Returning to school
I am going back to the future
This is more an informational post than inspirational one. As you all know, the hospitality and event industry, in which I had toiled for the past two decades plus, is over as we know it. And when it does come back, it will be a hollow shell of its former self. I must go on.
That is ok. I feel like a career-career-changer. I am rather good with change. With a generous gift of half of the tuition from my brother, I returned to Real Estate Appraisal school last week. I am moving on.
I worked in this field in the last century. I love saying that. Last century. Like it was back in the dark ages. Come to think of it, it was.
I will continue to create content and share it all with you. My posts may not be regularly scheduled. That is ok now. I am still employing the George Constanza rule of life - do the opposite of your instincts. It has become a conscious top of mind thought process.
Faced with a binary choice, I allow myself to dream-think my response. I then immediately choose the opposite course of action. I do not wait or delay or waffle. I am not squishy on this. Sometimes, it does not pan out. And that is ok. I made a choice, the outcome presented itself, I take the consequences and move along.
Often, the choice works out well. At first, it really surprised me. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek to start. But I learned that when faced with a binary choice, I always selected the choice that I was most comfortable with. A familiar blanket choice. I stopped doing that.
After a month or so, good things started happening. And kept happening. My selection-of-choice response has improved. The dream-think reaction time has been cut down. I lean into my decisions, and back them with all my force. I stay in the moment. My effort is focused on the work, not the result. The outcome is the outcome. I am ok with that. Now.
I used to employ the same decision-making process in my personal life as I did in my professional life. It was easier. For me. Not always for the others in my personal life. When planning an event, I worked backwards from the desired result to the start. It is a way of paying attention to details, planning your work, and finally, working your plan. Very tidy for an event. Very disastrous for personal life. It took a while to figure that out.
Focusing on the outcome of a choice that affects your loved ones diminishes their involvement, reduces their buy-in, and breeds resentment. Love requires a lot more than an efficient design plan. There is no HR when things go wrong at home. No handbook to describe the steps to take to correct a situation. Circumstances at home really do not allow for a write-up of the mistaken participant.
Change your mind and change yourself. Act like who you want to be. Focus on the effort, not the ending. All these clichés could be dismissed. But if you drill down to the essence of them all, it points to the work. Work first, result later. In our culture, we seem to have elevated outcomes above effort. And the cost has been alienation and false expectation. And lives lived behind facades.
I pulled out of that. And am now pushing back against that. Consider the Constanza rule in your own lives. What comfortable choices do you keep making repeatedly to disastrous results? Ask yourself why? Dream-think to change. Change to elevate. Elevate to excel.
Every outcome will not be the intended one. You know what though, unintended consequences are, every so often, blessings in disguise. Go make your choices and enjoy your blessings.
Ric
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