting closest to us – we’ll call him Joe – asked what we each do for a living. After we described our jobs, he announced, “Man, my job sucks.”
Joe wasn’t kidding. He went on to tell us how terrible his boss is, how bad the morale is, how he watches the clock all day. My sister-in-law overheard our conversation, leaned in and asked, “Do you get a paycheck on the 1st and 15th of each month?” Joe responded yes. “Well, that’s a really good thing about your job,” she told him.
I felt bad for the guy, but she was right. We have all been in dead-end jobs, worked with people who drove us crazy, worked for leaders who didn’t know how to lead. It’s easy (and sorta fun) to mumble and grumble about how bad things are. But, in my experience, you have to change your view for things to start looking up.
I feel so incredibly grateful to work from home and call my own shots. But I believe my various jobs – both good and bad – helped prepare me for what I’m doing today. I could not do this if I hadn’t done that. I’ve worked at places where I met life-long friends, held jobs that provided me with skills and made networking connections I still lean on today. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve done my fair share of complaining about places where I worked. But I always found that those gripe sessions left me feeling worse, not better.
The concept of “choosing beauty” is that you commit to find silver linings in every cloud – even the dark ones. Especially the dark ones. When you can do that, the clouds magically begin to clear. And the stronger you believe blue skies are coming, the sooner they’ll appear overhead. Good luck, Joe – and to every daydream believer reading this today. Anything is possible.
