profile

Granted πŸͺ„

What to do when your career takes wrong turn. . .

Published 8 months agoΒ β€’Β 2 min read

Write the Next Chapter in Your Leadership Journey β€” Earn an EMBA From Georgetown

Choose our hybrid, customizable Executive MBA to join a vibrant community where you'll learn from expert faculty and benefit from Georgetown's worldwide alumni network. Our Executive Recruiters in Residence provide direct connections to top companies, and our D.C. location delivers unrivaled access.
​

Just when you thought everything was going fine. . .

life – and your career – tends to surprise you.

😳 You don't get that promotion you thought was a sure thing

😳 Your company is eaten by an even bigger company

😳 Your boss quits and a new one starts Monday

Seems like time to freak out, right?

Not so fast.

Because what seems like lemons might just be lemonade. You don't actually know.

It reminds me of this Chinese Proverb called Old Man of the Frontier Loses Horse:

Good luck and bad luck create each other
and it is difficult to foresee their change.
A righteous man lived near the border.
For no reason, his horse ran off into barbarian territory.
Everyone [people] felt sorry for him.
[But] His father spoke [to him]:
"Who knows if that won't bring you good luck?"
Several months later,
his horse came back with a group of [good, noble] barbarian horses.
Everyone [people] congratulated him.
[But] His father spoke [to him]:
"Who knows if that won't bring you bad luck?"
Now his house is rich in horses
and the son mounted with joy/loved riding.
He fell and broke his leg.
Everyone [people] felt sorry for him.
[But] His father spoke [to him]:
"Who knows if that won't bring you good luck?"
One year later
the barbarians invaded across the border.
Adult men strung up their bows and went into battle.
Nine out of ten border residents were killed,
except for the son because of his broken leg.
Father and son were protected/both survived.
Hence: Bad luck brings good luck
and good luck brings bad luck.
This happens without end
and nobody can estimate it.
​
β€”Claude Larre et al. Les grands traitΓ©s du Huainan zi, 1993, p. 208–209.

You can see the Wikipedia Page here.

What can we learn from this?

Just when life seems to have exploded in our faces, it's good to remember that we can't know the full consequences of anything.

Worrying about all the what-if's and could be's can be useful to a point – it can help you prepare. But trying to invent and anticipate worries only makes us unhappy.

If we had the benefit of a longer-range view of things, if we could see around that next bend, we might actually realize it's all going to turn out fine in the end.

The trick is acting as if it's ok when you can't see around the corner: not over-reacting, not over-planning, not shooting from the hip.

Instead, trust yourself to be calm, thoughtful, and to wait to see what's around that next bend. Treat the situation mindfully, and do what you can knowing that the situation might look like a lemon, but turn out to be lemonade instead.

​

113 Cherry Street #92768, Seattle , WA 98104-2205
​Unsubscribe Β· Preferences​

Granted πŸͺ„

➑ The workplace you wish you had

Join 10K midlife, people-centered leaders who want to feel happy at work, beat stress, anxiety, burnout and overwhelm. Written by therapist and career coach Jess Sweet, Granted delivers weekly career insights, therapy tools, and mindset hacks to empower you at the intersection of workplace and wellness.

Read more from Granted πŸͺ„

Does your company also have this really cool thing? I laughed out loud when I saw this: Here's the text, in case you can't open it: My company has this really cool thing, that if you're really good at your job, you get to do everybody else's job too! And still get paid only for your job. . If you've been working for a while, you've probably experienced some version of this. You're the person who can figure things out. The one who doesn't need much supervision. The one who can be trusted to...

16 days agoΒ β€’Β 2 min read

Write the Next Chapter in Your Leadership Journey β€” Earn an EMBA From Georgetown Choose our hybrid, customizable Executive MBA to join a vibrant community where you'll learn from expert faculty and benefit from Georgetown's worldwide alumni network. Our Executive Recruiters in Residence provide direct connections to top companies, and our D.C. location delivers unrivaled access. Explore the Program Have you ever found yourself in a worry spiral?πŸŒ€ (Mine usually happen at 3:15 a.m.) Our brains...

10 months agoΒ β€’Β 4 min read

More and more, people are hanging on to jobs they don't like because they think that a bad job is better than no job at all. And while in most cases that's true, it's still pretty hard to handle being in a job you don't like. Let's be clear. Today, I'm not talking about the toxic jobs with narcissistic bosses - the ones where you're called at 2 a.m. to fix a problem that could have easily waited until morning (or next week). No, I'm just talking about your run-of-the-mill bad job. The kind...

about 1 year agoΒ β€’Β 4 min read