What if someone came up to you mid journey and said 'Wrong map'.
Just how long would it take before you decided to put that map down...
How many jobs were lost in Victoria alone due to the cessation of our bread and butter industries? The last count I heard was 27,000 in the last 12 months and there has been many more job cuts announced since then. Everything has been affected fruit canneries, smelters, the idiotic handling of our cattle industry - what were they thinking driving that death nail in? There are now huge cutbacks in education and this comes after the economic stimuli project extended almost every school in the state. Manufacturing has gone off shore, most of the older industrial areas in Melbourne are unrecognizable and have now morphed into apartments while our skilled labor force is left longing. Its progress a sign of the times we get but!
I knew a guy who worked as a cutter for Jag clothing company for years and years till they went off shore, he then worked at Kodak processing plant till that shut down virtually overnight due to the invent and popularity of the digital camera. He is in his mid 40's and his skills and training have become obsolete twice. Last I heard he was a handy man.
So in many sectors the amount of work available has and is continuing to contract. What are the growth areas? Mental Health and Aged Care.
Travel and Leisure. Legal and IT. I don't have the answers I am a Fashion Designer in the outmoded land of the $5.00 T shirt ragtrade.
I get it, its tough out there. Fortunately I myself have enjoyed a great career in the industry and am happily making new ground into areas I now chose to work in.
Competition is heightened to a new lofty degree and the consumer is more aware than ever - its a global sweep when we cast our eye now on what ever it is we require. Savvy are we!
We can afford more, have more but the map just keeps on changing. Food and entertainment has finally become expensive while we find clothing, furniture and house prices continue to fall and jobs become frighteningly more and more scarce.
Ahhh reality take a deep sniff let it burn your sinuses. Like an unpleasant smell in the cinema we all sit trying to ignore it. So in the lucky land we are at last feeling the pinch.
When in high school I had no plans I was simply going to forge my own path and show the world how brilliant I was. There was never going to be a map just sunshine and happiness!
Both my high school and college teachers convinced me I was going to need an education and it turned out they filled in my applications and I got into an Arts tailored College for year 12 and then onto University due to their push. Thank you Barry and Colleen.
Getting into RMIT Fashion Design was no mean feat. In true naive style I filled out my application forms in the hallway while I waited to be called for my interview - some doors just open. I recall rows and rows of hopefuls, some had only a manilla folder in hand and looked like meek little beige receptionists I didn't get it.
I had a suitcase and garment bag bursting at the seams with my designs, all forms of avant-garde wearable art and quite a get up on. I suppose they thought it would be better if I was removed from the street. Sometimes the world opens up for us when we push in the right direction. You cant force it, meld it or predict it, you just have to live it.
Australia affords us a very comfortable 'pinch'. If you are fortunate to be healthy in mind body and spirit there is much to be grateful for.
Life is an opportunity.
Everyday a gift.
Just ask someone that is ill or homeless I am sure they will tell you the same thing.
Motivational speakers from Tony Robbins to Oprah, financial gurus and mental health experts all espouse the benefits and true rewards of recognising what we do and can have.
If your only problem is that you and your partner cannot agree on what car to buy or that you cannot afford a fourth vacation this year then you had better take a long hard look at yourself or the life of another. Life has a manner of getting peoples with attention - it can take years. You can take life for granted, but somehow in someway life will deliver you with a slap directly to the temple...WHAP!
Who knows you might actually enjoy changing directions and throw away the map once and for all.
Just how long would it take before you decided to put that map down...
How many jobs were lost in Victoria alone due to the cessation of our bread and butter industries? The last count I heard was 27,000 in the last 12 months and there has been many more job cuts announced since then. Everything has been affected fruit canneries, smelters, the idiotic handling of our cattle industry - what were they thinking driving that death nail in? There are now huge cutbacks in education and this comes after the economic stimuli project extended almost every school in the state. Manufacturing has gone off shore, most of the older industrial areas in Melbourne are unrecognizable and have now morphed into apartments while our skilled labor force is left longing. Its progress a sign of the times we get but!
I knew a guy who worked as a cutter for Jag clothing company for years and years till they went off shore, he then worked at Kodak processing plant till that shut down virtually overnight due to the invent and popularity of the digital camera. He is in his mid 40's and his skills and training have become obsolete twice. Last I heard he was a handy man.
So in many sectors the amount of work available has and is continuing to contract. What are the growth areas? Mental Health and Aged Care.
Travel and Leisure. Legal and IT. I don't have the answers I am a Fashion Designer in the outmoded land of the $5.00 T shirt ragtrade.
I get it, its tough out there. Fortunately I myself have enjoyed a great career in the industry and am happily making new ground into areas I now chose to work in.
Competition is heightened to a new lofty degree and the consumer is more aware than ever - its a global sweep when we cast our eye now on what ever it is we require. Savvy are we!
We can afford more, have more but the map just keeps on changing. Food and entertainment has finally become expensive while we find clothing, furniture and house prices continue to fall and jobs become frighteningly more and more scarce.
Ahhh reality take a deep sniff let it burn your sinuses. Like an unpleasant smell in the cinema we all sit trying to ignore it. So in the lucky land we are at last feeling the pinch.
Bloody map - quick get me the app' or the really cheap GPS!
When in high school I had no plans I was simply going to forge my own path and show the world how brilliant I was. There was never going to be a map just sunshine and happiness!
Both my high school and college teachers convinced me I was going to need an education and it turned out they filled in my applications and I got into an Arts tailored College for year 12 and then onto University due to their push. Thank you Barry and Colleen.Getting into RMIT Fashion Design was no mean feat. In true naive style I filled out my application forms in the hallway while I waited to be called for my interview - some doors just open. I recall rows and rows of hopefuls, some had only a manilla folder in hand and looked like meek little beige receptionists I didn't get it.
I had a suitcase and garment bag bursting at the seams with my designs, all forms of avant-garde wearable art and quite a get up on. I suppose they thought it would be better if I was removed from the street. Sometimes the world opens up for us when we push in the right direction. You cant force it, meld it or predict it, you just have to live it.
Australia affords us a very comfortable 'pinch'. If you are fortunate to be healthy in mind body and spirit there is much to be grateful for.
Life is an opportunity.
Everyday a gift.
Just ask someone that is ill or homeless I am sure they will tell you the same thing.
Motivational speakers from Tony Robbins to Oprah, financial gurus and mental health experts all espouse the benefits and true rewards of recognising what we do and can have.
 |
| Life's Banquet - pull up a chair and chow down folks! |
Your ego may take the blow.
Perhaps you are forced to really see yourself?
Reassess your values?
These are gifts they make you grow.
Some individuals prefer to sit in their haughty denial - good luck with that!
It will just result in a much more painful fall.
Be grateful, be creative, do what you love and the world might just open up!
Who knows you might actually enjoy changing directions and throw away the map once and for all.
