Opportunity is Knocking
When the whole world shut down…what did you do?
Covid19 is rising to a crescendo and the School of Hard Knocks is open. This is your opportunity. How are you taking advantage of your time off? If you wait, this opportunity will pass, and you’ll be back into the same-old: same-old.
Dreams matter. Do the dream. Take the first step and allow yourself to wonder. Then ask yourself three questions:
What am I good at?
What do I like doing?
What would I have to do to make that change?
When you realize, however vaguely, that you could take advantage of this time, you may be uncomfortable with the feelings of anxiety because you don’t know what to do about taking a first step. Where are the signposts?
If you are reading this, you are staring at your window to the world. The whole world has gone on-line and can be found on-line. You will have to go through a lot of rubbish to find what you are looking for. What you need to know is free so if there is a price tag attached don’t be dishearten. Schools’ can offer you the short-cut to credentials AND you will qualify. The state you live in has programs to put you back to work and GIVE you the training you need free of charge.
Don’t want to work with the state? Too much hassle? You can self-direct. YouTube has hundreds of tutorials on hundreds of subjects. What’s holding you back? Pick one thing and dive in until you understand it. Communicate with your friends about your interest. If you can enlist a buddy to work with you, makes you chances of success greater (or make a buddy on a chat line). One person can double their brain power immediately by asking a friend a question, especially if you are working on the same problem. Here an example that you could duplicate on any subject: learn how to do video editing using the free trial period for Garage Band and hitting up their tutorials and help desk.
If you don’t come out of your Covid19 hiatus with at least one new skill set that your friends and acquaintances will be amazed with, you didn’t read this article. You got sucked into watching the governors tell you what you already know. Drive-by reporting consumes your time so be stingy with your time.
If you have a good job, reevaluation your career. Find your weakness and attack the problem by looking for the knowledge that will fix it. I’ll tell you a secret, one of my best friends had a position in the largest company in Massachusetts that was in my field of electronics, but he majored in Literature at college. He was self-taught and attended company training. How did he get the job that I had sat through years of engineering/math courses just to be qualified? He could communicate clearly with his employer and the customer how he fixed the problem verbally and in written reports. If you are like most techies, you will need to improve your written and verbal skills because it will pay off in the long run.
If you found this outlook informative, consider the lessons I learned from my life condensed into a program called “Six Step to a Paycheck” in my book: Finding a Job in Tough Times. Visit www.findingajob.net for more information about this reflective workbook.