Left Turn At Albuquerque
I was recently fired from a major employer in Boise. The initial shock did shatter my illusions of love for a few minutes, but I recovered. Being fired is nothing new. I worked in radio and television for a lot of years, where I was fired a lot. When I walked in the door of a new job I was not concerned as to whether I would get fired, but how soon. It was just part of the business of broadcasting.
Looking back on why I took the job in the first place, I’m reminded of a line from a Bugs Bunny
cartoon where he should have taken the left turn at Albuquerque.
My usual response has been to get back on the horse, but this time I decided to stop, smell the roses and decide what I really want to be when I grow up.
I’m taking stock of my personality. Specifically, my strengths and weaknesses. Next, I’m going to find a job where my strengths enhance the experience and my weaknesses don’t matter.
I bring this up because, for most of my career, I have set my real personality aside to be a “team player”, at least to the best of my ability. Given the fact that I have been able to hold on to jobs for several years – even in an inbound call center environment where turn over is usually 150 to 200% – I would say I did well.
Many of us do the same thing. We submerge who and what we really are in order to fit in and keep a job, then we wonder why we go home at night tired, frustrated and, in some cases, angry.
Now, however, its time to move in a different direction. I just have to sit down and figure out what that direction might be.
© 2009 Moody Publishing Co
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