The Ministry of Happiness

Gamble on yourself to be Happy

So I wrote a post not too long ago that gets a lot of hits called believe in yourself and be happy.  I have been thinking a lot about that post and that idea in general today.  You see I’m about to do something completely out of character for me.  I’m a blue-collar kid, a kid who grew up with a single mom who was once out of work and on unemployment for almost a year.  Growing up that way instills a few things in you, you worry about money, you don’t waste food and you don’t turn down good paying work.

The funny thing is the most famous person I share a name with, explained it very well.  A reporter once asked the actor, Michael Caine, a great question.  He said to Mr. Caine, something to the effect of, you’re a legendary and magnificent actor, why are you in so many bad movies.  Michael Caine responded that he was a blue-collar kid, and as a kid, when you grow up with people who are scrambling to make a living, you don’t pass up good work.  Especially, when people are offering you millions of dollars to do that work.  As famous and as successful as I am, at my core I’m still that kid.  And Michael Caine and I share not only phonetically identical names, but that attitude as well.

So I’m wrapping up my year of travel, it seems like only a few weeks ago I set out to hike the West Highland Way in Scotland.  But that was over eight months ago and so as my funds continue to dwindle it’s time to start looking for work again.  So I’ve gotten my resume together and put the word out, checked in with my references and have started identifying jobs to apply for in the next couple of weeks.  As such, there are decisions to make.

There are a number of jobs open that I would be qualified to apply for in my job search.  Now all of them are good jobs, but I have a couple of things in mind right now.  First, because of the way our retirement system works, I want to make enough per year to maximize my retirement levels.  Secondly, I’d like to stick with Career Technical Education (CTE) as much as possible and finally, I’d like to manage fewer people on a day-to-day basis.

So here’s the dilemma, there are a couple of jobs that don’t quite fit my desires, they are good jobs and are the first ones that are available, one has a start date in April.  I’ll be very competitive for both jobs which means I could likely land a position starting in April, at a higher salary than the job I left, not a bad deal.  However, like I said, they don’t fit my desires exceptionally well.  So, do I apply for these jobs, or do I pass on them and roll the dice on getting one of the later positions that would fit my criteria better, either by paying a lot more, or getting me more involved in CTE  or by allowing me to work more systemically and directly manage few people.

The question is, do I have the confidence to gamble on myself?  If I apply, and get an offer for the early job, at about a 10-15K raise above what I’d been earning, can I actually pass?  The answer is, I really don’t know.  It means a raise, a good job, and likely three months more of salary.  If I don’t apply, I take the dilemma out of my hand but then, what if I don’t get the later jobs.  I could end up putting myself into a financial bind.  This is a tough one my friends, it really gets to the core of who I am.  It’s a conflict between satisfying the person I was socialized to be, versus rolling the dice on who the person I want to be.  I need to decide in the next day or two, thought I’d decided before I started writing this, but I’m on the fence.  Would love to hear your perspective?

Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane