"Know your Ruling Star. One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical. Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself. There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt.”— Balthasar Gracian, (Spain, 1600's)nnHave you ever felt, “Here I am, best job I ever had, good money, an excellent career move — but, what in the world am I doing here where I feel so alone and out-of-place with my surroundings? How did this happen to me?”nnI’ve been there, because someone offered me a job and I accepted, knowing ahead-of-time, intuitively I wouldn’t feel at home in the town and surroundings. nnOr — maybe you love your location but, sadly, are unable to find any openings in your field. I’ve been there also. Looking back on my years in Austin, Texas, I can’t believe the number of short-term, soul-emptying jobs I tried very hard and unsuccessfully do to. My job-duration ranged from only two hours (which was long enough when you hate what you are doing!) to several months (each day seeming like an eternity) before my opportunities in broadcasting finally came.nnIt’s a rare person these days who is able to say, “I love this community, love my home, love the work I do, get along great with my business colleagues and supervisors. How do you beat perfection?”nnThere is a wonderful quote I repeated it to myself many, many times during my ups and downs in Texas.nn“Hence the first principle in changing one’s character is to seek another environment, to let new forces play upon our unused chords, and draw from us a better music.” — Will DurantnnThat’s what I wanted! I wanted another location — another place — where new forces could play upon my unused chords and draw from me a better music.nn“There are nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt." — GraciannnYes! Yes! Yes! That’s what I wanted. To cross borders and feel my native talents valued again.nn"Know your Ruling Star,” the Spanish priest Gracian wrote in The Art of Worldly Wisdom. “One man is better received by one nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his qualifications are equal or even identical.”nnWe are better received in certain locations or areas than in others, welcomed when we show up, and we most certainly do find more luck in one place than another.nn“But where, where, where is THAT PLACE?” I wondered. nnIn Texas, for every 100% plus I gave in my career, the returns (feeling valued, appreciated, and being monetarily rewarded), always fell short.nnI hosted a noon talk show for awhile at an Austin TV station. Our ratings were great. The guests I booked were top names in the literary, entertainment, self-improvement, and political arenas.nnAfter our ratings came in one spring, I couldn’t believe how well the show was doing.nnSeveral days later, however, the General Manager wanted to see me.nnAfter all the years of my show’s success, he said, “James, I can’t complain about your ratings. They are great for ad revenue. But I finally got a chance to see your show yesterday. I have a tenth grade education, never finished high school, started in sales, worked my way up to where I am today.” He beamed proudly, “I didn’t understand your show. It's way over my head.”nnI knew when he said, “I didn’t understand your show,” my career there was doomed.nnThe GM was the standard by which all business decisions at our stations were made. nnI wanted to call him, “Idiot,” but restrained myself. nnMy favorite line in Texas TV came from a female news director who once told me in a job interview, “James, you have a master’s degree. We don’t need people that smart to do the news.” Obviously, I never worked at that station.nn“Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself,” Gracian reminds us.nnKnow how to transplant yourself!nnFinally, I did transplant myself, once again. nnIt was time to move from the newsroom and go into teaching; use, finally, that masters degree referred to earlier that wasn’t needed to report the news.nn“There is a simple answer to the question ‘What is the purpose of our individual lives?” A.J. Ayer wrote. “They have whatever purpose we succeed in putting into them.”nnYet, if you believe you are being guided by and toward a higher destiny, as I do, use what others know (their gifts and resources) to inform and enlighten yourself. nnI’ve also successfully used relocation astrology as an essential tool to follow my guiding star. Through my sessions with Cait Benten, I’m finding the balance of the “right place” and the “right work” combined. nn“This time, like all other times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson n n
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