The Blessing of Having a Choice

In the past months, some colleagues have been enlightening me on how they're stuck in a rut, having outgrown the challenges of their current job function, not being promoted fast enough or feeling that they aren't being competitively paid for what they're doing. Some of us have lived this victim story at one point or another in our lives.

To be under-compensated is a blessing. This was the original message of my post. This had been my realization as I observed people who couldn't find a matching job offer elsewhere.

In the process of writing this post, I realized that my mindset about career advancement was stuck on the traditional plane. It may come in the form of company affiliation, a bigger job title, a more comprehensive compensation package, or a combination of these. To think, I've been looking at 'choices' and 'empowerment' in a new light since August, and yet this realization did not come naturally for me. To put theory into action is a process. For a stubborn idealist to come from nothing in everything is virtually impossible (for now); what I am vying for is to become aware of my belief systems, to de-construct them, and create something new.  

It is easy to think about career in terms of the dollar value, job title or scope of influence; it is just as easy to come up with injustices that one's workplace foists on us. Some people remain with their current employers because they couldn't find a comparable title with a comparable compensation package, they are 'stuck' because for their own reasons, the job title and/or the compensation package is important to them. They are stuck in a vicious cycle of 'being stuck'. It will take the understanding that career choices do not exist in a vacuum (why do we think that the job title or the compensation package is important? perhaps a commitment to giving our children a good life? perhaps being used to our current lifestyle?) and that career advancement does not always have to be a progression of 'more of' or 'better of' the same to make a different choice.

I began with the selfish mindset that there was some form of exclusivity over who was blessed. Then I realized that opportunities outside the current work environment exist for everyone. Everyone is given the blessing of a choice. The question is: are we willing to actively make a choice? Or will we allow our lives to be run by the choices that we are not aware we are making?

I make my own choices and I am willing to stand up for them.