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Broaden Your Options to Make Your Work Life More Meaningful

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Candy Lightner illustrates poignantly that it isn't what hap pens to you that counts, but what you do with the hand you were dealt. Turning tragedy into personal triumph is a difficult task. It's also an opportunity to confront adversity with strength. No accomplishment can be more deeply and personally gratifying than that.

To make your work life meaningful, you must give up the wish for quick and easy successes. Find pleasure in knowing you've earned your achievements through talent and effort. Missions that begin with a personal crisis or tragedy don't have to end there. Part of the transformation into "authentic adulthood" involves discovering who you really are and what you really care about, no matter what preconceived notions others might have for your life.

A computer programmer in Chicago with an advanced case of muscular dystrophy had limited mobility in his arms and legs and needed to use a motorized wheelchair. But there was nothing wrong with his mind, which functioned beautifully. While others believed he should be grateful just to earn a steady pay check, he harbored larger ambitions. He may have been restricted physically, but he wasn't willing to confine himself intellectually or emotionally. He knew he wanted to bring his work life closer to his real values and interests, but struggled with whether to place his battle with muscular dystrophy at the center of his life.



To do so, he could have sought employment with public agencies or companies that served the needs of the disabled. Or, he could have pursued opportunities where his disability would be strength as much as a liability, perhaps in recruiting or training others with disabilities. In a surprising and courageous move, though, he decided not to place his disability at the center of his work life. It was a short but important step from there to teaching, where he discovered that he could use his excellent communication skills to teach computer programming to college students.

The programmer exemplifies Booker T. Washington's re mark: "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed." The programmer is doing what he wants: achieving in spite of his disability. This accomplishment is likely to bring him deep satisfaction.

Archimedes believed that you need only two things to move the world: a lever and a place to stand. Your lever is yourself: the sum total of your personality, talents, interests and values. Vocationally speaking, your place to stand is wherever you decide to plant your feet in the world of work: whether it be in the courtroom, laboratory or classroom, on stage or in front of the computer. It is the place where you feel comfortable to practice your craft, exercise your skill or demonstrate your leadership abilities.

It can be in an organization or outside of one, in conversation with friends and colleagues, or at home with the people you love. Sharing your work with others is part of the mystery and the joy.

Dodge the Dream killers

In the movie Dead Poets Society, actor Robin Williams plays an inspired teacher named John Keating whose job is to teach poetry at an elite boys' prep school. Keating's deeper goal is to awaken his students to the joys of thinking for themselves and finding their own unique life paths, rather than mechanically following the rules that have been laid out for them by others.

Not surprisingly, his mission meets with skepticism from students (although many are gradually converted to his way of thinking), parents and the school administration. Eventually, he loses his job but not before a piece of his vision has been completed. Some of the boys have begun to think for themselves.

Dreamers and visionaries always meet up with any along the way.

From the time he was a child, talk show host Arsenio Hall dreamt of becoming the first black Johnny Carson. It was a big dream for an underachieving kid from a poor neighborhood who wasn't considered smart enough to succeed at anything. He proved them wrong. But once he succeeded, he found that he was held to a higher standard of conduct. To his surprise, he became a racial symbol. In that unsolicited role, whites accused him of being "too black" (whatever that means) and blacks called him "too white" (because they don't think he hired enough black staff for his show).

His lifestyle also met with some skepticism from well intentioned friends, who criticized Hall for working too hard. These friends often encouraged the young comedian to stop and smell the roses. Hall, who says he feels most alive when working full throttle, doesn't appreciate the advice. "You go play Frisbee in the park," he tells them. "I love my work."

Among people who don't really enjoy their work, it's become popular to espouse the joys of a balanced life. What may be harder for these folks to recognize is that for mission driven people like Arsenio Hall, work and play are closely intertwined. They enjoy their work so much, they do it for pleasure.

Chicago actress and playwright Marjie Rynearson, for example, spends many pleasant evenings and weekends at the theater, enjoying and observing the works of her colleagues. For her, professional growth, community and enjoyment all come together in her passion for theater.

The 59 year old actress waited a long time to put theater at the center of her life. As a young woman, she put her brand new acting career on hold to marry and raise children. While her kids were growing up in Temple, Texas, family was her first priority. Even so, she found time to get involved in establishing and building a community theater, and later her own advertising agency.

Big Risks, Bigger Rewards

Once the boys were grown, she returned to her first love: theater. But Temple, Texas, wasn't large enough to provide the kinds of opportunities she sought. So she moved to Chicago to pursue her career, after she and her husband, Bob, agreed to experiment with a commuter marriage.

Thus far, the experiment has lasted six years, amid friends and acquaintances gossip that their marriage is on the rocks.

The Rynearsons take the talk in stride.

"I'm following a dream that's important to me," says Marjie. "I'm not running away from my marriage." Her move has obviously required some family accommodations. Bob has become passionate about sculpting, a creative activity that will serve him well in retirement. And Marjie's son, composer Ed Rynearson, has moved to Chicago with his singer wife, Lisa, to work on a musical with her while the two pursue their own careers.

While dreamers like Marjie Rynearson may tax the flexibility and resourcefulness of their families, they also bring a compelling vitality and sense of adventure to those who can join in.

Succeeding at something you truly care about is one of the greatest satisfactions that work can provide. It won't guarantee that you'll be blissfully happy all the time. There will still be good days and bad. But the good days will surely outnumber the bad.

Also, when you start adding softer things like dreams, vision, values and feelings to your career equation, you prompt success. There is a danger, too. It can hurt to invest your talents and heart so fully in your activities because the stakes are higher. But the rewards will run deeper. When you do succeed, you'll value your accomplishments and yourself even more. That's what Robin Williams character was trying to tell his students when he whispered in their ears: "Make your lives extraordinary." Make his words your own.

"Had it ever occurred to you, Dan, that this company might have been trying to tell you something when they kept postponing and rescheduling your interview for seventy four years?"
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