I’ve been thinking about mountains lately
Declaimer: This isn't an accurate science lesson.
I’ve been thinking about mountains lately.
Yes, I know I’ve lost you already, and yes, I am spending far too much time on my own - but stay with me.
I’ve been thinking about how it’s easier to see the hill that is our failures than the mountain of success.
Failure is that pungent mound that whiffs under your nose while success is a collection of rocks piled together.
The fetor of failure can be an olfactory overload, blurring Mount Success on the far-off horizon causing us to hyper-fixate on the negative.
When I was ruminating on the successes I’ve had during the work search I couldn’t get the picture of mountains equating to success out of my mind. Thanks primarily, I’m sure, to LinkedIn with its superfluity of motivational diagrams.
The diagrams usually depict a stick figure focusing on the failure in front of them which is blocking them from seeing the towering success that’s behind them.
That picture got me thinking about mountains and had me googling how they are formed.
Most mountains are birthed when Earth’s tectonic plates smash together. Earth’s crust is made up of multiple tectonic plates that move. When two continental plates with similar thickness and weight collide, they crumple and fold until the rock is forced up and a mountain range is formed.
Often, success is formed by sudden “earthquakes” or tectonic collisions of events in our lives—a sudden jolt that can cause trauma while dramatically changing the landscape around us.
Now mountains don’t form suddenly after an earthquake, but why kill a metaphor with science? But what I’m trying to say is the seismic challenges we experience can create our success but that doesn’t come without friction.
Throughout the long process - if we’re going with geographical metaphor - the glacial pace of job hunting in a recession there have been those small wins that have gotten me by.
Others’ kindness has been the minerals in the rocks that have built my success (the word pictures will stop soon).
As soon as my contract work was coming to an end on one job I was given work by kind colleagues who needed cover on their team. With only three weeks in a new country, I was back in news for one-off jobs thanks to the helping hand of more former colleagues. I’ve been inundated with friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers who have put in a good word for me or given me the contact of someone. Not to mention those also taking the time to send me job advertisements.
That one goal of job security and the rejections can read like the whole narrative, but getting one-off jobs and or small contract work should be a reminder that you’re still employable and you ARE working. Not being full-time doesn’t make you any less of a worker.
Saying all this, it’s still hard to see success when things aren’t going well and small or past success can pale in significance of the trials right now so I’m not diminishing the struggle - but it can be a chink of light in a sometimes dark hole.
All these little jobs are building towards your success - that mountain. Sometimes we just need to endure the tectonic shift to then see the mountain.
To cure my boredom and feelings of lack of purpose I thought I’d write about my journey with finding full-time work. From the mistakes I’ve made to the ups and downs. I may not be consistent (especially writing on here where no one’s likely to read this) but as long as I have the motivation I’ll try and write my thoughts here.