The Long-Term View:
How True Career Success Leads You to Times of Doing What’s Hard
LIFE, AS IT IS — UNPREDICTABLE
There’s not a gentle way to say this — sometimes, to do the work that you were made to do, you go through situations that are difficult. It’s not always fun. But, I’d contend to you that those hard times actually transform us, and make us more ready to step into the work we are on this planet to do. But it doesn’t mean our lives are struggle-free.
In fact, the opposite is more common. While many of us may shy away from things that seem too messy, or too complicated, change is a constant in our lives.
Jobs end. Companies merge, leaving us without the job we’ve had for 10 years. Our skills from our college days become obsolete, and we’re let go. Whether we want to face it or not, life often brings us to situations where we need to embrace change.
Notice I used the phrase “need to embrace change.” I didn’t say “want to embrace change” or “willingly dive into change.” But, in this need to embrace change, there’s a general truth you and I can apply to our career journeys — If you look at the lives of anyone who is successful, you often see their rise to success wasn’t a straight line, but instead a journey of small steps and setbacks to the career they have now.
If you look at the lives of anyone who is successful, you often see their rise to success wasn’t a straight line, but instead a journey of small steps and setbacks to the career they have now.
— Randy Mahoney
Many more of us would do well to take the long-term view in our work. With that kind of perspective, we would be apt to learn from setbacks, and keep learning the lesson of how each job we are in is formative.
I should know a thing or two about embracing change and doing what’s hard.
I had my own season of it.
MY SEASON OF DOING WHAT’S HARD
It was the summer of 2012, and I had just graduated from a private Christian college with a ministry degree. I minored in Media Communications, so I knew the Bible and I knew my way around a video camera. I even worked for my college’s radio station. I thought the adage “the world is my oyster” was true, and that it surely applied to me in that moment. I thought I had nothing but possibilities after I walked across that stage and got my diploma.
But that was not my reality. The truth was, I had work to do — A lot of practical work and a lot of soul work.
You see, because of some medical issues and family issues I had before college, I hadn’t completed my driver’s training. That meant I graduated college with a degree, but had no car or driving skills. So, I had to start there.
Fortunately, I was in good company. I stayed with my college roommate and his family in a suburb of Indiana for the next year and a half. Over that time, I landed a job, but not in ministry. The only time I read the Bible was either in church on Sundays or during my personal quiet time. That was because I worked nights in a kitchen job with a sports bar near where I was living. And to top it off, no car meant I rode a bicycle to work — even in the rain, snow, and cold. Talk about a learning experience!
This was indeed a dark season when my faith was tested, and where I felt lost work-wise. I had hard, loving conversations with the family I was staying with. I struggled through late nights of work, riding a bicycle to church, and feeling empty and hopeless. I thought it would never end.
But now, over eight years removed from those days, I can say that my faith and my persistence are what helped me through. By the start of 2013, I had finished my Driver’s training and purchased my first car in cash — a green Honda Civic. From there, I ended up moving to other cities in Indiana, opening a career coaching business, and now provide career coaching to high-school students with disabilities.
THE WAY FORWARD
From my story, as I reflect on it, I wanted the season to end, and to end fast. But now, I see that I needed to learn those life lessons, because they’ve given me so much wisdom and inform the ways I work now.
Here’s the truth for you and me — we should get more okay with doing what’s hard. True success, whether in work or something else, is often found on the other side of struggle and hardship.
And now, the hope — take courage from my story. Take courage that the struggle will end. Your pain and hardship do have a finish line. I don’t know when it may be, but I can say that you’re being formed all along the way.
Do not give up.
Embrace the struggle you may be facing. See it as formative.
Do the hard things now, so you can keep taking steps into the work you’re meant to do.
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