KEEP THE ROAD WIDE OPEN BY MAREN PETER

For those of you who are anything like me, that means you aren’t patient, you have a love/hate relationship with failure, and you like to be in control of a situation. If you take a look at my planner, it is color coated to help distinguish my busy schedule. Blue= class, Green= Job #1, Yellow= Job#2, Pink= meetings, etc., and Orange= any extra “to-do’s” that come my way. Yeah, a little crazy, I know. The point is that I like to plan and know exactly what I will be doing so I can .

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that you can’t plan creativity, and you can’t always prepare for it. The road is wide open and if you get off on the wrong exit, you can always find your way back. As much as I promote taking risks and stepping outside your comfort zone, it wasn’t until I graduated that I realized I was doing just the opposite. Searching for jobs is challenging, but to make it more challenging, I have been limiting myself to one location, one type of job, I set deadlines for myself that I wasn’t trying very hard to meet, and to top it off, my patience dwindled.

I set up road blocks so I could stay in the safe zone- or at least so I could feel safe. This safe zone, however, kept out opportunity, challenges, and risks. I’m working on clearing the road and I’m going to keep driving forward. I am now leaving room for opportunity and possibilities that may arise out of nowhere. If I exit on one path, that is just one of many opportunity paths and if I decide it’s not for me, I will take what I have learned and get back on the road. Sometimes, you just might find yourself when you take away your barriers.

What road blocks are you struggling with?