After a lot of hard work including full time work and school, I’ve finally started my dream career as a counselor. It’s taken a lot of discipline including working over 60 hr/wk most of this year between work and a school internship. It also took factors out of my control to accomplish too, so I feel very lucky to be where I’m at. I can’t even believe it happened! I have so much to be grateful for and celebrate right now, yet one negative has grabbed my attention and I struggle with not allowing it to take away from my celebration. That negative is I really dislike my current schedule. Unfortunately, the counselor I share a room with to get exactly the schedule she preferred without considering any of my preferences. I work every Saturday often starting at 7am and my days working and off are separated. When I asked my supervisor why the decisions went the way they did I was told “well we didn’t realize it would bother you that much”. No matter how I keep trying to shelve the situation in my mind, it keeps coming up in my head and I feel really angry and frustrated about the situation as well as how it was handled. I feel our schedules really affects our ability to balance life, be social, as well as enjoy both free and work time. I do feel in addition though, so much good has happened for me and it’s unfortunate I’m allowing it to ruin my joy for celebrating my achievements.
If the schedule keeps coming up in my mind, I don’t think I should ignore that. It can be a sign I need to address it, and I can use it to drive me to pursue positive action. However #1.) I don’t know how to most effectively pursue next steps and #2.) I want to stop it from consuming my attention and energy. I was recently reading a book called you2 by Price Pratchett. It mentions when you don’t know how to make something happen (and perhaps even if you think you might know of a way), it’s helpful to just focus the goal rather than plotting out the means. This is because we tend to limit creativity and miss potential ways of how things can be accomplished when we plot out the means right away through the limited info we know. So I’m going to focus on the goal, and hopefully be in a better spot soon enough.
“When you focus consistently on a clear picture of what you want to accomplish, and move toward it confidently, the unseen forces will rally to your support.” – Price Pratchett
Another day in the life of Brina... 