Make no mistake about it. The expedition across the River of Transition requires special equipment to reach your destination victoriously. One of the most crucial is our attitude. This can either serve as a rescue buoy or millstone. It depends on our mindset.

Why is our attitude so critical? The mind is the control center of thoughts, actions and attitudes. It determines how we view situations and respond to them. Success or failure – both begin in the mind. That’s why in Romans 12:2 we are told not “to be conformed by the world, but transformed in the renewing of your mind.” Believing the thoughts of our Creator is our anchor in times of adversity.  

What does our Creator say? You are created in His image, Genesis 1:27. You are wonderfully and fearfully made, Psalm 139:14. You are more than a conqueror, Romans 8:37. You are more than your job, title and position. This “set-back” is a set up for your destiny.

In 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. admonished students at Barratt Junior High in Philadelphia.  “Always feel you have worth…that your life has ultimate significance.

Don’t let anyone make you feel that you’re nobody.”

This is sage advice for any challenge, including the career transition. When jobs are physically downsized, there also is a divorce from the position’s title, identity and co-workers’ interaction. Because most people spend more time at work than with their families, that void can be hard to fill. If you listen only to external reports, your new title becomes “one of millions unemployed, full of lack, needing hope.”

Here is a liberating mantra I declared in September, 2011, nine months into the process.

It shifts the focus from obstacles to opportunity of success; from pity to empowerment. May it seal your renewed attitude and prevent you from being washed into the gulf of Depression.

Never Underestimate the Repositioning

I’ve made a decision today and I’m not taking it back.

Where statistics say I am unemployable, unlucky and I’m filled with lack.

I declare I am not un anything. And I won’t take it back.

I am not unqualified. I am not unworthy. I am NOT unskilled.

And I am not a victim, but victorious. No longer discouraged, but determined.

No longer beat down and worn out – but a warrior armed with His truth and strength.

I am not faith bankrupt and overflowing in empty fear.

For God lives within me, and rebirth and restoration are here!

This switch in mindset, a change in gears, ensures success of today and upcoming years.

Is my career still in transition?  Yes, but in focused dignity, not confused despair.

This shifting unlocks new doors of thoughts, strategies and plans. For His plans are for peace and not evil, to give me a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11.

If you must call me ‘un’ anything, call my attitude unmovable, unshakeable; my faith unsinkable. For with a resilient attitude – It is still all good.

Kathleen Joiner

It works4good@yahoo.com