Happy Solstice
and other year end musings
Today is the shortest day of the year. Consequently it’s the longest night of the year. You may draw your own conclusions about why my husband and I selected this date, 8 years ago, to be our wedding day.
We met in 2007, what is now the “old fashioned way” on-line. (Thanks eharmony).
Together we’ve moved across the country and back again, suffered the loss of a child, came >this< close to dissolving our marriage. We’ve weathered job loss and unemployment and a litany of questions about what we want to be when we grow up.
And one week ago today I was sitting in the waiting room while the miracle team of doctors at Sentara resuscitated him after a major heart attack. 4 stents, a balloon pump catheter and several days in ICU he’s home and adjusting to a better normal for living.
None of us are immune to life-changing surprises. Whether it’s a DNA surprise, a sudden pink slip just weeks before Christmas or an excruciating pain in the middle of the night - requiring flashing lights, paddles of electricity and the finely honed skills of consummate professionals to get your attention - life really does move at the speed of light.
If you’re not careful you just might miss it.
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As the calendar year ends, the darkness falls and the light begins to creep back over the horizon - just seconds a day can make all the difference - I hope you’ll review where you want to focus your light.
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My passion for work started at a young age. Whether because of my adoptee status or just plain genes and environment, I’m laser focused on achievement as a measure of my worth in the world. This is counter-balanced by an intrinsic need to understand what makes each person unique. What motivates YOU may not motivate me, but if it’s important to you, I want to understand it better. And I want to bring you into community with others so you can see your value in all ways.
This letter to you, almost every week, is meant to lift you up AND give you practical tools and resources to bring your best self to your best role at the best company for you. That’s a tall order. Still with the amount of time most of us spend in a lifetime at work, finding ourselves and our true identity at work is imperative.
The more we allow ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves at work, the more we can, incrementally, change the world for the better.
The challenge, at least for me, is unwrapping the identities I have crafted in order to please others instead of myself at work. For instance, I’m naturally a leader, but all the years that I wore the cloak of the “stoic” leader or the “don’t be friendly with your staff” leader or the “I have to know everything” leader, the more likely I was to burn out and actually fail. As I’ve worked to peel the layers of others’ expectations of me in the workplace (and beyond, because who we are at work is truly a facet of our whole self), the better I’ve become at leading and accomplishing great and fun things in the workplace.
In the coming weeks and months you’ll learn more practical tips for job hunting here at ZenCareer and you’ll learn more about the ways our work shines a light on our core identity - whether we’re hiding out or shining bright. We all have been placed in this exact time and place for a specific reason - and work is part of it. I call this a soul contract, but use whatever term feels best for you - life purpose, life mission, spiritual mission or something else.
In 2024 I hope you’ll learn more about the gifts you bring to the world, how to apply them at work and how to resist the separation between work and “real” life.
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Thanks for being a subscriber. May you find the light in the crevices in this season and beyond.
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Until next time - go for a walk, rinse out the coffee cup and say a genuine hello to a stranger.
Peggie