And this is Life…
Well I did it! I finally graduated from college with only minor scratches and bruises. I must say the last year was tough. Actually no all of it was kind of rough. I couldn’t seem to narrow down exactly what it was in life that I wanted to do. I was afraid to pick a major and then graduate and realize I hate it or I made the wrong choice. It just seemed like too much pressure. So I floundered around, as Dad would say, for a few years. Afraid to commit.
Then I realized the longer I floundered, the less life I was actually living. I decided to commit to something that had become a growing passion over the last couple of years. Orphans. So here I am, working in a non-profit organization that helps support dozens of orphanages in the world. So far so good. The task are challenging and the people are great.
Even just at a few weeks in, I’ve learned so much about being in a non-profit and just life in general.
Please don’t stop dreaming- the people in this organization are dreamers and constantly reaching to expand their vision of how to better serve orphans around the world. Brainstorming together with your team in honesty is the best way to run a diagnostic on your business/non-profit. It keeps ideas coming in that are fresh. Yeah you might scrap 70% of them, but what if your team stumbles on an idea that allows you to accomplish the mission more efficiently and more effectively. Today, I am making a THINK BOARD to pin up ideas that have been tossed around. My mentor uses her window to write on with a dry erase marker- that will also work!
Motivate yourself- no one else is going to! If you find yourself in a slump, don’t take your slumpiness to the office. There is no room for slumpiness in the work place. You have to be on, with all circuits firing for the entire 8 hours that you are there. I literally sat in the floor at home yesterday holding my Yorkie in one hand and the WiFi router in the other and cried after work. Why? Because I was in a new city, with no friends. I just got my router so I would have WiFi, but then I realized that I had no one to watch Netflix with, or even talk to about my day. Well, it happens OK!
You may feel alone and even feel sorry for your self, but just remember to throw that attitude in the trash before you step into your office. We need you to produce quality work. In my case 5,700 orphans are counting on me to produce solid work, so that donors continue to give and they continue to have a home, and are not living in the streets or sold into sex slavery.
Watch and learn. You don’t know everything about being amazing in your job, even if you have worked their for 5 years. If your new, take in the atmosphere of the place. Where is the bar set for your work in the organization and outside the organization? Watch how other organizations are doing it and see how your team does things. Be flexible in your work. I worked on something to go out to our prayer family via email and it wasn’t what my mentor was looking for at all. I missed the mark. But it’s OK. Your going to fail. Accept it. It happens. Take the criticism and use it to do a better job next time. Try to keep an eye out for how other groups are sending our their newsletter and what kind of content is shared.
