Square peg, round hole.

Square peg, round hole.

It’s really not that difficult. You just have to adjust the shape just a teeny, tiny bit, or find a hole big enough to get your big, fat square ideas in there.

No, I don’t want to stay on this same road until inevitably it stops at a big DEAD END sign. No, I don’t want to do exactly what I did somewhere else, just at your sparkly new organization. Where is the growth in this? Where is the challenge in this?

“I’m frustrated that you haven’t landed somewhere yet” says my friend. You’re telling me sister! So am I. So am I. And I have to remind myself it’s because I don’t want to get back in the same car, going down the same road, doing the same things. That is not why I took a sabbatical. Sometimes the world doesn’t seem to be wired for growth. It seems to be wired for status quo.

245 applicants for this one job. 514 applicants for another.

With these numbers, sure you could find a round peg for that round hole. So where does that put me? Out in the periphery? Waiting for the open-minded company to want someone with a slightly different perspective, with curiosity, with tenacity and persistence. Aka Miracle? I mean come on, what is going on with the process these days? Why must it take a village to land a job I’m excited about simply because I want to shift to the left lane, versus fly right down the middle?

Somehow I feel like I’m back in gym class eagerly awaiting the coach to “PICK ME, PICK ME”! I know I don’t LOOK like what a point guard should look like, but I’m smart enough and in good enough shape to figure it out.

It’s so easy to just get back in the middle lane. I’ll just go back in to see how comfortable it is there. Ahhhhhhhh. It fits like that cozy sweater I’ve had for years. Warm, fuzzy, stretched just right to fit me. Oh look at it over here. People are looking at me. I wave like the pope from his pope-mobile. Ah yes, it feels like success here. I feel wanted, and needed.

Well hell, why don’t I just go after that nice, cozy job that feels familiar?

And after I wiggle back into that sweater, I realize you know what? Actually it doesn’t fit me that well after all. That color just isn’t all that flattering on my skin. And actually the curves don’t hit me in all the right places. I changed, the sweater did not.

So yes, I’m going to call upon my village. I’m going to knock down doors. I’m going to find out who likes the idea of putting a square peg in a round hole because they know it will mean growth for everyone involved. It’s time for a new sweater, want to go shopping with me?