I have a very coveted piece of office equipment and it might surprise you to hear what it is. Drumroll please…….  It is a wireless headset!!! I am on the phone all day, so a wireless headset is super convenient.  A few years ago my wireless headset started losing its charge. I could make one call and I would have to put it back on the charger. Let me rephrase, I couldn’t just put it on the charger, I had to place it ever so carefully on the cradle and then gently rock it until I reached the perfect position when the charge light would illuminate. Talk about high maintenance!

I asked my supervisor for a replacement WIRELESS headset. Instead I was mailed a cheap headset with a cord. (Did she think I wouldn’t notice? Hello!) I have yet to use the headset with a cord. Instead, my solution was to start using the speaker phone option.  I sacrificed call quality in order to stay hands free. It was my safe and happy place, not tethered to my desk by a cord. 

I realized today how closely this speaker phone scenario mirrors my own life. For the last several years, I was working with a sub par employer. I was in a ‘professional speaker phone’ season. Professional “speaker phone” work life required no steps out of my comfort zone. It did not provide quality in my work life, but it also required zero risk on my part. It is a consistent, sub par, predictable experience. Just the kind of life God wants for me right? A life of poor quality, zero risk, and zero reward.

I did intend to leave my “speaker phone” employer, and I had my ‘safe’ plan. I knew the exact “safe” employer I wanted.  The problem was, my “safe” employer didn’t want me. Sadly, instead of revising my plan, I just kept reapplying to this same safe employer!  YEARS later, I finally got the hint. (The number of applications submitted to, and rejected by my “safe” employer is not important… Okay maybe it is important, but it is too embarrassing to admit!) 

I knew I had to leave my ‘speaker phone” employer and I needed to be open to  new options.  Guess what happened when I sacrificed MY safe plan, and agreed to consider new employers? The very next interview I had, I was offered a job! I finally took the leap and landed in a drastically different professional position. This new employer is better in EVERY objective, measurable way.

Mamas, sometimes we need to think outside the box. We need to stop clutching our broken wireless headset, stop settling for a speaker phone existence. This has been my biggest struggle! I almost missed this incredible opportunity because I was clinging to my safe, broken wireless headset!