FULFILL YOUR DREAMS and DON’T 

SETTLE FOR LESS

Sometimes an incident can make us realize how quick our lives can change.

In June of 1993 I walked in downtown Vancouver on my way to a job interview at a Research Company. A job I didn’t really want.  Minimum wage and all evening work.  But I was getting desperate.

I crossed the street on Pender and Howe, when a biker hit me with full force and within a short time I found myself in St.Pauls hospital.

I was sent home on crutches with the message from the doctor that I would have to be on those for a couple of weeks. I had had enough sprains earlier on the exact some foot to know he was telling me the truth.

I was very worried, not so much for the pain and the foot, but what would happen to my job search?

I prayed that the Lord would help me, because I was desperate to pay my bills.

Well, miraculously I was walking after two days.  Not totally without pain, but without crutches.

I felt not only very blessed and lucky, but those three days brought my life back in to focus.

I had a lot of time to think – both in the hospital and lying flat in bed for a couple of days.

IT made me realize that I was not supposed to go to that interview, because it was just another quick fix of an intermediate need for finances. It was the same thing that I had resorted to the last two years – because of a need to pay my bills.

I had studied at the Alberta College of Art and Corporate Publishing in Vancouver to be able to work with Desktop Polishing,  but I had problems finding a job.

I participated in a lot of discussion groups where unemployed people – majority men – were caught in the same “catch 22 situations” as I was.  You are unemployed and look for work in your field or expertize.  You can’t find any job.  You get turned down from interviews.  You get discouraged and then decide to “just be a willing worker anywhere” so you take anything to your family and friends.

At least you have proved that you are a WILLING TO WORK.

After a while you again feel unhappy and dissatisfied.  Sometimes you even wonder why?

You lose confidence in your abilities to do the job you are qualified for.

You cannot quit the job you’re are doing, which is usually way below your skills, because there is no help if your quit a job.

You start to wonder if you are aiming too high and maybe just should decide once and for all to  “settle for less”.

My little trip to the hospital etc.  made me realize how important it is for us FOCUS ON WHAT WE WANT and to FULLFILL OUR DREAMS.

I had just decided to let go of my dream of doing Desktop Publishing and settle for less.  To go back and do home support again, or any job that would give me an income to pay my bills.

I made a new resolve to GO FOR MY DREAMS and with that goal in mind I was able to do just that and now that I look back, I can happily say that I spent many years in my working computer world before I retired at the age 67.

Life is short.

What do we REALLY want to be doing in this life that brings us joy and happiness every day?

What kind of lives do we want to live?

Are we settling for less?

We have all been equipped with some talents that we can use for betterment of ourselves and people around us.

I had the opportunity – partly through my computer training – to really study the job market as it was in 1993 and realized that the job market was changing extremely fast and if we were not willing to change with the new trends, we would eventually have a rude awakening.

The technology was in 1993 and is now growing so fast that what you knew one week, could be obsolete the next week.

For many people, it became – and still is - “a scary world”, but I believed then, and I still believe now that, if we do not let fear stop us from being a part of that world, it can be an exciting world.

It gave me the resolve to try to keep up with the trends.

It used to be that a person would start a job when they were young and then gradually progress and work themselves up within the company.

It was no longer so.  Most men had to change careers 4-5 times in their lives.

Having to be willing to learn new trades and keep up on the latest trends in the job market, was becoming a NORMAL JOB WORLD AND EXPECTATION.

Personally, I have always had a specials interest in continuing education and learning and after my schooling in both Alberta and Vancouver, my belief in continuing education was increased even more.

There are so many wonderful things to experience in this world. Take advantage of them

FULLFILL YOUR DREAMS AND DON’T SETTLE FOR LESS

Vibeke Lindhardt

10 March 2017 (Originally written to my children and Grandchildren June 19 1993 )