Be the Change

Today I attended a training for our job junction program at my placement, which is a program that helps individuals with their resumes, cover letter, job searching, and interviewing skills. We had a speaker named Vladimir come in to give us tips for the job junction program. He happens to be the president and CEO of a non-profit and he works with ex- offenders to become productive and positive members of society. He himself came from a rough past where he lived a lousy lifestyle and made many poor decisions. He had some interesting information to share with us about how to help people become successful at landing jobs. He mentioned how to make an impressive resume and how first impressions in an interview are KEY. He spoke for a decent amount of time about what it means and looks like to be a professional and how planning is soooo important. If you do not plan, you are planning to fail!!!

Most of his clients are just coming out of prison and are starting at point A. Many of them have never had someone who modeled professionalism in front of them. They have never had someone successful to look up to. They have never had someone show them what it looks like to have a strong work ethic and to go after their dreams. These individuals often have a tremendous amount of work and soul searching to do in order to become the best they can be. Vladimir encourages his clients to look at what they have (in terms of skills) and use it to the best of their ability. If you want to be successful in life you have to start somewhere, even if that means your first job is a dishwasher and you make six dollars an hour. The old saying, ” You have to learn to crawl before you can learn to walk” fits in perfect here. He talked about how in order to work your way up you have to be disciplined and not procrastinate (we are all good at procrastinating). Although this training was mostly about empowering clients to find jobs Vladimir said something that really resonated with me. And that is CHANGE.

If you asked a room full of people to raise their hands if their was something about themselves they needed to change I bet you 99.9 percent of the time everyone would raise their hand. That is of course if they were in denial of if they were Jesus. We all have something we can work on changing, whether it is being more kind to others, disciplining ourselves, becoming better educated, getting our dream job (or a decent job), or becoming sober, there is always something we can work on to better ourselves. I myself can think of one thing off the top of my head that I need to change. I know I need to change the fact that I always think I am right, especially when it comes to conversations with the people I love. I am quick to voice my thoughts and opinions and discredit the opinions of my family and friends. I am aware that this is something I need to be more intentional about working on.

Vladimir gave us 6 steps of change. The first step is an event– a function, book, sermon, etc. This is when something triggers you and you begin to realize you need to change a certain area in your life. The second step is awareness. This is the step that I am at with my problem. I am aware of the fact that I always think I am right. Without being aware of what we need to change then the change will never occur. The third step is decision. This is where you actually decide you are going to do something to make the change. This is often where people get stuck because of a distraction, laziness, or fear. The fourth step to change is commitment. Commitment is the bridge that if crossed can transform ones life! This is where you put your decision into action and go about making the change. The fifth step is process. This is the step where the struggle takes place. One will experience pain, sacrifice, self- doubt, friction, and distractions. If you have first not committed and disciplined yourself it is doubtful that you will make it through this step. If you want it enough and put in the work you will make it through. And the final step is change– the desired result. The result that you have worked so hard to get to. The step where you can say I am changed and I am never going back! Whether you believe it or not WE ARE ALL capable of change.

Quotes

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When your interested in doing something, you do it only when its convenient. When your committed to something you accept no excuses- only results.” – Kenneth H. Blanchard

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”- George Bernard Shaw

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”- Barack Obama

“Insane- doing something the same way and expecting change.”

” You reap what you sow.” – The Bible

My Bad Days Aren’t Bad

Do you ever have those days where everything seems to be going wrong? Wait, let me guess… your answer is yes. We all do. Well today was one of those days for me. With all of the snow we have been getting I was banking on not having to go into work today (internship/field placement) because there was already a call for a two hour delay the night before. When ten o’ clock rolled around I glanced at my phone to find that I was not called off. However, I did have text messages from my roommate and friends saying they had a snow day. With my grouchy attitude I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day. After spending sometime cleaning my car off and navigating the icy roads I made it to work. However, there was NOTHING to do. All of our clients cancelled their appointments, but here we were… still open. After begging my supervisor to give me something to do she found a document that needed updating. And let me tell you… it needed a lot of updating. This involved spending most of my day doing research and re- typing up the entire document. As four o’ clock rolled around I rushed to get it done, and SOMEHOW, I don’t know how, it didn’t save!! I began to panic as I did not want my supervisor to think I was ill- equipped to get a simple project done. Luckily, my little fingers got back to work typing and I was able to email my supervisor my work by closing time. Phew! I felt so much better.

On my way home I was listening to music… maybe a little too loud and I missed my turn and ended up sliding down an unplowed road into the middle of no where. I was basically in the woods. Trying to get back up the road was a challenge as I kept sliding. And again, panic set in. I told myself to just relax and I slowly trudged up the hill and with the help of 4- wheel drive I made it to the top. I was so glad I didn’t have to call a friend to come and get me, which was my plan B.

After making it back to campus I just wanted to lay down, but my roommate was blaring Pentatonix on the radio. I ended up rudely telling her to turn it down and began to scan a document that I needed to send to my professor. Scanning things is never an easy task for me and I can never get anything to work. Oh, but after an hour of scanning a simple document it was done! After that I was trying to set this blog up and after about three hours I found out I hadn’t verified my email and that is why I could not publish anything. At dinner I also spilled soy milk all over myself.

And as I look at my bad day, I think this is NOT a bad day. You might even of read this and say this was not bad at all. However, it was my crappy attitude that made it seem that way. I woke up healthy, made it to work and back safely ( barely), had a warm room to come back to ( and my best friend!), and I had food on my plate. The people I am working with struggle each day just to make it by. And here I am complaining because I had to go into work and a few things didn’t go my way. When I have days like today it is so easy for me to forget how blessed I truly am. When one little thing goes wrong I easily throw up my hands and spend the rest of the day with a bad attitude. And when I am in this type of mood you do not want to get on my bad side- which you can easily do just by breathing too loudly. But, my point is are our bad days, really bad days? In fact, I am a little embarrassed to even think I woke up feeling so pessimistic, I mean I basically set myself up to have a miserable day.  As I lay on my bed writing this I am thankful for God’s grace and the chance to start over, because tomorrow is a new day.