UNSTOPPABLE Step Up or Step Aside
By Jessica Sitomer
When human error causes an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train, with hazardous cargo, to go speeding toward a city, Frank and Will step up to prevent a disaster. Denzel Washington, plays Frank, a veteran engineer who risks his life for a company that disregarded him and Chris Pine, plays Will, a young conductor who risks his life on his first day of work to save the city where his family lives.
At times, the speed of the unmanned train sent it farther and farther away from Frank and Will. Do you ever feel like the entertainment industry is that runaway train, getting farther and farther out of your reach?
Like Frank and Will, you have two choices. Keep doing what you’re doing and let the train wind up where it may. Perhaps someone else will step up and be the hero. Or, YOU can step up! How about being the hero in your own career story? How about finally stopping that train so you can climb aboard and ride it all the way to success?
If you want to step aside, people will understand. It takes a strong willed person with clear determination to stop a runaway train, but if you do want to step up, here are some tips that will help:
1. Decide. Right now! Frank knew he was going after that train, and Will didn’t have but a minute to decide if he was on board. So, as the veteran here, (well, maybe not the veteran, but the coach) I’m giving you ‘but a minute’ do decide. Are you going to go after your career like it’s a matter of life or death? In other words. It’s time to raise the stakes. No more treating this like a ‘hope’ for work, but instead an unstoppable determination to GET WORK.
2. Analyze. You are the only one who knows what’s really going on in your mind. How much effort are you putting into your job pursuit? How many hours a day are focused on productive, effective job getting actions? What gets in your way? What are your fears?
3. Plan. Frank and Will had a plan. If the plan was deterred or went off track, they regrouped and came up with a new plan. Have you formulated a one-year plan to complete reachable goals?
4. Get Help. If you keep doing what you’ve always done you’re going to keep getting what you’ve always gotten. Frank and Will had each other to bounce ideas off of. How are you getting out-side-of-the-box ideas? Who are you getting help from?
5. Be Unstoppable. You may find with your new plan and your new ideas that your actions may not turn out the results you expected. Re-group and move forward. You may find that you are getting rejected more. That’s because you’re putting yourself out there more. Nos don’t change your life, yeses do. Be unstoppable!
You’ve come to expect in a movie like this, that the heroes will stop the train and save the day. What have you come to expect from your career?
And Action!
You get what you truly expect, so if in your analysis, you didn’t expect with 100% certainty that you’d be unstoppable in reaching your career goals, it’s time to do damage control on your mindset. If not, your unconscious mind will be as destructive as that toxic-cargo-carrying runaway train.
