The MicroTrain Blog

I'm re-reading "The Art of Possibility" this spring and remembering why I recommended to everyone I know the first go-round.

Some people see this as a fluffy "feel good" book with no content. Two that end I will say 1) What's wrong with feeling good? and 2) If you don't see real-world help in this book, you're not really reading it.

I'd explain that the married authors, one a therapist, the other a well-known conductor, do a great job balencing each other and keeping the book from becoming yet another "Chicken Soup for the Whatever Soul" derivation, but you should just read it and see.

Let me give you two ideas that I think would help everyone looking for a job in this economy.

First, there's the idea that everything is invented. Everything. Is. Invented. It's such a tough concept to get your head around that I've considered having it tattooed on my arm. Think of it this way, job hunter: A long time ago, some HR person was trying to figure out how sort applicants into piles of "Likely successful candidates" and "Unlikely successful candidates." So that person asked everyone to submit their work experience in a format we now love to hate called the "resume." The idea of a resume wasn't handed down by god, it was created by one of us. Thus, we can uncreate it. We can "game" it. We can subvert the system for our own ends. Since it is all invented, why not stop sending resumes and... well, I don't know. But someone invented the resume, you can invent something better, right?

It's all invented. The grades you got were invented by the school system (read: messy bueacracy) and implemented by teachers (read: fallible people) and now you carry those mediocre grades around your neck like a millstone. They were invented, so invent yourself as someone who is actually smart (because you are), hard-warking (you are if you found something you loved to do), and motivated, not the picture of yourself you carry in your head (you know what else was invented? that picture of yourself you carry around in your head. You invented it, so if you don't like it, UN-invent it).

So if it's all invented, why are you playing a game by someone eles's invented rules? The second idea I wnat to pass along is to give yourself an "A."

Remember, grades were invented by us, why are we reraching towards them so hard? What if you stopped trying to please someone else who you hope will give you an "A" (in whatever format that may take) and give it to yourself? You would then be free to acheive for you instead of for someone else.

I want to please me boss, because I presume that if my boss is happy with my work, I will get raises and job security. But what if instead of waiting for his approval, I gave myself an "A" and worked to get approval from myself? Instead of trying to read his mind, I used my own instincts to guide me? I might be wrong, but I might have been just as wrong before.

By giving myself an "A" I give myself the freedom to make mistakes that lead to giant leaps instead of follow in someone else's footsteps.

Someone once said that school was only good at doing on thing: making college professors. Think about it: the kind of thinking and training it delivers is only useful for people who will stay in academia forever. Does school teach you how to plan a project? Or how to find a job? No, it only gives an "A" to people who behave like future college professors. Since most of us never will (or want to) be professors, those acolades are meaningless. So give yourself an "A" and stop moving under the weight of other people's expectations. Work for yourself. Find your own path.

Yeah, I know. Ugly title.

But the truth is, I don't have to tell you how to be miserable. You already know. You may have perfected the art of feeling bad to a level that I may not have achieved yet. You may be the master as I am the student.

But I know something you don't.

You have chosen to be miserable.

No, you may say that you don't want to be miserable, that you want to be happy, that you want to feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders and dance about like some crazed nun singing on a hillside. You say you want it, but you don't mean it.

If you meant it, you would have done something (anything) that would walk you towards the door to happy (or maybe just un-miserable). You would have gotten out of bed a little earlier and written that thing you want to say. You would have turned off the TV and spent time playing with that idea in your head. Maybe you would have taken an hour in the middle of the day and walked over to that company where you want to work and talked to someone (anyone) about what it's like to work there.

Have you perfected the art of window-shopping through life or are you going to make something happen?

Let's assume you want a better job and you think that's the way to be a little less miserable (trust me, having a better job can go a long way to being less miserable). You don't know how to get a job? Read a book. Read a blog. Email me. Ask for help.

At some point, you have to stop thinking about it and start doing it. So do it. Today. NOW. Write a resume and send it to someone. It doesn't have to be perfect, but having built one and sent it out into the world is better than having done nothing.

Remember, nothing is perfect, so stop waiting for perfection. The first program Bill Gates wrote sucked, but it made him a billionaire. Shakespeare's first play is damn-near unreadable. No one should ever listen to the first song Lady Gaga wrote. But by doing it, it got them closer to being where they are now.

Don't you want to be closer to happy?

Then you know the path. Get on it. Do something (anything) that gets you another step closer to getting it done.