Chart your own course!

I'm in the process of reading David Brooks book, "The Road to Character" and it is both historical and current. It is very provocative and talks about how we function and how we conduct our lives.

It is quite apparent that over time we have evolved from believing that we are self-effacing, soothing and gracious to self-promoting, fragile, and jarring as Brooks has so aptly written. Adolescents that I know are either less than humble, fostered by parents and supporters, or service oriented and often doing for others and joining charitable causes. Those whose limited understanding of humility in adolescent years stoked by family and friends, choose to flatter and fawn them through adulthood. If that is the case, you are certain to have self-promoting individuals who are blind to the global issues of the day.

What we hear about these days is division, dilemmas, and more, but where are those who firmly believe that we are a nation of great character, externally and internally? There are those in my family who respect each other and fully understand what it means to be self-effacing. These people are in the majority. Why? We don't hear enough about their good deeds but we do hear about the erraticism of the self-promoting.

Remember that self-promoting often means you are pounding your chest in service of yourself. While you are charting your course believe that you are self-effacing. Joshua Marine wrote, "Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful".

If this sounds like riddles, read the words carefully. Once you are in your first, second or third job are you considering another job? If so, will you chart your course according to your needs or is it about what you think you know. That is a serious point and when you make your final decision do not be influenced by new money in your eyes. You can argue that you want a better life that you can indulge in but is all this worth the effort.

What are you missing? Here is the fact! You are missing time with family and friends, a time to cherish and you never get it back. Not all promotions or job changes are in service of all, but chart your course and be true to yourself.

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Gloria M. Reiske is an MSW, LCSW with more than thirty years experience in education, administration, social work, and coaching. She has authored many articles and is published in local media, having written a men and grief manual for training purposes throughout Virginia and an article for children and grief. Email her at gloriareiske@blogspot.com and check out this article on Facebook.