ODDS know what they want . . . or don’t want.

A friend of mine asked, “How can I discover what I want to do when I don’t even know what I want to do?”  “Easy,” I replied.  “I bet you know what you don’t want to do.”  He certainly did.

Sometimes, the first step in finding what makes you special, awakening your ODD, is being determined to change your current situation.  Perhaps you are dissatisfied with your present job so you start looking around for new opportunities.

You live in an area of the country you don’t like so you begin researching other areas.  You’re physically out of shape and you don’t like the way you feel so you start an exercise program.  You’re not as thrilled about getting into good shape as you are passionate about getting out of bad shape.  Great start!

An example from my own life.  As I mentioned earlier, I was a horrible student.  Graduating from high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.  But I certainly knew what I didn’t want to do: work for a living.

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago.  “Work” often meant picking up heavy objects in one place and moving them to another.  All Day.  Boring.  Or getting a low-paying office job shuffling papers all day.  Also boring. 

My high school guidance counselor, having reviewed my “Permanent Records,” suggested that I learn a “Trade.”  I’m stupid but not that stupid.  “Trade” is just another word for work.

A number of years ago, I bought a house.  The day after moving in, I stopped to talk to my new neighbor who was sweeping out his garage.  I mentioned that I was thinking of buying a chain saw.  He said, “I’ve known you for less than ten minutes. But I already know that, if you do, you’re going to kill yourself with it.”

He handed me his hedge clippers.  “See if you can survive with these first.”  He was right.  Within a few minutes, I almost cut off the tip of my finger.

I have great admiration for people in the trades such as carpenters, plumbers and electricians.  One reason is that I could never begin to do any of their jobs.  I’m a total klutz.  I simply don’t have the brains for that kind of talent.

My parents had always told me I was going to college.  Apparently, they realized, long before I did, that education was the only life preserver in the water for me.  So it wasn’t a case of me wanting to go to college as much as it was of me really not wanting to go anywhere else.

I applied to and was rejected by thirty-five different colleges and universities.  One school’s letter of rejection contained only two words, “You’re kidding!  Sincerely…”
I was finally accepted by Loyola University of Chicago who, at that time, would accept just about anyone and then quickly flunk him or her out if they didn’t produce.  Thank you, Loyola University.

My parents had lots of love.  Not much money.  Although I lived at home and ate their food, tuition was my problem.

The campus I attended at Loyola was located in downtown Chicago.  Every day, I traveled an hour-and-a-half, each way, by bus and elevated train, to attend classes.  After school, I’d work four hours at various part-time jobs.  During the summers, I worked full-time the very jobs - such as construction, factory work and low-level office jobs - that I was going to college to avoid. 

After three months of that, I couldn’t wait to get back to school.  I wasn’t as much filled with the desire of wanting to learn as I was filled with the desire of not wanting to flunk out because I knew the fate that awaited me if I did:  work.

All my friends were on full or partial scholarships so I did indeed pay for my screwing up in high school.

Eventually, I earned a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University, which created many options for my future.  Among those options, I discovered what I love to do:  Teaching, writing and professional speaking.

By the way, all those letters of rejection didn’t go to waste.  A few years after I graduated, I was a professor at a state university in Illinois.  I framed and hung on my office wall some of the more amusing letters of rejection.

Years after I left the university, I had a number of former students come up and tell me basically the same story, which was, “I came to your office to tell you I was dropping out of school.  But after reading those letters, I figured that if a moron like you could get through college, so could I.”

Sometimes, to find your ODD, you must force your mind and body to go where they haven’t been before; think new thoughts, travel to new places.  Exploring the world can be a very fun part of discovering your uniqueness.

If you don’t know what you want, set sail from your current, unhappy situation, to the open sea of possibilities.  Eventually, and much sooner than you think, you will discover your new land of opportunity.  

BECOMING YOUR WIZARD OF ODD:  Be determined about wanting to change, about finding your ODD.

BEING A WIZARD TO OTHERS:  You know others in similar situations.  Relate your experiences.  When you share, you always get smarter.  It cannot be otherwise.  The new insights you acquire helping others will help you discover your own uniqueness that much sooner.

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