“A good many young men excuse themselves from ever becoming anything or doing anything by the fact that they always live where it is low tide. Perhaps that is because it is always low tide where they live. At any rate, the more I learn of the history of the men who have succeeded the more apparent it becomes that if they were born in low water they patched up their tattered circumstances and beat out to sea on a tide of their own making…I have watched a good many brooding hens, but I never saw one facilitate the hatching process by pecking the shell. The chick on the inside will get out if he is worth it. Circumstances are only remotely related to the marrow of the matter. Success means, all the way through to the finish, a victory over difficulties, and if the young aspirant lacks the grit to face and down the difficulty that happens to confront him at the start, there is little reason to expect that his valor will show to any better advantage in his encounter with enemies that get in his way later.” – Charles H. Parkhurst
Continuing in my series from the insightful Mr. Parkhurst, I’m keen this morning to examine the matter of young adulthood and its relationship to the purpose driven life. One of my joys at work is the opportunity to work with young men and women who are taking their first steps in the adult world.
The life of a student, even at the university level, can be a little misleading. When you’re in the last few years of school you generally have more freedom, but little in the way of responsibility. Leaving school, however, a transition that generally coincides with leaving the nest of home, can be quite a rude awakening. Most learn very quickly that the skills developed in school provide a foundation for the requirements at work, but little more than that.
Skills aside, what is immediately tested is the young aspirant’s internal capital. He has the opportunity to come face to face with the “stuff” of which he is presently made. Most at this point are quick to blame their circumstances for their shortcomings and early failures. But as Mr. Parkhurst noted, “[c]ircumstances are only remotely related to the marrow of the matter.”
The best lesson you can learn when you tackle your first job is this: that no matter how limited your circumstances may be, how incompetent your boss may be or how inglorious present duties may be at any given point in time, you have the opportunity to test your grit, to find the openings and to accomplish that which is within your scope of responsibility on your own merits, without resorting to the age-old copouts: blame, complaint or crying victim.
Gregory Hake 
Finding the ways to break that shell from the inside out brings a sense of direction. As that direction is heeded further things begin to open up in ways unexpected. Finding the marrow of the matter is such a key to progressive living.
LikeLike
Upon working my first job a wise adult advised me to own my job. He advised me to fill out every task with everything I had. I look back and really appreciate his counsel. In my trust and youthful naiveté I didn’t realize how rare that attitude was. My serious application was noticed and rewarded. I didn’t have much choice in my first few jobs but as the habit was created to invest fully, my career options changed and prospects improved. Learning to love doing my best, not dictated by my feeling about the task, has been a life saver for me The best part is my jobs never felt awful or distasteful. Sometimes I was glad to move on but it always seemed to a step up.
LikeLike
This is such a great lesson to learn and even if you didn’t learn it as a young man or woman, it still applies at any age and you can put this into effect immediately in your life!
LikeLike
A job does indeed gives you the channel by which you can develop character. It doesn’t matter what it is – the simple act of just having to be somewhere at a specific time of day after day does wonders to help develop discipline. Now that’s just a start of course, and developing a strong work ethic may be challenging depending on how you were raised, but a job lets you begin to sort that all out. Before you can give your own orders to yourself and be self-directed, you need to learn to take orders and do as your told; there’s a real blessing to that. Like you said, you may have a lousy boss and not agree with their decisions, but the act of following through with an outside directive does wonders to your inside. I have many examples myself to show for, many dumb decisions that had I known how important each step was for me in the long run, perhaps a few headaches could have been avoided. In the end, your “job” becomes a vehicle by which you can release a huge amount of blessing into the world and by which you can receive blessing too, but to get there, there is a lot of growing up that has to be done.
Never mind a fact that to even have a job today is a darn fortunate thing!
LikeLike