Life Essentials - The All Important But

WHERE TO PUT YOUR “BUT”

One of the greatest first steps in job hunting is learning where you put your but.  Everyone has one – what I mean is that everyone has goals and dreams of some sort and everyone has obstacles to those dreams.  For example, I want to vacation at the ocean one day and I need a part-time job to help me pay for the trip.  Alas, I am short, round and bald and I believe that few people hire people of that description.

People usually when they consider their dreams think in a sentence that has a “but” in it and their perspective about the dream is dependent on where they put that “but”.  They consider something like…

“I really want that job … but…   I have this problem.”   Or

“I have this problem …but … I really want that job.”

First to the dream:
The great anthropologist Margaret Mead is noted for saying that every great idea started with a plurality of one.  My version of that quote is that every great dream begins with one person thinking it and a thousand people around her saying “what are you thinking, are you crazy?”

This is often the hardest part of having a passion – the negative input of others.   In using the HERO Method, write down your personal dream, no matter what the naysayers tell you.  Make it something you think of that would motivate you to move forward when times are tough – like a trip to the ocean.

List four dreams that you have for yourself or your family which will require effort on your part:
1.

2.

3.

4.

From this list, circle the top two that you are willing to put the most effort into seeing come to reality one day.  When we consider where to put your but, we will use these dreams.


Now let us look at the obstacle:

Here, list eight things in the way of your dream:
1.

2,

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

The obstacle you face is either in the macro or in the micro.  
The macro means the big picture of the world around you such as a high unemployment rate, while micro means the things that affect you personally such as a disabling condition or physical characteristics.
Break this list down further and circle obstacles that you can change through your work.  By using an internal locus of control and confidence, you can change some factors you are facing.

WHERE YOU PUT THE BUT TODAY AND TOMORROW

If you are placing the obstacle last in the sentence…
I want to vacation at the ocean   
    BUT I am so short and round, nobody will hire me.

…you are largely defeated before you begin.  Your negative feelings will show in your stride, your crooked smile and will weigh you down in the job hunt.

But if you place the dream you have at the end of the sentence…

I am short and round, I figure that nobody will hire me
BUT I want to vacation at the ocean.

… you are willing and ready to face those things that stand in your way.  This can do spirit will help every day of the hunt and every new day in your new job.

When you think of these different ways of looking at the world, from an employer’s point of view, whom would you hire?