This week I have the pleasure of introducing a guest blogger to aves angle - Philippa Weaver, the founder and brains behind Green Sky. I really hope you gain as much from her first blog as I did. We will be featuring Philippa's second and third blog entry over the coming weeks.
Green Sky is is a new approach to hiring and being hired. It allows job seekers, contractors and self employed service providers to promote themselves in their own words. Green Sky is New Zealand's only free recruitment service. For further information about Green Sky please visit http://www.greensky.co.nz/
Philippa Weaver
This was not exactly the theme I intended to launch the Green Sky Blog on. But then again, I wasn’t expecting my very close friend Rosie to die suddenly.
Green Sky is not just about finding work & creating income. It’s about you as an individual. The way you see the world affects not just your work, but all areas of your life, so in these Blogs, I’m going to challenge your thinking across many themes. In my first three Blogs, I’m going to share what I learned about life while confronting my beautiful friend’s death.
When someone we love dies, we instinctively do two things. We cling tightly to the people in our lives that we still have. And we imagine our own death. They are two of the most powerful and profound things we can ever do.
Conventional thinking tells us that death is loss. Loss of life, loss of love and friendship, loss of the future and often loss of faith in the ‘fairness’ of the world. We feel robbed because we believed we were entitled to what we had. I want to challenge this notion of entitlement.
Most of our grief is a story in our head about what is not fair. Our loss becomes an elaborate script about why this person should not have been taken away from us. Dealing with Rosie’s death, I have tried to turn this notion of loss on its head, and appreciate that life and love are gifts, not entitlements.
We were never promised eternal life. We were never promised happily-ever-after. We all know that change is the only certainty. And yet we bring an attitude of entitlement to all areas of our lives. I’m challenging myself to view my children, my friendships, my health, my work and my income – as gifts – not entitlements.
Whatever your employment experience, I challenge you to stop thinking you are entitled to a job. In this country we believe that employment is right not a privilege. If you’d asked me a few weeks ago, I probably would have agreed. But I want to ask – “how does that attitude help us”? I don’t believe it does. Try shifting your focus and seeing employment as a privilege, and see what happens.
If you are working, try looking at your company owner in a new light. See them as someone who has taken a huge risk (all business owners do) and created a company that employs people. Someone who has given you an opportunity to contribute, be part of their team, to learn new skills and add to your experience. See them as someone who values you enough to have you represent their company in the world. Instead of complaining about all the things they don’t do for you, start looking around for the signs that they care about you. God forbid, you might even want to thank them for the fact that they employ you. You might even challenge the next colleague who complains that the perks aren’t perky enough.
And if you are job-seeking, instead of feeling that every company you apply to ‘owes you’ a personal response or acknowledgement of your application, try ditching the spirit of entitlement and replace it with gratitude that this company is creating an opportunity – the gift of a job – for some lucky person (perhaps you?).
When I felt the loss of my friend Rosie overwhelm me, I needed to dig deep to find grace and gratitude; to appreciate what I had rather than what I lost, but this subtle shift has entirely changed my process of grieving. It doesn’t take away the shock and the sadness, but it changes the ‘It’s so unfair’ into ‘I was so lucky’ and that makes all the difference.
In my next Blog, I’m going to invite you to your own funeral. Cheerful thought….
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