Choose Career Freedom

By allan · May 16, 2009 · Filed in career

“No one is coming to solve life’s problems for you.  If you do not do something different, nothing is going to get better.  Happy people are typically pro-active.  They do not passively wait for someone else to do something.  They take initiative in the pursuit of whatever is important to them.  They do not wait for the world or someone else to make them happy, which they know is impossible.” –Nathaniel Branden

Professional Freedom is based on recognizing the choices we have and taking responsibility for them.  Not making a choice is still a choice.  

You may hate your job, you are still choosing to get up and go to your place of work every day.  You might be saying at this moment, “he doesn’t understand, I have to pay the bills, or keep a roof over my head.   I do understand, you are actually choosing to earn money over not showing up for a job you don’t like   There is no judgement in this choice, it sounds like a responsible one.  It is not a circumstance that is happening independently,  it is a choice you are making.  When you don’t own the choices in your life, you start to consider yourself  a victim, and it becomes easy to blame other people, or circumstances for your situation.  This kind of thinking is disempowering, it is giving away your freedom, and will keep you stagnant for a long time.  

Commuters generally take the same route to work every day.  You have probably found the timeliest route and it has become a habit.  You are choosing to use that route every day. We can choose how to respond to someone who cuts us off in traffic, says something we disagree with, or doesn’t do their job.  How and whether you respond is up to you.  If someone does something you don’t like, you choose how to react or respond, how long you want to hang on to it, and how much energy you want to give to it.    Three is no rule, or law of the universe that even says you have to give it a second thought.  It is actually when our emotions run high that we have the opportunity to be our strongest.  This is when the urge to say or do something feels so compelling, it almost doesn’t feel like a choice.  Sometimes our reaction is so quick, the choice may even be just below our consciousness.  You can still bring awareness to it, and decide how you want to proceed.  

Are you expecting your company or boss to look after you, because you have been so loyal and done such a great job?  There isn’t any person or organization that will look out for your interests better than you can. At any moment you can choose to start taking care of yourself, taking responsibility for your life, and your choices.  This is where you stop blaming others in your past or your present; you recognize a white knight or fairy godmother is not coming to rescue you.  You present situation is the result of choices you made, you can also make choices that will change your current circumstances if they are not to your liking.  

This is when a person grows up.  It is a scary prospect to take responsibility for one’s life, career, and especially of your dreams.  There isn’t anyone that can make your dreams happen for you, there isn’t any other person that is concerned with doing this.  Even if there were, the most empowering thing you can do for yourself is to act is if there weren’t, and go out and make them happen yourself.  Who knows whether they will happen.  Taking responsibility for them, what needs to be done, will in itself be transformative.

Go out and try it for a day, week, month, year.  Just take responsibility for your choices, your life, and your dreams. Let us know what happens.