randori mind, control the chaos

I made a mistake, actually a huge mistake, in not seeing what my training did for the attendees.

I have written about professional change, delivered training and assisted a few hundred people to transition their careers. Most of these people succeeded and achieved the results that they desired. The mistake was not understanding what they took away. I thought it was skill, knowledge and practical abilities, but I was corrected two days ago.

I recently met one of the people who came to my first workshop while food shopping. After the surprise and a few brief catch up exchanges she dropped the bomb when she said, “Greg, the material was great and worked just as you said, but you know what I really learned? I learned that I can get a job.”

Seems simple enough, go to a workshop for career development and get a job. Then I realized what she really said was, “I learned to believe in myself.” Always wanting to verify thoughts I asked her the most important thing that she learned, her reply, “I learned I could do it.”
Believing in yourself, believing in your ability to make your future what you want it to be is the primary, the most critical of all steps. It doesn’t matter if you’re job searching or changing a light bulb when you cannot perceive that you can do the task you WILL make yourself correct.

This chance encounter was followed that night by a telephone conversation from a friend. He called to tell me about his decision to change careers, from high tech marketing to health care. His approach was to understand that he had value and to keep his eyes open for opportunity. He had been unemployed for over a year, slumped a bit emotionally and realigned his thinking to accept that change was necessary. He said that once he accepted this inevitability, his direction improved and he found what he needed. Again, a person calls and talks about regaining belief in himself.

My mistake — I believed that information, skill and methods, all logical things, make the difference in job searching. They are important, yet useless without two elements: belief and hope. Going forward these are the critical aspects that need development along with goals that set short and long term stability to life.