Since the last post in 2016 and throughout the excellent teachings forced on me by the very unskillful boss I just had, I have really come to re-evaluate my life and what I want to do with it. I want to work with people, on people, for people, about people. Hope that makes sense but I don't want to just work with people anymore, I want my work to be about people. How we think, how we work together and get along - and to try and make all this better.
I know that the Dharma works. I know that meditation works. I know that coaching works. So I have been looking for a way to combine all this into a job. I started my own business call Coaching For Grit. www.coachingforgrit.com.au. Thinking that I would quit my current job and go to work for all of humanity as a coach. Life Coach! But then, the universe throws me a fish!!!! A job as a Buddhist Chaplain with the Australian Defence Force presented itself.
I was not going to let this chance get away. I applied the same day. Sat interviews, gained endorsement from my Buddhist community and sat back and waited. A few weeks later I received a letter saying I was accepted - Oh My Buddha!!!!
This job comes with four years of paid training to be a Buddhist Chaplain. A year of fulltime Buddhist Studies, a year of fulltime counselling studies and two years of Chaplaincy studies and work placement. I start in Jan 20.
I will still continue to grow my coaching business on the side and see where that goes. I will also be doing weddings on the side as I will also gain my Celebrant license so I can conduct weddings for work but will be able to do them on the side also. There are so many opportunities here - but the absolutely main things which really has changed my life. This job is exactly what I am now looking for in life, a chance to work with other people about what really matters, themselves. Their feelings, their stories, their behaviour towards themselves and others, how they see themselves and how they see the world has such a profound impact on how they live in the world that nothing is more important.
Thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted on my next huge step in life.
So think happy.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Another unskillful boss.
Can not believe that it has been three years since I last wrote anything here. A lot has happened since then but I do want to record this post about another unskilful boss I had for two years.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say and maybe I could have done things differently but at the time it all seemed like the way to go. I was posted into a position which I hadn't done in a long time. I asked for it because I thought I needed to renew those skills which I had not used in a long time.
I was up front with my boss and informed him that I felt underdone for this role and needed a little more mentoring from him to bring me back up to speed. I guess he took that to mean that I knew nothing; because that's the way he treated me for the next two years until he moved on.
Do you know what micro-management is? Its when your boss gets involved with every single thing you do and wants it done their way. Well he was that. He also only had one setting for his communication style - transmit. There was no receiving happening. I remember he asked for my opinion once in the entire two years and I was so shocked at the time that I didn't know what to say. I guess that showed him not to ask for my input because he never did again. Belittling, degrading, uncaring, he was all of them. I remember telling him about my dyslexia about March of the first year and all he could say in turn was 'why are you telling me this now? I should have been told this from the start.' There were three other people in the section who all felt the same as I did so again I knew I wasn't going nuts.
Anyway, this post is not about him. It's about how well I survived this very unskillful individual. The two years were not pleasant in any way but I came out of it stronger than before. I was able to apply the skills I had gained from Buddha and see that his issues were his issues and not mine. I left them with him. Yes the years were stressful but I was able to see that emotion as simply an emotion and know that it didn't define me, or make me less. It was just a physiological response to this situation.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say and maybe I could have done things differently but at the time it all seemed like the way to go. I was posted into a position which I hadn't done in a long time. I asked for it because I thought I needed to renew those skills which I had not used in a long time.
I was up front with my boss and informed him that I felt underdone for this role and needed a little more mentoring from him to bring me back up to speed. I guess he took that to mean that I knew nothing; because that's the way he treated me for the next two years until he moved on.
Do you know what micro-management is? Its when your boss gets involved with every single thing you do and wants it done their way. Well he was that. He also only had one setting for his communication style - transmit. There was no receiving happening. I remember he asked for my opinion once in the entire two years and I was so shocked at the time that I didn't know what to say. I guess that showed him not to ask for my input because he never did again. Belittling, degrading, uncaring, he was all of them. I remember telling him about my dyslexia about March of the first year and all he could say in turn was 'why are you telling me this now? I should have been told this from the start.' There were three other people in the section who all felt the same as I did so again I knew I wasn't going nuts.
Anyway, this post is not about him. It's about how well I survived this very unskillful individual. The two years were not pleasant in any way but I came out of it stronger than before. I was able to apply the skills I had gained from Buddha and see that his issues were his issues and not mine. I left them with him. Yes the years were stressful but I was able to see that emotion as simply an emotion and know that it didn't define me, or make me less. It was just a physiological response to this situation.
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