Vicki the Nurse

I recently had surgery...my friends have described it as kind of a "face floss" since I'm trying to rid myself of sleep apnea. Throughout the course of my surgical day I came in contact with many nurses. Young, old, male, female, white, black, hispanic...the list of varying characteristics goes on. One particular nurse I'd like to recognize though was Vicki. Although I thankfully recovered a lot earlier than expected it was Vicki's enthusiasm for her profession that made things a lot smoother for me. She had LeBron James like anticipation when I needed something whether it was kleenex, or a popsicle, or some tea.

The entire time she was working she was pleasant, smiled often. Balanced warm conversation with respect for introverted time. She was even working back to back shifts. When I was feeling good enough to want to walk around (which walking around an ICU not a fun thing) she was more than willing to accomodate.

We marvel at those who are not only good at their jobs but seem to love what they do with all of their heart. How do they get to those positions? What keeps them motiviated? Why am I stuck in a job that I'm not passionate about?

Part of the priority wheel is to answer just those questions. The third part of the priority wheel is Career. Now I started with this story because although fundamentally job and career can be the same thing, there is a difference. The difference comes with something I learned from my classes with Dr. Charles Schroeder, big whig in Student Affairs. Your job is what you are currently doing to sustain your stability. Your career is the extra Time, Feeling, and Focus you put in, to one day reach a more specific job that fits you better.

Some "rules" about your career:
1. It doesn't have to necessarily be a profession...it can be dedicated work to a non-profit, or even being a stay at home mom/dad.

2. There are always bad days, but on the whole you career is the thing that makes you smile even on the bad days.

3. It doesn't have to be big...I was once humbled by my friend Adam who wanted to manage a gas station.

4. The road to get there doesn't have to be too difficult or too easy, it should be just the right amount of work, but extra work, and hard work.

In Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" generally, there are two major reasons for us to pursure life. One is for a person. A loved one, a friend, a family member, etc. The other is to do something which no one else can do on the planet.

There will always be painters...but there's only one Da Vinci. There will always be star atheletes but only one LeBron James. There will always be nurses but only one Vicki. You see you don't have to achieve such a high level of status for your career in order for it to be special...you just need to do your career in your own way, while feeling passionate about it.

Again, your career is all about putting in extra time, feeling, and focus. You don't have to work on your career. No one is lauding over you and checking up on you. It's your passion. It's your cause. And yes, hopefully, for all of us, our career becomes our job one day (you'll see in future articles why it is important to delineate the two of them).

If you don't have a career focus then my suggestion to you is to start young. Start when you didn't know any obstacles or atrocities on this planet. Start when you were a kid. With that child like imagination dream of what you could be if you could be anything. Second, map it out. Make a one year plan, a five year plan, etc. And find ways to connect those dots on your life map. Lastly, take small steps. I've gushed about Chris West so many times for being the epitome of small steps.

Learn to be like Vicki, and one day you'll aid in other's recovery and inspire them as well.

pb

PS: I wanted to give a shout out to Dan Harmon who was in the introduction sequence with Jack Black on the VMAs.