The best way to avoid, or cope with, being thrown off the merry-go-round

Kate Duttro* made a great comment on Former Finnegan No. 3, and I thought I would reflect on it before going on with my personal tale. One of the best ways to arm yourself against the varied chances and changes of life is to keep on learning, as I have learned from my own experience.

Don't believe me? Well, consider this. If you have a job or pastime you like, keep learning to do it better. You'll become an indispensable asset to those you work with, and you won't be bored. Stay on top of new developments in your field, and you'll be ready for change when it catches up with you --  when a better position opens up, you'll be well-prepared to move into it. Or if your area of expertise is beginning to pall, start exploring related fields, and prepare yourself to make a lateral move.

If you are stuck in a routine job and can't see any immediate opportunities to move up or out, you can spend your leisure time learning something new, just to keep yourself from going crazy or perhaps to meet new people. Even if you stuck on the assembly line at the widget plant, you can become a cracker jack softball coach or salsa dancer or taxidermist or water rescue volunteer in your free time, and know that you are living a "value added" life, not just subsisting. And you won't make the dreadful mistake of identifying yourself by what you do for a living.

Another way to learn is to "re-purpose" something you already know. I ran across a woman on Facebook who is obviously a sympathetic soul and an avid crocheter. She became aware that cats with spinal injuries or leg deformities often develop friction sores from dragging their paralyzed rear legs; such animals often wind up in shelters but the unsightly sores frighten away prospective pet owners. This kind lady began crocheting little leggings for the kitties -- simple oblongs with yarn ties to secure them to the legs -- and found that they help protect the cats' legs and also appeal to prospective owner. Now she has a non-profit organization called "Leggings for Life" to help crippled cats. Take a look: 

I've read of other people who dealt with job loss either by promoting a hobby to a business (a stamp collector who opened his own online business after he lost his job) or learning to make a living in a related field when they couldn't find work in their own (a man laid off from a good job in network security who retrained as a locksmith and now installs and maintains home security systems). The fact is, such people succeed because they are able to shift gears without trauma, and they are able to do so because they are willing to learn.

My experience tells me that the happiest people are those who know how to learn, and have made a practice of doing so. When the ship of your life is wrecked, you'll have a better chance of survival if you've already learned how to get to the life boats, and don't cling to a sinking vessel. If the lifeboats are crowded, you'll be less likely to get tossed overboard if you know how to row, or can to learn to do so quickly ("fake it 'til you make it"). And if you've been shipwrecked before and have learned from the experience, you won't have to panic the next time it happens (you did learn to swim, didn't you?).

I once knew a motivational speaker who liked to say, "You're either growing or you're dying." Change is inevitable, but you should decide what kind of change it is -- do you want to grow, or do you want to stagnate, rust, rot, die? ("Gee, when you put it like that, Finnegan ...") If you are learning, you are growing, changing for the better, even if the knowledge you're gaining seems "useless" in your present circumstances.

*By the way, I looked Kate up after responding to her comment and found that she is a career change coach for academics, who has learned from her own personal experience as well as professional training. Check out her web site, Career Change for Academics.