Following on the heels of volatile issue # 2 of “Fulfillment” comes to the issue of the “Unlimited Choices” that are out there to not only women but men also. Most of those who are reading this were not born 50 years ago. So like we always say: “…my history begins at the moment of my own birth and then my history moves forward….” What we tend to do is see our lives in terms much like this. The cchoices that were present 50 years ago for women and for men were limited at best. With the emergence of technology, there was an explosion of opportunites and an explosion of careers, businesses, college majors and so on, that until that time did not exist.
Technology is an equal opportunity employer in that it does not require some of the other physical attributes which other careers require. I will again recant a story from my own experience about the idea of “uuunlimited choice” concept to show you. I am an “MK” (military kid), and in this type of life one moves around every couple of years from base to base. When an “MK” is in this lifestyle your choice of items that may be purchased in the base exchange (store) in my childhood was extremely limited. Sometimes there were only a couple of ccchoices for shampoo or body soap. When I went to college and went out of my dorm to purchase these grooming items, I became paralyzed due to the overwhelming cchoices that were available to me.
As women in the business world we are sometimes so overwhelmed with the “what do you want to be when you grow up and get a job” that we are paralyzed at the bigger question which is: “Where do I fit?” “What are my unique skills?” “Is it possible to make a living doing what I love and am passionate about?” “How can I be at home and raise my children and work and still be pleasant and human?” You are not alone, we all have thought these thoughts. We have all had these same dogging thoughts which wake us up in the middle of the night. To be frank, women are cruel when it comes to this type of deep connection in these questions, because we each want to appear so put together and balanced. Anything that might seem to appear to be anything but 100% perfect is not admitted to. When in reality we are all in the same struggle.
Unlimited Choices can be a blessing and a curse and be the cause of much stress in our society today. If you are a women with tweens at home my I encourage you to give those young people a “safe place to explore and fail and succeed” by providing opportunities for exploration in many career fields. It is just as important to know what you do not want to do, as it is to know what excites you enough to jump out of bed every morning.
Next time volatile issue # 4.
