Yesterday while working in my pile of “Career Playdoh” (ie., my new “work opportunity), I found myself a tad bit frustrated. I’m still “green” but apparently some folks are straight color-blind. That’s cool. They can’t possible be harder on me that I am on myself. Trust and believe. (If we could convert that to money, I’d be able to retire permanently living the lifestyle I dream of AND bail us out of the mortgage crisis!)

So, I stopped long enough to catch my breathe. I slowed down and asked myself, “Do I have what I need to succeed?”

Hmmm…the answer? In this instance. N-O.

What comes next?

Laying out my options….

How do I go about getting this elusive SUCCESS FACTOR?

Let’s see…I could….

1. Ask for it. Sometimes folks don’t know what you don’t know. Sometimes folks are busy. Sometimes folks forget. Now, sometimes folks are just ornery, worried about you outshining them, etc. but guess what people? There isn’t always some giant conspiracy. Sometimes you just need to ASK.

2. Tell them what “IT” is. At some point in the game, you’ve asked all the questions you can. You’ve waited on all the answers you can afford to wait on. Sometimes? You just have to TELL them what it is you need and keep it moving.

3. Find it. Every once in a while you have to become an excavator and start digging for information. Sometimes you become a gold medalist at putting together pieces of a puzzle.

4. Create it. Every now and then you simply have to build it yourself. DIY. Seriously. It happens.

5. Go with what you know. One of my favorite sayings is, “Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that your wings will be built on the way down”. This was a hard thing for me to learn – this ‘go with what you know’. By nature I am not a risk taker. I’m much better at it…NOW…and in some areas of my life, I do it better than in others. Yet, it happens. Waiting until you have it all lined up can cause mucho problemos. You have to learn to take risks, to make the best possible choice based on what information you have at the moment and remain flexible enough to adjust as more information comes up.

6. Whine about it. I EXCEL at this one. For real. Most days, I’m a “recovering” whiner but a potential relapse is just an issue or slight irritation away. LOL

Having lived through a couple of these situations where I would have swore and placed large bets that someone was setting me up, I realized that, in addition to laying out my options and picking one (or a combination of options), I also had to redefine my definition of success. Sometimes the TRUE success is simply in coming out of the struggle wiser. Not necessarily unscathed, not necessarily without having to do some rework…but simply having learned a valuable lesson that you can apply next time.

At the end of the day? MY success is just that: MY success. MY success is in MY hands.

Others may share in it, others may reap the benefits…sometimes others might take the credit.

Doesn’t matter.

MY success is up to ME.

And if I’m clear about what success looks like for me? And I get there on MY own terms? Regardless of who might take credit or share in the credit? It’s still success. AND…it’s STILL mine.

Believe that!

Live DELICIOUSLY!

*~* J *~*