Ripples on the Water
I’m fortunate to facilitate an excellent job search support group in northeastern New Jersey on a weekly basis. The group has been in existence for over five years, although I myself have been a part for the last two. Those who have been a part of the group, and have moved on to employment, look to stay connected so as to provide their support to current attendees. While the group normally meets in the morning, earlier this year we took to meeting once a quarter in the evening so that current members could get to meet and interact with past members of the group.
As the members were sharing thoughts with each other at a recent evening session, the topic of networking with others came about. One gentleman proceeded to provide the group with an excellent analogy of what job search was like and the importance of moving forward in the process with the help of others. The imagery of what he shared connected with me immediately.
Imagine being in a park on a nice quiet sunny day near a pond or still river. Picture taking some pebbles and skimming them along the water. The stones hitting the water will cause a ripple to occur in the water. Now picture that you are at the body of water with another person and they begin skimming stones in the same spot on the water as you. The ripples from their stones hitting the water begin to intersect with the ripples you have made. Let’s say there are three of you at the water tossing pebbles. There would be more ripples in the water interacting with each other.
The point of the analogy is this. When you start on an endeavor that will have its good moments and bad moments, while the desire is to get it all accomplished at once, if often starts with small steps, little ripples if you will. And, while you can look to try to do the entire endeavor by yourself, often you will need the assistance and interaction of others as part of the process. That interaction leads to the blending of ideas that may often be far more productive and far more beautiful than what you could do by yourself. The key is your willingness to share your pond and tosses with others.
Whether it is a job search, moving to a new location, fighting an illness, whatever, are you trying to do everything alone? Do you find yourself becoming discouraged because you are looking to take big sweeping actions hoping that one of those actions connect and all of what you are facing will be behind you? While sometimes you may have that happen, more often getting to where you are meant to be is a process. As such, it will take time, it will take patience, it will take continuing interaction with others, (some whom you may not even know at this point of your life) getting you to where you are meant to be. However, it all starts with your willingness to skim those first few stones across the pond that is in front of you, and be willing to have the effect of your ripples interact with those of whom you meet along the way.
