Do you have the right tools for the job?

Do you have the right tools for the job?

Life can be challenging, and it requires a wide variety of different skill sets.  In many cultural settings, people are expected to ‘just know’ how to cope and deal with all the things life throws at them.  Judgments are often long and never-ending, criticisms are freely given, yet help and skill building is often hard to come by.  My question to you is, “Are you using the right tools (or correct skill sets) for the job?”

When we are not using the correct tools for the job, two things are likely to happen.

1. The end result does not turn out as well as it could have.

2. We used way more energy than would have been necessary if we had used the right tools from the beginning.

The purpose of this article is to offer some food for thought on what makes life successful, and how we should approach adulthood.  There are very few, if any, people who are raised to have all of the tools they need for every situation that comes along in life.  Parents do the best to raise their children with what they have and who they are.  Yet, in the end, we spend the majority of our lifetime as adults independent from our parents immediate rule.  This means that there will come a point where you, as the adult, have to pick up the torch of your own life and move forward.

Hardships and unnecessary problems often occur when we use the wrong tools (or skill sets) for life circumstances that we are unprepared for.  Think of this as trying to get a screw into a piece of wood with a hammer.  You may be able to make that happen, but in the end it will look messy and have taken a great deal more energy than if you had used a screwdriver from the very beginning.  This is the same thing when we are dealing with emotional, intellectual, or physical challenges within our life.  It is pretty bold to think any one of us knows everything, has the coping skills alone for every emotion, or is physically capable of completing every life task.  Life and adulthood just doesn’t work that way. 

Perhaps it is time to start viewing life and adulthood as they actually are.  A journey of discovery.  One where we will have times of feeling strong and confident, knowing just what to do; and times where we feel lost and scared because we have no idea how to handle the challenges that lie ahead of us.  Imagine how much easier these hard times would be to manage if we had the right tools for the job.  Think of the lessened stress if our culture shifted its thinking to view life with compassion and true understanding.  How would our problems and group thinking change if each person believed courage was reaching out to others for help in learning how to deal with the things they were not accurately taught to deal with? 

A reality like this isn’t a pipe dream.  The problem outlined above is a true disservice to our world and the people within it.  Not to mention those who matter the most, our children.  We, as the adults of this world, have the power to change things.  We, as individuals within a larger whole, can embrace this different way of thinking.  We can accept that we shouldn’t know everything.  We can seek help from others in learning the tools and gaining the skill sets to handle our problems in that area from there on out.  We can take life’s opportunities to express a new and better way.  A way that shows compassion for our fellow human being with no judgment about the way they are handling things.  Instead, understanding can be given and true, life-lasting help can be offered.  Help directed at exactly what they need…the skills to handle this life situation.  When the correct tools are there, they can help themselves and teach others who are watching them how to navigate the unknown waters that are upon them.