Where Is Your Finger Pointing?
Are you unsatisfied in your current job?
What is making it unsatisfying? Is there a key aspect you find yourself complaining about on a daily basis?
Do you perhaps even blame others for the situation you are in?
I must admit I have.
I remember when I was working for a startup… I never knew when I was going to get paid or if I was even going to get paid.
I kept on complaining…
“He still didn’t pay me, when am I going to get paid…how am I going to pay my mortgage…how do I plan my expenses when I am not even sure when my income will come in?”
I got tired of complaining. I got tired of hearing myself say the same story week after week. I decided to have a heart to heart conversation with my boss to express my stress.
He looked at me straight in the eye and said, “It didn’t occur to me that not getting paid regularly would stress you so much. I never had to stress about paying my mortgage.”
I felt like such an idiot. Here I was giving my heart and soul to a company who didn’t understand that I was a single mom that worked for a paycheck.
I had a choice.
I could continue to complain and point the finger at my former boss blaming him for the situation I was in…OR…I could turn my finger around and point it to myself.
I decided to point it to myself.
Yes, he was responsible for paying me, yet, I accepted to work for a startup. There are risks working for a startup and not getting a regular paycheck is one of them. I never fully understood the risk of a startup previous to this experience, but now I did.
So what could I do differently?
I decided to take 100% responsibility for my life and my circumstances. I decided to take steps towards creating the life I truly wanted.
I decided to ask myself these questions:
What am I doing to contribute to this?
What can I do to change this?
By staying in the same situation, I was accepting it and contributing to it.
The only way to get different results is to do things differently.
I decided to start my own business. I decided that I trusted my business skills more than depending on a startup for a paycheck.
I took the steps to start my own business, to change my story, to become the CEO of my life and create the life I really wanted. And I did.
You see, it’s easy to blame others.
It’s not so easy to turn our finger around, point it to ourselves and ask ourselves tough questions. But if you want to change things, that’s the only way you are going to change them.
So whatever situation you find yourself in that is making you unhappy; whether it’s your career, your business or your personal life, have the courage to face your truth, ask yourself the tough questions and then see what YOU can do differently.
YOU are the only one that can change your life.