Beginning At the New Beginning

Well, this past month has been a whirlwind to say the least.  I figured I better get to summarizing how I got here before I can really talk about all of my adventures in my new home town.  I am going to do my best to just hit the highlights, but may still have to break it down into easy-to-chew, bite-sized pieces.  Here goes…

For the past 5 years, I had a job in the Northwest.  For the past 4½ years, I hated that job.  I could go into all the reasons why I hated it, but the short version is that I didn’t have confidence in the company’s leader, and the culture wasn’t a fit for me. 

At the same time, I was having fun exploring the Northwest, meeting very special people, and moving through one of those painful adult growth spurts – you know, the ones that are more about spiritual growth than physical growth. So for a lot of the time I was there, the job was sort of a necessary evil to facilitate all that other stuff.

This past fall I moved from hating my job into the “I would rather have someone pull out my fingernails one by one than go to work” phase, and decided I needed a plan.  I met with a career coach, anticipating that I may need to change industries in order to find a job in this economy.  I updated my resume on popular career networking sites.  I let friends and a few trusted colleagues know I was looking.  I had a few interviews.

Nothing came of it. 

People always say, “it’s easier to find a job when you have a job.” Those people are liars.  Since you don’t want to call attention to yourself in the office, you wind up with an entire second job of finding a job in the evenings.  Plus, you spend all day hating the one you have, wishing that you could work on the second job, and that just makes you bitter and tired and frustrated all the time. Needless to say, by the time you get home from the job that pays the bills, all you want is a glass of wine and the mind-numbing freedom of your DVR.

The truth is that you need to do what is right for you, and that means knowing how much risk you can bear.  I did this by 1) evaluating the risk, 2) evaluating my tolerance for the worst case scenario, and 3) determining if I was willing to take a leap of faith.

In my case, I knew the biggest risk that I faced was financial.  A temporary lay-off in 2011 wiped out a lot of my savings, and so my funds were pretty depleted.  I knew that I couldn’t leave my job without a plan that would pay the bills. A friend and mentor gave me the idea to propose my own severance.  And I chewed on that thought for a couple of months.

Somewhere around mid-December, I had really thought through every detail of that idea, done all that evaluating I mentioned above, and concluded that it was worth a try. 

But before I took the leap, I made myself do one more piece of due diligence.  If my job was going to be finding a job, I needed a vision and goals – I needed to know what I was looking for so that I could create it in my life.  I make a list of goals every couple of months or so, but this time was different.  I really spent some time envisioning what I want my life to look like, how I want to feel, what are real priorities, and how I want to be remembered.  After all of that soul searching, I came up with the following Vision and List of Goals.

My Vision for 2012

Begin with the End in Mind

I want to strengthen my relationship with God.

To accomplish this…

§  I will pray and study. 

§  I will work to feel and acknowledge God’s presence in my daily activities.

I want to be challenged in a way that inspires me.

      To accomplish this…

§  I will focus on finding challenging and fulfilling work that inspires my creativity and productivity.

§  I will assess my ability and desire to complete my goals and tasks as a measure of fulfillment.

I want to be valued by the people with whom I spend my time.

            To accomplish this…

§  I will be generous and present, and value the time people spend with me.

I want to have a reputation of integrity, compassion, gumption, perspicacity, and loyalty.

            To accomplish this…

§  I will strive to incorporate the attributes of faith, passion, class, professionalism, prioritization and curiosity in my life.

I want to know I am worthy of love.

            To accomplish this…

§  I will surround myself with people that I respect, which motivate me, and make me feel loved. 

§  I will minimize the time that I feel unhealthy, trapped, afraid, and numb.

I want to feel healthy and fit (okay, and look hot too!)

            To accomplish this…

§  I will stop procrastinating and start working on exercising and eating healthy.

My Goals for 2012

The Big Hairy Audacious Goals:

1.    Eliminate my debt

2.    Develop a habit for exercising regularly, for free.

3.    Find a job that inspires me with its challenges and makes full use of my talents and interests.

Faith

·      Continue with Bethel Bible Series

·      Pray daily

Finance

·      Eliminate my debt

·      Increase my savings to 6 months salary

·      Tithe a minimum of $X per week while unemployed, more when employed

Health

·      Achieve a weight of X or lower

·      Develop a habit for exercising regularly

·      Eat healthy

·      Track and monitor my food intake

·      Make dentist appointment (Jan)

·      Make hearing appointment (Jan)

·      Make annual exam appointment (Dec)

·      Make physical appointment (Feb)

Relationships

·      Visit Brenda & Bryce

·      Contact Inner Circle monthly

·      Be active in the lives of my niece and nephew

·      Be compassionate, dependable and giving

·      Keep myself open to relationships

Professional

·      Find a job that inspires me with its challenges and makes full use of my talents and interests

Volunteer

·      Continue to support the Parks Foundation on its board of directors

·      Participate in friends’ causes when the cause is also one I support

·      Volunteer to help others when my time, talents, or treasure are accessible.

Home

·      Complete a major purge, room-by-room

·      Sell items with value (all profits to go toward debt reduction)

·      Donate items that cannot be sold.

Joy

·       Take at least one non-work, non-family vacation.

·       Read regularly

·       Have dinner with the Wilson’s and the Strands at least once a month

·       Go wine tasting at least 4 times

·       Work on articulating and expressing my feelings

Seriously people.  I cut and pasted that word for word (except for the X-out details) from my original document.   Once I had that in place, my head was ready to follow my heart, and I took the leap.

On Friday, December 16, 2011, I walked into my boss’s office with a piece of paper.  I said, “I think that we can both agree that my employment at the Company is not a good fit for either of us any longer.  I don’t see a path forward that ends in success.  So, I would like to propose an amicable way for each of us to move on by asking for a severance. “  I handed him my request, and 20 minutes later, I had a verbal acceptance of my proposal.  Wednesday, December 21, 2011 was my last day in the office.  Just like that.

And some people don’t believe in miracles.   Tell those people to send me their e-mail so I can add them to the reader list.  Because if you think that was a miracle, you’ll never believe part two of the story.