Making the Right Choices
Choices Market (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Back in 1994 Danny DeVito starred in a movie called Renaissance Man wherein he takes the only job available – a teacher in the US Army. It is his job to prevent a group of misfit recruits from failing out of basic training. Many of us can relate to taking a job because it’s what is available at the time with the hope something better is in our future. I worked the Census because my family needed me to work and that was the job available.
Danny DeVito’s character Bill Rago sums it up, “All I know is the choices we make dictate the life we lead.”
Seems that advice can apply to our journeys. Sometimes all we can do is CHOOSE how we react to what happens to us. Sometimes we get laid off, lose our homes or marriages and we have to choose to get out of bed every day. We choose to be happy or sad or angry. Our attitude is the only thing we can choose at certain times in our lives.
In 2009 my family was, like so many, in a position where we had no jobs, money or home. We only had Christmas because of the generosity of family members. My husband Mark had been laid off and the business I had started after being laid off in 2007 was a placement agency. Needless to say without jobs available my placement agency closed its doors.
We lost our dream home to foreclosure. Then we lost our rental home to foreclosure. We had no money to find a new home and were set to be homeless. It was a scary time. 2009 was a time that tested my faith and my marriage. Mark and I prayed our way through struggles both emotional and financial. We prayed our kids wouldn’t be scarred from the trauma. We prayed we would have money to feed, clothe and house our kids and ourselves.
I am not going to lie and tell you we always had faith in the light being at the end of the tunnel. We didn’t. What we did was CHOOSE our path out of what was a series of, let’s face it, life sucking events.
Mark chose a job that provided money and for better or worse fed, clothed and housed us. It wasn’t a dream job but it was in his area of expertise, recruiting, and we needed income. We chose to be thankful for the opportunity to have income.
I listened to God’s call and began an organization originally called JobseekersAZ, now called Career Connectors, with my friend Denise Gredler of BestCompaniesAZ. To date we have helped more than 5,000 job seekers in the Phoenix area. If for a moment I think starting Career Connectors wasn’t a good idea there are 5,000 reasons why it was one of the best choices we could have made.
Our family has settled into a rental home. It isn’t the ideal size and it isn’t our dream home and that’s okay. We chose the level to which we are living today with the faith these choices will continue to help our family and our community grow in ways in which we cannot begin to imagine.
Jessica Pierce is Founder and President of Accelerated Team Dynamics, LLC (ATD) a company dedicated to getting employees placed in the right positions in the marketplace by coaching companies as well as candidates. She is also Executive Director of Career Connectors, a community outreach program dedicated to connecting Real People to Real Careers. She is a known speaker, trainer and career transition expert.
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