Unfortunately, the amount of time I spend in a happy state of mind is much smaller these days than it was five years ago.
Back then I had a full-time job that I really enjoyed and could drive. The family’s financial state wasn’t outstanding by any means, but we didn’t have to worry about paying for our bills every month and our house was in good shape.
Now the job that I really enjoyed has disappeared and all that is left is a part-time replica that still includes too much evening duty. Plus, I’m not allowed to drive; so it’s either find a ride or walk. And with our economy in the shape it is in, I’m willing to bet that a lot of people can identify with the last part about struggling to pay for bills.
While all of this has been going on, I have personally gone through three different stages.
Stage One involved getting angry about everything and blaming the people around me (and even a few I didn’t know). The job disappeared because the business closed and the driving disappeared because of a medical condition. Since I didn’t bring either of those things on myself, there was reason to be angry.
Eventually I grew tired of all the anger and I didn’t like what it was doing to me, so I moved on.
Stage Two was the “Oh well!” Phase. I found a different job and tried to adjust to all the other changes in the months that followed. There were other things that happened that took my family in a negative direction, but instead of getting mad I just shrugged my shoulders and decided not to worry about it.
Then when my wife got a new job, it became clear to me that I had been wasting my time and energy with all the anger. The “Oh well!” approach was working much better. Or so I thought.
Although it was better for me, physically, it was killing my career and causing me to ignore things that should be very important – such as organization and punctuality. There is no denying I have always been a procrastinator, but the situation was getting out of hand.
Finally I realized that the approach I thought was bringing me such success was actually just causing me to hide from the problems. That caused another change.
Stage Three is where I’m at now – in the process of developing a new career. The replica of the old career is still with me, but that’s only because the family budget needs it. The “new” career is about nine months old, but since I haven’t had any official training courses yet, I know there is work to be done.
But guess what? That is just fine with me. I am moving in a positive direction and enjoy going to work again. If this continues, it won’t be long before I will be writing about how most of time is spent in a happy state of mind.
