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The Big Move.
Submitted by: Dave L
Lincolnshire UKI am a 38 year old professional, working within the oil and gas industry. I am married and live in a small town in Lincolnshire England, with my wife and two Shi Tzu dogs. I have been with my wife for seventeen years, and we have experienced all of the good and bad that a relationship has to offer. I enjoy boxing and reading and have a real passion for single malt whiskey and real ale. I love the countryside.
In 2008 I was working in the construction industry and had made it up to foreman from laborer inside a couple of years. I have always been hard working and determined to try and achieve the impossible in my working life. I always had a good work ethic and generally get on with everyone I meet.
As you are probably aware, 2008 was the year that recession hit in the UK and just as things were really progressing for me, redundancy hit, and everything I had worked so hard for had gone in a matter of days. Most of the men I had been working with suffered the same fate. With no real prospects of work and with the construction industries being one of the hardest hit, I contacted an old friend who was a manager in a bread factory at the time. I told him of the situation that I was in, and that I needed to be earning, for all the reasons anybody does. I had never signed on for government aid and really did not want to. My old friend invited me to an interview and offered me the job on the spot. Later on that day I received a phone call from my father in law saying that there were 3 weeks of work available at the oil refinery down the road.
As with any decision, it had to be passed off by my ‘Work, Independence & Finance Enforcer’. We sat together at the dinner table that evening and discussed options. She didn’t want me to take the refinery work due to the risk involved and lack of future security, which I understood. I was torn between a job for life with limited prospects or taking a chance and going for gold. That night I lay awake mulling over the options, and then it struck me that, I was in charge of my own destiny and if I wanted life to progress and move forward, I needed to take a chance and go for it. I knew that with hard work and a good attitude that the world can open up. I took the job at the oil refinery as a laborer and sweated blood with each job I was given and did it all with a smile. Soon enough the tradesmen I was working with took a liking to me and I earned more and more respect with each impossible task achieved.
After a year when the director and general manager of the company made their weekly visits, the lads would put in a good word for me and tell them that I was wasted in my current role. The site manager started giving me small projects to complete with an equally small team. I loved it, the work was great and the lads a joy to work with. We had many laughs at each other’s expense and always got the job done, on time, on budget, and to the highest standard.
A few months later the director asked to speak to me. He asked me what I would like to do within the company. I had always been interested in running projects from concept to handover and wanted some bigger challenges. The dye was cast and he gave me the opportunity. I excelled. I built good relationships with the client and the workforce and secured some pretty big contracts. I built a strong, capable team around me, and we became a family, all with the same goals and ambitions. My wife and I moved out of our little house and bought a larger property, in a rural location, and had enough money coming in to start properly planning for our future. We are currently looking for our little cottage in the countryside.
A positive attitude and relentless ambition was my key to success. Putting out into the Universe what you wish for in return makes for a happier and more positive being. In turn, things start to happen for you. I look back over the last seventeen years of my life. The first real turn in the tide from nothing ever going right, to what I deem as success, was marrying my wife. Everything else slotted into place from that point on. Even when obstacles are put in your way, finding opportunity from those obstacles is what divides us. There is no doubt that the world would be a much happier place without that division. Negativity breeds negativity and vice versa.
Ask and you will receive. To be honest it is a theory built on common sense. If you surround yourself with positive doers, then you will start to be reformed in that way. I am sure people will read this and think, well what did he really achieve? A job, a house? These are normal things, nothing really out of the ordinary. What I wanted from life was happiness, and I am living my best version of that. We have never been happier than right now, and the future only looks brighter. It is so easy to be brought down either by your own inner thoughts or debilitating energy around you, placed there by others. It takes some practice, but if you truly confront obstacles or perceived setbacks and alter that perception to view it as an opportunity or just a change in circumstance, then you start to see that your life turns out even better than it was before. And more often than not, because of the change or perceived setback.
With every brushstroke, a painting is built in layers and becomes richer, warmer, and deeper. Until one day you have a masterpiece, even if it is just your version of one. This is how I believe life to be, a series of brushstrokes leading to your own masterpiece and legacy. Everything is finite and yet everything is infinite.
Dave L