Finding A New Career - The Importance of Understanding And Accepting Yourself
Posted by Moses on Jan 29, 2007
Six months ago I left my job as the Chief Architect for the State of Georgia. I had been in this position for a little more than 4 years and I was completely burned out. I had been working professionally in the technology industry for approximately 16 years, from age 14 to age 30. As my 30th birthday neared, I realized that technology had become my career. Ironically that was never my intention. Although I have served in numerous capacities in the technology industry, technology started out as a hobby that eventually became a way to make money, although I throughly enjoy technology it didn’t drive me the way it drove early pioneers like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy. Creating new opportunities by driving technology deeper into the lives of individuals and the operations of businesses didn’t excite me enough to want to constantly push the envelope and drive an industry. Although I had an enviable career, I wasn’t motivated to push myself and become the best at what I was doing. At the time that I quit, all that I really knew was that I was unhappy, tired and unmotivated to do the work set before me. I still enjoyed the work intellectually, buy my heart and soul were not in it. I could put on a mask and fake passion or excitement for a given task, actually fake is too strong of a word. Because I enjoyed some parts of the work I could tap into the excitement that came for challenging my intellect and project that to my staff and other colleagues, but it was a temporary fix at best. Once I returned to my office and sat down the whole facade crumbled beneath my feet leaving me feeling empty and a little hopeless. I remember days where I literally received hundreds of emails and I didn’t open any of them because I simply didn’t care.
I knew that something had to change. I began to go back to earlier ideas I had when I was in college, one of those was becoming an entrepreneur. Several years ago, my brother and I had started a company, Miles Ahead LLC, and I thought that if I put my heart into the company that I would find the soul satisfaction that I craved. It was true, quitting and becoming a full time entrepreneur was exciting at first and did provide a level of satisfaction that I definitely enjoyed. But, it wasn’t enough. I felt like something was missing.
While considering what I would do next in my career, I made several mistakes. First, I didn’t allow myself to essentially throw away my resume and consider all possibilities. Second, I didn’t consciously spend time trying to understand what motivates me and why. Third, I didn’t let go of my former mindset that defined success materially. Lastly and most importantly, I allowed my intellect to drive my decision making rather than my heart, soul and God.
A quick level set for those who are visiting for the first time. In my article, My Ministry: Part 1 - Origin, I posit that at conception we are endowed by God with a purpose and that it is up to us to discover that purpose. Finding our purpose creates in us a level of peace and satisfaction that cannot be experienced in any other way.
Fortunately at the time that I quit, I had started to see a therapist ostensibly to address some of the childhood hurts that had carried over into adulthood. Before long, I realized that my sessions were as much about coming to terms with the past as it was about discovering who I am inside. It was a gradual progression that has slowly built up speed until it has become an avalanche of new understanding and acceptance. What I learned was that I needed to accept who I am in order to be happy and content. I know it sounds obvious, and intellectually I understood it, but allowing myself to feel the emotions of understanding and self-acceptance was overwhelming. As a Christian, my acceptance of myself is rooted in the acceptance of me by my savior Jesus Christ who I know loves me unconditionally regardless of my faults.
The experience has been very liberating. Much of what I thought I had to do I have let go so that I am free to do what I want to do, what I believe that God has placed in my heart.
What does this mean for my career? Once I discovered my purpose, see again My Ministry: Part 1 - Origin, which I believe is to empower, teach and heal others, I was free to define a new path that has much broader definition of career. I formerly defined my career as series of occupations that followed along a predefine path. For example, I began my technology career as a software tester and progressed through what I thought were the necessary jobs to move up the technology career ladder eventually leaving the pure technology track to become more of a leader and manager within the technology arena.
I’ve begun to think about my new career in terms of the roles that I would like to play and the roles that will enable me to maximize the reach of my message. In order for this to work and for me to maintain my peace, each role needs to relate to and depend on the others so that there is integrity of purpose in my life.
My Career will be defined by the following roles:
- Healer
- Teacher
- Writer
- Organizer
- Entrepreneur
- Investor
In each of these roles, I will further my God given purpose and in the process of doing so I will have peace, happiness and genuine contentment. In Part 3 of the My Ministry article series, I will explain in detail how I plan to assume these roles.
Tags: business, career, change, content, god, plan, purpose
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I’m a Mac Spoof - Is it Racist? The Danger of Being Politically Correct
Posted by Moses on Jan 26, 2007
Here is a great spoof of the Mac vs. PC commercials. My first reaction to it was that it was incredibly funny.
I found this video on YouTube one day when I was taking a break and I was really struck by one of the comments I found at YouTube about this little spoof. Here’s the comment
- Nothing like some racism to sell macs. Nice job
I didn’t see the racism in this video at all, I thought it was a clever way to poke fun of the Mac commercials and at a racial sterotype. This lead me back to my concern that we have taken political correctness to an extreme that is on the verge of becoming dangerous. It appears that we have gotten to a point where any comment or observation that involves race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender etc is considered negative regardless of context or the actual message being delivered. It’s almost as though in the US we have decided to stop thinking when we apply these rules. It’s created an environment where we are unable to discuss the differences between groups without being in danger of offending those we are discussing. It’s also created an environment where people who do have negative thougts about a particular group are unwilling to voice their opinion in public debate. Rather than address their possibly misguided beliefs they blindly repress them in order to conform to the status quo. I have learned that when you blindly repress your opinions without confronting them those same thoughts, ideas and opinions manifest themselves in other ways. This can lead those struggling with negative feelings about other groups to unconciously commit subtle acts of discrimination that are difficult to see and even harder to prove.
As an African-American child, I grew up in an environment that was filled with people (teachers, fellow students etc) who commited some subtle and not so sublte discriminatory acts. I also knew of others who were geninuely curious and wanted to ask questions about African-American people, but were afaid to ask for fear of offending me. From my point of view both positions are equally bad becasue although it provides an environment the is supposedly safe for everyone it eliminates the oppurtunity for us to learn from each other. In that kind of environment we all lose the ability to grow. I also argue that the envrionment isn’t safe for anyone because of the repressed thoughts and fears based on uncertaintly both of which lead to misunderstandings and hurt feelings that just add more fuel to the fire.
I’m going to be more than just a voice in the wind, I’m also going to suggest that we allow people to voice their opinions about others without condemnation so that we can begin to learn from each other and we all have the oppurtunity to grow. We may have to give up our pseudo-comfort in order to obtain true understanding which will lead us to true acceptance and comfort. Lastly, it’s been my experience that when I am tearing someone else down that what I am really concerned about is a weakness in myself and not the other person. If we can all commit to being the best that we can be and help others be the best that they can be then we can endure being uncomfortable for the sake of helping someone else grow.
Tags: mac, politically correct, racism, racist, social commentary, spoof, video
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