We all turned 16. We all learned early on that by the age of 16 you should be hunting for your first job. At least in the household of 6 kids and counting, this was a common subject that ultimately came up. You buy (or you were given, you are lucky!) your first car to go to your first job! Yay!

Nailed it. The interview that is. For McDonald’s. Who does not love Mcdonald’s right?  You spend several years finishing high school, prepping to go to college. Because that is the way of the world, right? We go to college after high school.

Or is it? College seems to be more of a “fun” thing than a “must” thing. We simply love to hang out and party with our friends. Am I the only one here?  Well, needless to say, eventually graduation happens. Graduation means you are now an adult!

Yep, I said it, an adult! You have to make our own decisions now, take out your own trash, bathe without being asked, and guess what, you even have to pay the bills. GULP >>>>

Now is the time to really start job hunting. Is it really job hunting at this point?  Because now we have advanced from J.O.B. AKA just over broke to career. A career that we have worked so hard to get to. Working women or men. We are eager to go out into the new world and take on the reality that is so literally going to smack us in the face.

New Career 101

You walk into that office, sit there dressed up in your nicest, best clothes. A smile on your face. You are ready for this! You have rehearsed for a while now and for some reason, this seems like it will just flow out of your mouth and you will answer every question to the best of your knowledge.

Pen and paper in hand waiting for the door to open to let you in so you can spill why you are by far THE BEST candidate for the job. Door opens. You’re in!

Palms sweating, questions start being asked and you have no stinking clue what they are asking you! Fumbling with your words you keep repeating yourself. Breathe!

Does this sound like you? In my many of career changes, I have all bet tripped on my own two feet in an interview. I have spent days and weeks prepping for interviews that amount to nothing. Why??!!

You know there is the occasional person that actually lands their first impression interviews. Needless to say, I am not one of them. Show of hands here!

As a nurse being in the field for nearly 8 years, I have switched floors, specialties, and so on many times. Mainly because as nurses we get uber burnt out doing one thing for a lot of years. Burnt out from patient overload and stress. Yes! It does happen to all of us. Even in other careers.

How is this going to help me you’re saying? Do you know that the average interviewer decides whether or not they are going to hire you within the first 5 minutes of the interview?  Welp, you better pull up your bootstraps and be ready to ace that interview because a first impression is everything.

Bring on the Applications

I’ll put it to you straight right here. Having applied for 8 jobs, gotten interviewed by four of them, and not gotten any replies but the utter “rejection” notice, it sucks! At what point do you realize that this is as good as it’s gonna get and you better just chill-out where you are at?

Somewhere around the 4th interview that was actually only 10 minutes long, I realized that I had a bigger calling. Something that I needed to fulfill or succeed in so badly that Nursing wasn’t going to be my “only” option anymore. Did I get upset when I didn’t hear back from anyone again? Sure! That’s what rejection is about. Right!?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have a massive passion for caring for people. It is in my nature. It is the beating, breathing part in me that I love helping other people when they are sick, injured, or dying. Does that make me crazy? Ya, maybe. But we all have a passion, and this is mine.

But for some reason, this was a turning point.

Suggestions For the Higher Purpose

In all reality, we all, at some point in our lives come to the point where “something has got to give”.  A point in your life where nothing is working, you are trying to put things into place and it just isn’t happening. You don’t know why, or what. It will serve you to know that this is your universe calling.

Sounds crazy right?  Think about it for a second. What happens when we just let things flow? You don’t force things to happen. Guess what. They happen. Everything just falls into place. You’re at the point where you know that you are not seeing things clearly but nothing is budging and your simply well…Right where you need to be.

Do you need a career change? No. Maybe you can just relax in the position that you are in and “just be”. Do you need to move on and force change because you are unhappy?  Even so, the force in that change will cause more unhappiness.

But how can you/we just sit back and relax and let life take its course? Take these suggestions as you may. As I have given myself these suggestions many of times. I know that I will mess up the process if I interject or Force what’s not supposed to happen, to happen:

• Trust the process
• Take a hint- if it’s not working out then it won’t work out right now.
• Timing is Everything
• Don’t be angry that it didn’t work out
• There is always a reason

Case in Point

It’s called logical reasoning for a reason. Reasoning with the fact that, Hey! Maybe it isn’t gonna work out this time. But what can I do to make it happen in the future? Or you may rest on the side that, well it didn’t happen so now I am going to do everything in my power to prove that I am perfect for this job!

When maybe there is a better one out there for you. Or sally from down the road really needs a job like now because she is behind in mortgage/rent payments and has 4 kids. Sally gets the job. Why because it is not your time.

There have been times when I have fought tooth and nail to have something happen. I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it. I kept feeling like something was missing and “Why is this not working out for me?” I was that person.

Until two weeks later I got a job offer, that paid substantially more and had much better hours than the average 12-hour shift nurses’ work. Yes!!

It may not be your time to shine right now but it will be. Eventually. Timing is everything and trusting in the process and letting it all flow the way it is intended to makes life so much less stressful and worth living.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Needless to say, all of the times that I wish something would have happened have turned into something bigger and even better than I could have imagined.

How can you find contentment with force?  Small stuff is just that, small stuff. Let it flow and life will happen accordingly.

Am I saying to you, that you should just ignore the fact that your car broke down, and you lost your keys to the house, and got stuck in the rain? No! I am saying that the universe is telling you to change your mindset. When you start thinking positive, the negative releases.

It’s the Law of Attraction at its finest. If you don’t believe, go read the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne you will change your mind. Never expect it to happen the way you want it to, we are on borrowed time and if everything falls into place, it is for a reason.

It is for that reason that we choose our destiny, fate, or future. Trust the process.