Reflections on a Career Chosen by Default: Part 3

As I re-work these posts from my original article I am struck by the fact that my life has been full of transformational experiences.  From the earliest days of my life I remember yearning for the next step.  Unlike many people I couldn't wait to grow up...now at 54 I still feel the same...what's around the next corner.

A mindset that is continually seeking growth and adventure is one that never gets old.  Given our short time here on earth, I want to live with that gusto as long as possible.  I've even been known to say I want to live to 120 because, after all, why sell yourself short!

Below are the next three gems I've gleaned from my career as a nurse...read them and see if they don't spark some sense of adventure in yourself.  Who knows, you, too may decide to pick up the quest again and make the most of the life you have yet to live!

SELF ESTEEM

With the discovery of my unique talents, being involved in saving numerous lives, and having the opportunity for continuous growth and ongoing self improvement, I can say without a doubt that my nursing career has directly impacted my own self esteem in a very positive way.

There were many times as a child where I felt inferior or less than those around me.  Even as a young adult those feelings plagued me.  When I was into the 'club' scene and dancing as often as I could there'd be nights where I'd look around at all the 'beautiful people' surrounding me and feel inadequate.   Now it didn't matter that I was already creating value in the world in my professional life.  The club scene was all about appearances and no one could tell by looking who I was.  It was a world that judged by appearances.

There finally came a point in my life where I had to dig deep enough to anchor the truth about my core.  It was there that I found real self esteem and it grew directly from what I had to offer the world.

So when you're feeling those twinges of insecurity, feeling 'less than' go to the mirror and look into your eyes and find the truth about you, the truth that is good and has value.  That's what I would do in those clubs so many years ago.  All it took was one look to realize I wasn't nearly as immaterial as I felt.  It's a simple strategy but it works!

ADDED VALUE

As I continue to enumerate the reasons why I have been truly gifted from my nursing career it becomes easier to see the contributions I have made to the individual lives of my patients and their families, but also to the nurses I have been blessed to work with.  I've learned from some of the greatest and most humble people on the face of this earth.

One of the most important women I've had the honor of working with was an LPN in Ohio who I credit with having taught me everything I needed for a solid foundation in nursing.  Shirley was not an easy person to work with, or so I was told.  The truth was, she was a damn good nurse and without her I may never have arrived where I am.  She was a beautiful blend of talent, hard work and fun.  She gave me a tremendous sense of self worth that I have leveraged into a career where I now add value to people’s lives.  Whether it's with a patient or a co-worker, the value is never only one direction.  The mutual relationship benefits both the giver and the receiver.

PEOPLE SKILLS/SOCIAL INTERACTION

Perhaps one of the most often cited reasons people go into nursing is to help others.  After many years in the field I began to reflect on the incredible people-skills I had learned.  Looking back, I can see how often I was picked to work with the ‘difficult’ patient or family member, and I realize how much joy I got from interacting with such diversity in the people who enter the health care arena.  That diversity had directly related to the opportunity to improve people skills and use my unique talents to make a contribution where others may have walked away because of the difficulty and challenge these people presented.

So the next time you face a difficult person or someone who challenges everything you believe in and think, pause, and wonder..."What would I do if I knew this person's behavior was driven by something so important, so incredible valuable they were willing to show up as my biggest problem?"

A little willingness to wonder sometimes opens doors we least expect and change us for the better.

Reflections on a Career Chosen by Default: Part 1

Recently I was asked to write about the 10 Reasons I Love My Career.  The request came from a colleague I met briefly at a conference in Indianapolis last year, Angela Brooks.  Like me she is a nurse and May is the month we honor nurses during National Nurses' Week.  Her blog has a host of interesting topics, some written by nurses like myself.


As I wrote the article for her blog, I discovered that, although nursing was not a career choice that came from my own inspiration, it has turned out to be one that has gifted me through my life in many ways.  For those of you who didn't see my original article on Angela's sight, I am reposting it in more digestible segments, and hopefully with more clarity than the original version.  May it inspire you to reflect on the gifts your own career and life choices have brought.  Enjoy!

10 Reasons I Love My Career

When Angela emailed me about writing for Nurses’ Week this year I was quick to jump at the offer!  You see, I’ve been a nurse for nearly 35 years (I graduated in 1978-I know, I’m old!) I and I love writing!

So here I am, sitting in Starbucks with my writing group just an hour after her invitation.  Although I don't always outline when I'm writing fiction, the first thing I did for this article was take out my pen to create my list of ten.  

So what are my 10 Reasons for loving my career?  Here's the short list:

1.    Job Security

2.    I get to Save Lives!

3.    It helped me Find My Talent

4.    Leverage and Job Variety

5.    Longevity - the ability to remake my career

6.    Strengthens Self Esteem

7.    Add Value to society and the world in general

8.    People Skills & Social Interactions

9.    Knowledge of Human Response Patterns

10.  Spirituality/Holism and cutting edge thinking

Now I’ll be honest, the intention of this article is not to convince you to be a nurse or that nursing is a great career.  My only intention here it to share with you the skinny on what has made nursing a great career for me.  It is my hope it will inspire you to take five minutes to jot down the top 10 reasons you love your career and reflect on the gifts it brings.

Here are mine.

JOB SECURITY

From the time I graduated nursing school and was licensed as a registered nurse, I have never gone longer than a few days without landing a good job.  In these economic times it is easy to see why this one was the first to come to mind.  The fact is, I took this for granted a long time until I became more aware of how different this is for many other people.  Granted, I interview fairly well which helps, but that skill came with experience and  undertanding that I had a lot to contribute.

SAVING LIVES

One of the things I had the  opportunity to learn early in my career is that we each have unique strengths that we owe ourselves to discern.  If you'd like a way to begin that process for yourself check out the StrengthsFinder website.  I bought the book which included an online evaluation.  It may be as empowering to you as it was to me.  

As for saving lives, I had the fortuitous opportunity as a new graduate to accept a job in a rural, community hospital as the charge nurse in the intensive care unit (ICU) on the night shift.  One reality of rural hospitals is that, at best, they have a single contracted doc to man the emergency room (ER) if and when someone visits.  There are no regular doctors in the house.  There is only a skeleton crew of nurses with little to no ancillary staff.  In fact, the charge nurse in the ICU is often presumed to be the most skilled nurse in the hospital and, at a minimum, the emergency backup for other units and situations that arise throughout the hospital.  

Suffice it to say, I wasn’t sure I could do the job, but what I learned could never have come without this experience.  Over my 33 years in nursing I’ve been involved in saving dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of lives.  Even so, the significance of it never dawned on me until one evening at a networking event with other young professionals, mostly oil and gas managers and ‘up and comers’.  Inevitably the conversations at these events always came down to “So what do you do for a living?”  For some reason that night, and without a second thought, I simply said “I save lives.”  The young man I was talking to got this smirky grin on his face and said “No, really, what do you do?”  In that moment I knew what I did was incredibly special and powerful!

...next up, more on Finding my Talent (Reason 3) and Leveraging my Job into Incredible Variety

I look forward to hearing from you and the reasons you have for Loving Your Job!