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Veteran's Day and an Etiquette Question
2003-09-02 - 11:31 p.m.
Strengths?????
Like Lady Susannah, I tend to read diaries before I post. It sometimes affects what I write about, but mostly it's a case of being too nosy for my own good.
As per usual, there Is some slight inner turmoil going on while I decide what I want to be when I grow up. I'm still wavering. I want to make the right decision but then again, I don't want to let my fear lead to no decision at all. See, it's easier to keep with the status quo, where no one really demands all that much of me... but I guess the kicker is... I'm ready to demand more of me. My love is proud of me and he supports me no matter what. He knows that I need better for myself and he's ready to do what he can to make that happen. He's being patient and he's trying his best to help me with the decision without pressuring me into anything.
There are so many things I *think* I could do; but I don't really know what I SHOULD do. I was hearing something on the radio this morning (on a tv channel, actually) that said that 9 out of 10 people hate their job and would like to change careers but don't know how. They suggested that people evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and then try to find that job that highlights the best of their strengths.
So I've spent the majority of the day thinking through that statement and trying to find my strengths. My weaknesses, those aren't a problem... I can rattle them off in about 10 seconds flat. The strengths are always harder for me. Then I started to wonder why that is.
I think it's because I was raised to focus on the negative, and then there's society telling you that noting your strengths is considered "boasting" and that's bad. But if you're being honest, why is that bad?
The television spot said to ask your close friends what they think your strengths are, because it's sometimes hard to see them in yourself. I told him that I wanted him to be as honest as he can be.I've asked my love to help me figure out my strengths and I think I might have painted him in a "I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't" corner, without meaning to. As is his way, he agreed to help me, but then the conversation drifted to other topics. I mean, seriously, without badgering someone, this isn't a topic that people just list things off the top of your head.
I've tried doing it on my own, but as with most other things, when I do list a strength, I can see the weakness sitting over there just outside of the ray of light, waiting to pounce on it with a "yeah, but you also..." statement.
For example. *I* think that my empathy for other people is a strength. But then the "yeah, but you also" says that I also tend to be empathetic, but I also take people's problems and make them my own, and try to solve them. Is that so bad?
I have a desire to help people and to be a part of things. I don't want to be shoved away in an office somewhere with dusty files, pecking on a computer. I want to be involved.
Okay... so that's three possible strengths.
Many years ago, I had a friend who was a "teacher" in a school for handicapped children. She had a four year college degree and basically she had a classroom of something like 6 children with an aide. Her children were severely handicapped and she basically made sure they all ate, had diapers changed and the like. The entire time I knew her, she wasn't happy. The feeling I got was one of misery. She said she loved her job, but to hear her talk about it, she hated every waking minute of it. She tended to be rather depressed and just "dark".
I have a friend who is a nurse, and she and I were talking about the nursing shortage. She was telling me that she knows she's come very close to making medication errors and the like, and it's becaue of the short staffing, working long hours and working more than one hospital. (and no, it's no one anyone here knows). Now that scares the crap outta me. Not about nurses in general and errors and the like, but the fact that something *I* might do as a nurse could cause the death of someone else. Could I live with that? What keeps me from doing the same thing? What keeps me on my toes?
I know there are downsides to every profession; there are stresses and problems endemic to every job under the sun.
I have worked in several places throughout the last 20 years of my working career... and the place I felt the most comfortable, was when I worked in the hospital and I dealt peripherally with patients. It was on a purely superficial level, but it fit. I'm not put off or upset by people who are ill or injured. I do have a problem with drunks (but that's another story... when I worked EMS, it was amazing how a smile and pair of breasts could talk a drunk male into just about anything:)
so...here I find myself at the end of this long entry and I'm not really any further along than when I started. Go figure.
I've asked before about those aptitude tests you take in highschool that are supposed to predict what career you'd excel in... when I think about that.. I still think of a Married with Children episode in which Kelly took the test and her results were "Lumberjack camp Toy" or "the Other Woman."
Now... neither of those are me... so the search continues...
By the way, thanks to those people who answered me about the Pennsic XXV medallion, a kind gentle from the Merry Rose scanned the information and sent it to me via return email, and someone else sent me a link to the Florilegium that has a post explaining how to adapt it for use just about anywhere.
Okay..... it's after midnight, and I do have to get to work in the morning (is punctuality a strength?)
Please don't forget to answer my survey... it's research for a small business idea... all comments appreciated, no reasonable offer refused!!! It won't take five minutes, I PROMISE!
