6 Career Lessons From Snow

Hello everyone and welcome to this wonderful Wednesday! I begin this blog with enthusiastic excitement about this new era of digital transformation while adding my humbled perspective to a principled work ethic. The new gig economy paradigm can only work for those who renewed their minds to become inspired, engaged and committed to a high level of professional development, life balance and outstanding customer service.

This past week, most of us across the country have been bombarded with winter weather such as heavy snow, high winds and bitter cold. As I was coming to and leaving work, the heavy snow mesmerized me and brought me back to my childhood memories in the city of Chicago on State Street with a treasure trove of Christmas Lights and decorations. There, you could get hot chocolate, warm candy corn with peanuts in addition to hot pretzels while watching the crowd of people surround Marshall Fields and Carson’s department stores’ Christmas window decorations. After looking up in awe at the heavy snow and the downtown buildings, I had to take a moment of gratitude for being alive to experience this Chicago Winter wonderland.

I took a step back to look at my surroundings, when suddenly a brilliantly disguised series of life lessons hit me while watching the people doing their jobs and removing snow from the plethora of Chicago businesses. The lessons of a steady and stable work ethic need to abound to deal with the snow that kept piling on despite people’s best efforts to remove and salt the sidewalks. Some had different methods of operations from others, i.e. one person shovels and one salts, some alone and others collaborated and rotated shifts.

The six mini lessons are bulleted below:

1. Snow like life can’t be controlled.

2. It takes effort to remove obstacles, i.e. snow, barriers to goals, promotions, jobs or creating businesses.

3. Even when you achieve a level of success, the obstacles return like snow. Then you start making a greater effort again but then you are hip deep in snow with nowhere to put it. Frustration and fatigue hit but you must continue or face a more daunting impediment and persevere time and again.

4. The snow keeps coming so one can’t hurry the process. You must be patient and steady to make progress toward any goal. If you fail, give it another try to attain success. Enjoy the ride. Even on a snow day people sleigh, make snowmen and have fun-loving snowball fights. So, don’t get overwhelmed! Adapt and overcome, even with joy.

5. Like in Chicago, people take your dibs (parking space painstakingly shoveled for your personal vehicle –usually with a lawn chair to claim your place). But you must address the situation to keep your earned parking spot. This is comparable to when someone takes credit for your efforts and you must address this situation or possibly lose your earned position as well as the respect of your colleagues.

6. A brighter day will come as with this past snow. The sun will come out and the temperature will warm up, just as your gut told you it would.

In summary, renew your mind and work your plan even despite the obstacles that seem to be never ending. A continual and great work ethic is key to remove impediments to your success for a more balanced, joyful and healthy life. Collaborate with others to remove barriers to growth and professional development one task at a time. The sun will come out and you will get to your brighter day with a little effort. Some obstacles have a lesson. Dibs on your continued achievement!

LaShun Perry  is part of the GovLoop Featured Contributor program, where we feature articles by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Contributor posts, click here.