Coincidence…No Such Thing

Over the past weeks, I’ve had several conversations about vacations and how they fit (or don’t) into your job. These have all come about by another’s initiation, not myself, asking if there was such a thing as a job that you didn’t need to take a vacation from or wanting reassurance that if you love your job, you’ll never work again.

I’ve found it odd that these five or so conversations happened in different cities and settings over the three weeks. I could see it happening as a regular topic in one location and setting but over a large part of Minnesota, not so much.

Today, a discussion about Taekwondo training lead to some similar thoughts. How do things get accomplished? Through effort. If the effort is toward something that you aren’t interested in, then it can become work. That’s unfortunate but, getting the work done will still make the accomplishment. So, toward this end, you aren’t “working” if you are enjoying the effort in achieving something.

Since things don’t “just” happen, there’s no such thing as coincidence. (Gibbs’ Rule #39) The efforts made to accomplish a thing (career, goal, dream) is the whole reason that you completed it. If you ask most popular music artists, you’ll hear several of them agree that they were an over-night success ten years in the making.

Many of these efforts include finding teachers and mentors that have appropriate knowledge and experience. It also includes peers are traveling a similar path. This is because it is part of your Hero Journey.

Now, I’m not saying everything will be happy and easy! I’ve been around martial arts for a long time and, every so often,, I need to not go to class. I guess this means that your attitude will most often affect whether you have to work or not. Attitude most greatly affects how you choose to put effort into an activity. Again, there is no coincidence. Only choices and effort.