Grow Where You’re Planted

 This expression has been around for a long, long time, and it has been valued for a reason. It is GREAT advice! Throughout life, we find ourselves in places and situations that we never intended and that are not necessarily a part of our life plan. Later on down the road we will look back and see that a detour turned out to be a very important piece of background that helped us move forward in another time and place.

The college course you took when the class you wanted wasn’t available and you needed a credit, the volunteer position you agreed to take because a friend twisted your arm, the part-time job you took at an answering service until something better came along, all of these situations and many, many more are opportunities. You didn’t expect to be planted there, even for a short while, but you were planted there so put down some roots and grow.

Every class you take, every chance you have to learn something new, should be optimized. You wanted “Photography 101,” you got stuck with “Astronomy for Beginners”; imagine how you might be pointing out Halley’s Comet to your grandchildren when it passes by in July 2061, explaining that Edmond Halley realized the comet was actually revolving around the sun and passed by earth every 76 years or so. Someday you will look back and realize that something you learned in any and every class you took fits perfectly into a new job or pastime.

Every time you reach out to assist someone as a volunteer you grow. Organizing a 5K Race for a charity, preparing food for a soup kitchen, even acting as secretary for your homeowner’s association, provides experiences and understanding that we would not know otherwise. When we volunteer we learn skills that we will use again and again in life. Helping the organizations that help others is not only fulfilling, we sometimes meet other like-minded individuals who will make a difference in our lives in the future.

And that little job you took in an answering service, will teach you skills and values that you will be able to use in every job you ever do, paid or unpaid. You will obviously learn the polite way to answer a telephone and take a message, but that is the least of what you will learn from this job. You will learn patience, empathy, and self-control when you are involved in conversations with callers. You will learn decision making, prioritizing, and organizing when you are delivering messages. You will learn to be punctual, dependable, and a team player as you work with your group to make sure your company is giving great service. Most of all you will see the inner workings of a very complicated, but simple business. You will forever understand the multitude of businesses that your service answers for, and why their phones are the lifeblood of their company. Working in a telephone answering service is a great foundation for working anywhere. It will look good on your resume and it will feel good in your heart.

 

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