***Breakdown to Breakthrough in Your Career

You're on the way to a job interview and you're already late because you couldn't find your car keys and you found a mark on your suit that you tried to clean off but made worse. You get on the freeway and suddenly you get a flat tire. You've had a breakdown. You can't get to the interview on time. And you know that the cardinal rules of interviews is to get there on time. You have three choices: change the tire - and get filthy dirty, call AAA and hope they come fast or sit down and cry. Right now the last option seems the most attractive.

But you can also look at this a different way. You can accept that you are going to be late to the interview and work on this not happening again. You know that this isn't the first time you have been rushing at the last minute. Or you can stop and think. Did you really want this job? You are over qualified for it and it's about 50 miles from your home and you don't want to commute an hour each way. Maybe it's time to say "no" to any job and say "yes" to the right job. Or you can say I really want this job and nothing is going to get in the way of me getting it. I am going to call the employer, explain what's happened, flag down and cop and get my car towed off the highway and then grab a cab to the appointment. I don't care if I am late or if I spend money I don't have but I am going to get this job!

Often when it looks like there are no solutions and we are at the end of our patience is when magic can happen.

When I lived in London, I was freelance and doing well until a recession hit England. Suddenly my client business had dried up. There was no work and plenty of bills. I was feeling desperate about how I was going to survive. I got home one day from going out to find work when there was a message about some work in Chicago. It turned out to be a life saver.

What happened? I believe that I had been working so hard to figure it out that I wasn't letting the universe do it's job. When I sat back and let things happen something showed up. Relax and have faith in there being a purpose for everything and everything showing up at the right time and in the right way. Now that doesn't mean that it shows up exactly as you think it should. My plan was to stay in London where I had a flat and friends not move to Chicago. But now I see how wonderful that opportunity was and what it led to - family, career, and sunshine in Califo
ia.

So if you are feeling that nothing is working out relax and let your heart do some work. Turn off your head and go with what comes up. It's not giving up but giving in to the idea that there is a bigger plan for us all than we can possibly imagine. It works for me and I know it can work for you too.

And back to that job interview and the flat tire. I got my very first job after I was two hours late for an interview. I missed my train and was sure that I had screwed everything up. But I called the interviewers and did my interview. I was not worried because I was sure that I wasn't going to get it. I had let go and was going with the flow. I got the job and found myself going to Japan on a British/Japanese Government scheme.

So don't let that flat tire be a breakdown make it a breakthrough.