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"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu
This episode will expand your understanding of vocation and how vocation is an essential comment of mental health and wellness.
We took a road trip and because we had some extra time and were in no hurry to get to our destination, we turned to Google maps to help us chart some less traveled and more scenic routes. Several times we made changes to our route on the fly, or we missed a turn we were supposed to make, and each of these times we received a friendly message that the app was “recalculating our route.”
We have come across several stories recently that talk about “the great resignation” in America’s workforce. The articles describe how many people have resigned their jobs during the pandemic. While there are a variety of reasons that people are leaving their jobs, one clear theme is that people are choosing not to return to the kind of pace or balance or unsatisfactory working conditions that they had before the pandemic. One subgroup with the larger population that is not going back to their jobs is older workers who have chose to retire rather than return to their previous employment. And of course, many have lost their jobs and have no choice but to find a new direction for their work.
All of this has me thinking that this time of “the great resignation” is really a time of “the great recalculation.” Many of us are recalculation our routes, some by choice, some by necessity. As awful as the pandemic has been, perhaps one benefit that has come from it is that it has given many people the opportunity to rethink what parts of their lives they wish to return to and which parts they do not want to go back to again.
I love that the Google voice is always so calm and patient when I miss a turn. There is never a hint of judgment or criticism. Perhaps we can all keep that in mind as a model for our own inner voice as we find ourselves making changes in our lives. May we be as calm and patient with ourselves when it comes to recalculating the routes, routines, and relationships in our lives that have been dramatically changed the last year and a half.