Attempting to sneak peeks outside the large sheet of clear sand that makes up the window sheltering my plans from nearly every weather condition known to man; the unrehearsed arrival of the awakening sun falls flat on performance due to an exceedingly high amount of condensation invited to the parade by strong thunderstorms that passed nearly twelve hours ago.
The initial assumption from a passerby is that without that giant window my constantly out of control vivid imagination is stuck.
Stuck? What is stuck? I’ve buried a few cars in heaping amounts of icy wet snow usually ripping its soul from the engine before finally gaining enough traction to back into another bank of irritating white fluff. I’ve suddenly and unexpectedly stopped in the center of Tae Kwon Do fighting off the mechanisms that make your memory fade while climbing closer to old age. Being a daily writer of radio and television commercials, blogs and journals, long form stories and always having room for a shot in the arm filled with poetry…getting stuck is completely natural and getting free is easy when you stop thinking everything you do sucks.
In his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead, Seth Godin reveals the facial images of others who’ve become stuck: bankers and financial brokers who keep waiting for the economy to crack, textile families who can’t figure out how and why outsourcing is looked upon as being legal, employees who’ve been hired by bosses that constantly nag about research therefore creating mountains of insider fears, dreamers who have ideas but lack the confidence to share the thoughts believing the process will become their past and part of someone else’s success and the list goes on and on.
Seth writes, “Fear is now our enemy. It’s the one thing that stands in our way of gaining access to accomplishment.”
Even more shocking is Seth’s assessment of the current working conditions of paycheck collectors stationed on American soil, “People who like their jobs are the one’s doing the best work, making the greatest impact and making necessary changes.”
Basically meaning, having passion for what you do creates an end result that enables you to see through cloudy windows on the morning after torrential downpours.
No week, no month and several times during a single season I bump into check collectors who sing the song, “I can’t seem to locate my true fate; gotta run, need more fun, not a snob, just wanna love my job.”
In every office a cubical village is set up for doer’s and the ok if I have it do it’s. Two completely different teams with individual aspirations about what is and isn’t going to happen within the wall of hours that make up the typically average workday; how can you have so much opposite and still find attraction?
Leadership…and I’m not talking about the GM, OM, Department Head and the custodian who guarantees clean potties by 6 am. We raced so fast through high school that we forgot to pay attention to the greatest lesson taught: nerds versus jocks versus straight A school boys and D minus girls versus Glee club taking on the German club while making room for the heavy weight deep thinkers in art class.
Until recently, everyday average Joe and Hillary Smith’s gathered in corners, hallways, outside the restrooms, near the coffee pot and water fountain, the hidden away smoker’s section, the office lobby and in office’s that scream cool. Today the places of unity outside of the web are Meet Up groups in restaurants, libraries or movies; groups of mom’s to be, overworked dad’s that think they’re going crazy, poets, fanatic lovers of red wine, fans of Barry Manilow, brides, grooms, bird lovers, banana pudding chefs and more!
The reason why we constantly hear how much others hate their job is based on a single thought: we all have a gig (I can’t believe I wrote that but it’s only to clarify a point.) Through relationship we compare notes. Our working lives are no different than the front cover of The National Enquirer, People and US Weekly; we feel better knowing somebody’s always doing worse.
Gobin’s book is based on figuring out newer ways to free yourself from self pity, doubt, bouts with pouts and the infamous sympathy versus empathy warship. Be a leader in the department of you and succeed by leading other’s who are like you out of an already dug hole that doesn’t require a lean on me post to pull you free but rather an escape from the other person, places and things we marry in life but never free ourselves from. It kills me deeply to hear comedians joke that our national divorce rate is over 50% yet I bet the other changes we make in our lives is ranked near 2 to 5%. What did love do wrong?
Julia Cameron couldn’t have said it best: If you love wrestling with puppies while taking snap shots of their fuzzy faces to make others laugh…build your happiness around a career that involves dogs. If the idea of travel ignites smiles larger than the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston create a website that showcases an inside view to traveling that isn’t spoiled by businesses who pay big bucks to talk about tourist attractions that can afford to buy advertising.
Get yor head out of the idea that money will buy you happiness. It makes you lazy, hateful and dead determined to leave this life not getting what you think you deserved.
I write to write. I don’t write to see my name on Amazon.com or to walk into Barnes and Noble and stare at the bookshelf. Nothing kills a writer more than falling witness to their works not moving. I’m not reaching back 33 years into a book I pasted together while in the tenth and eleventh grade because it would make a great movie…the writer in me is screaming for the opportunity to complete a project that’s been fogged over by another passion that’s consumed me…radio.
I’ve spent hours talking to music producers who know the vocals given to me at birth aren’t Robert Plant, Adam Lambert or Harry Conick Jr. We continue to create together because adventures aren’t always found on mountainsides with too many bears and bobcats. There's no better feeling than hearing music in your head then transforming it into a realm of reality. The rhythms and harmonies may be off but who cares...isn't that what Jazz is about?
Once you find you…the words, “I hate my job,” will fall from the path you walk. If you are discouraged by the morals and ethics your place of business might be presenting…you aren’t alone. Be a leader and locate quality versus quantity in the way of eliminating sympathy from your fogged over window. Grab a fricken paper towel and wipe the moisture off. There! Now you have an entire world to uncover.
Locate your tribe…discover happiness.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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