Platitudes are every where.  Just look around you..at work you have motivational ones, team work ones, leadership ones.  In social media you have the ones telling us the right one will come along, to be calm and shoulder on, the doing the same thing over and over is insanity, and a million others.  Some are meant to be taken seriously by the poster, some are just goofs….something to chuckle at.

I have never held much faith is pithy sayings.  But for one, that is.  And that is this:

Never.

Give.

Up.

And that is how I think of that saying.  With spaces, and a pause between each word.  I don’t think of never giving up in the sense of winning a prize, or succeeding at some time down the road because of my perseverance.  I just have found that if there is something that I believe in, that I need to follow it through to its natural conclusion.  And that might very well be that I find I have to change that belief, but I need to follow it through.

A fine example of this is this whole job search path I have been on.  Seven months ago I chose to leave a company that I had been employed with for a number of years.  Regardless of the reason, I left without having a job to go to.  There was no transition plan, there was only the fact that I needed to leave that company.  Talk about working without a net.  I had the belief in my head that I could find another job in that field without much problem.

Well, it didn’t work out quite that well, or quite that way.  And there were times when it got real sweaty, and down right scary.  Along the way I filled out countless applications, sent out a boatload of resumes, and had telephone interviews by the dozen.  The idea of working in the same field started to morph.  I started thinking that I should, and could try something new.  Now, you might say that I had to have a job so I had to keep sending out those resumes, and I had to not give up.  We all need income, right?  Right, but during the course of this job search I changed my fundamental belief about what field I can work in.  I have worked for 34 years in retail.  Same hours, same basic job, same stable pay.  I have now left that scenario.

You see before you a commissioned salesperson.  Scared out of my mind because my income depends totally on my ability to help a consumer fill a need.  Yes, I have done this in the past with the companies I have worked for….but there was the safety net of that salary right there to catch me if I fell.  That safety net is gone.  Not so long ago my friends in retail and I would talk about wishing we were paid what we perceived our worth to be.  Of course we all thought that we worked way too hard, and were paid way too little.

I now have to opportunity to find out just exactly what my efforts are worth.  Tell me that doesn’t tighten up your sphincter……

So.  I do want to thank all of your that read these words…all of you who have BEEN reading these words over the course of that last few months for hanging in with me as I walked this path.  I appreciate your company.  I appreciate your words of encouragement, when my courage tended to fade.  And I truly appreciate your friendship.  There were plenty of times I felt might alone out here only to have one of you text me, message me, or call me just to say howdy.  Those acts of reaching out made all of the difference.  Each one of you made a huge difference.

Enough of that.  Carry on with your lives.