It's 9AM
I’m a fan of best laid plans.
Or the theme of Man plans and God laughs.
Because, it seems, of late, that I am a laughing stock.
Or at least that’s how it feels.
Because try as I might, plan as I do, nothing is going the way it’s supposed to.
And I’m not sure why.
I practice positive thinking.
I practice wishful drinking.
I practice being ready for when opportunity knocks, and I go knock on opportunity’s doors with one result.
No answer.
I spend a little time wondering why, though it feels fruitless.
Because I know people have their own agendas.
We are, after all, the center of our own universe and view just about everything through the lens of how it affects us.
Take job hunting, for example.
It is still a luckless chore, and almost every day I get a message on LinkedIn from someone telling me how many applications they’ve submitted.
Former employees who want a good recommendation.
And it is ironic and perhaps a little sad that I don’t ask them for the same because no one wants to hire me as a boss.
Because the HR rep doesn’t know, or doesn’t see, or is thinking something other than about me.
Like her drive home. Or meeting her quota.
I met with one who said “we are hiring IF the expected volume picks up” for a role that’s one slight step above what I’ve done the past two years.
But since I read the news and know the stories, and have even used that line before in a Board of Director’s meeting, I know what it means.
The expected volume is the result of a slowing economy, which is the result of a number of things.
The consequence of which is slow hiring.
Yikes!
But what chaps my hide is the willingness to work, versus the Press Releases put out.
Target is hiring almost 100,000 seasonal workers for all shifts.
So I apply to be a stocker in the back.
To my way of thinking, they just need bodies, and someone to unload trucks, then put stuff on shelves.
Okay, all evidence to the contrary, I’m not a moron.
I can open a box and put something on a shelf.
Yet, crickets.
I applied at UPS to help driver’s deliver Christmas packages for the holiday season, a job I have picked up twice before.
“IF we get expected volume, THEN…”
There is a reason behind it all, other than just bills.
Because I don’t share my job hunting woes outside of the occasional jab or complaint, I still get shots at opportunities.
A couple thousand here to go in with a guy to open a batting cage training facility. He set it all up, and just needs a little extra cheddar.
A few thousand there to get in on some real estate that with a little work and elbow grease, would triple the investment.
A marketing promo here, new book covers, and audiobooks there.
All of it a whirlwind of potential, and me, over here, educating myself on skills that no one wants to hire for.
And no one is hiring for the skills I have.
“Maybe it’s just you,” she said.
Which makes me wonder.
Maybe it is me.
Are my expectations so high?
Are my standards too much?
Or am I delusional?
And all are possible.
I have high expectations for books I sell.
Yet they don’t ever reach them.
The same with sending people to listen to an audiobook on Youtube.
I try not to get frustrated because I KNOW people are the center of their own world.
And their world’s are full of their own problems.
Plus moaning about it doesn’t solve the problem.
Action does.
Usually.
It’s figuring out what action to do next.
I look at it like this.
Michael Jordan played in the NBA for fifteen seasons.
He won 6 NBA championships.
Does that mean he “failed” 9 seasons?
Or could it just mean that sometimes we need to take a step back, take a breath, regroup and renew with vigor.
I often wonder if this is some divine plan in progress and I’m just fumbling along, trying to figure it out.
Even if I think I’m just trying to get to a place with enough space to figure it out.
My plan is to figure it out.
And I could if the laughter wasn’t so loud.
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