This story is not about work, but I think it can apply to many aspects of work and life. My kids has been wanting a dog since the pandemic started. Dogs love them and they love hanging out with all the neighborhood dogs. We have been casually making a list of all the dog types we want. I have even searched the web for where the puppy breeders are. However, we haven’t gotten a dog yet.
What is the Hold Up?
It’s one thing for my kids to want a dog and another to truly commit to a dog for 12-18 years. There are a few things we haven’t worked out.
- A dog is expensive especially in San Francisco with all the vet bills and gourmet dog food. I think it can be as high as $10k a year.
- My kids’ level of commitment is untested – Wanting a dog and actually committing to walking it 3 times a day, and picking up dog poop all the time are two different things. It’s unclear if we get a dog, if 99% of the work will be on the adults!
- We still want to travel a lot – we have to figure out dog canine or friends to watch our dog if we get one. This is more complexity to add to my life.
- There are risks of getting an unhealthy dog – since covid started, there are many more scams like puppy farms that sell puppies at a high price but really don’t guarantee their health.
- What if we don’t like having a dog after getting it. – The novelty may wear off within a few months or years and then what?
- It will be sad to see them get old and die – everyone love puppies but as they get older, they will also get sick and eventually they will die before us.
As you can see, we have a lot of unresolved questions still.
There are A lot of Advantages in Getting a Dog
On the other hand, we see many advantages as well. I never had a dog before formally and always wondered if I should get one. My only experience was with a stray dog that I met when I was 5 years old in the countryside of China. I just remembered it was a light brown big dog. It used to love coming by so I can feed it our left over buns. It also defended me against a big dark brown dog that was quite scary. I never knew its gender nor gave it a name. I was only 5, but I loved that dog and it loved me.
When we finally moved out of the country side, it ran after us for 30+ minutes before giving up. At the time, we were pretty poor, so we left the countryside on one bike. My dad was riding it and I was sitting on the front seat and my mom in the back. The dog just ran and ran after us as my dad biked away with us toward the train station.
My husband grew up with dogs. He is at least not allergic to dogs as he is with cats. He was open to getting another one but also had the concerns above. Getting a dog would be lovely for my kids. They would play more outdoors, be less on their devices, and learn to be more responsible.
We have been casually looking at puppies of different kinds for the last year. My younger daughter Alexis also made a compelling argument just last weekend. We can easily walk the dog twice a day by just taking the dog with us when we walk her to her new middle school. We are again thinking about getting a dog. But all the challenges listed above remain.
The Universe Provided an Unexpected Answer
On Sunday, we walked to Red’s Java House for lunch. On the way, we were still talking about whether we can get a dog. Alexis now is on a daily campaign engaging us in this discussion. 🙂 When she wants something, she is quite relentless in a charming and cute way.
As we sat down to eat, a couple sat down next to us with two beautiful black Labs. We started talking with them to find out more about their dogs as one has a “guide dog for the blind in tra
ining” sign on its back. We found out that they are Puppy raisers of Labs or Golden Retrievers for the dedicated purpose of raising the puppies until they are 16 months old. After that the dogs joins a 3 months training program in hopes of becoming a Guide dog for the blind. Only 300 out of 800 dogs who go through the training actually pass and become guide dogs. The rest will then be fostered.
They then invited us to volunteer to be sitters for these puppy dogs as they need more sitters in San Francisco. Apparently puppy raiser sometimes would like a break and look for sitters who can then help them out for a few hours, a few days or up to a few months to look out for their dogs. Here are all the advantages
- All expenses are paid for by the non-profit – vet visit, food, etc..
- We can start with a few hours and see how it goes so we can work up to more time if we want
- We choose our timing as a sitter so can work around any travel schedule we have
- All dogs are bred for health as they are getting trained for the blind. Only Labs and Golden Retrievers
- We will always babysit puppies – starting with possibly six months old and can go younger if we obtain more experience
- The non-profit will also give us training on how to babysit the dog – bonus!
Well, it felt like the universe was listening to our dog dilemma and offered us an answer. Everything Marisa and Vince said addressed each of our concerns above.
Why Is the Story Relevant?
I have believed in this quote from the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. In this case, we had no idea there is this option for the guide dog for the blind organization. It will help us figure out how it really feels to have a dog in our house and it is for a great cause. On top of that, it address all of our near term challenges.
I share this story as it can apply also to many common work situations
- I am interested in a new career move. While you may not know exactly what this is, you can start specifying what you want and don’t want and perhaps the universe will show you an option or several options for you to consider.
- I want to have better work life balance. Again, specify what that looks like for you if you had it and then see what opportunities are presented to you to decide on making that happen that is in your control
- I want to be promoted. Think about why you want to be promoted, why you are qualified and what you want to do at that next level. This doesn’t mean the universe can get you promoted in your current job. However it may come in other forms such as a chance to make extra income if your motivation is needing to make more money, a chance to advise a start up if your motivation is have more impact in the world, etc… The universe usually conspires to help us achieve the underlying motivation behind what we want.
Then How to Let the Universe Help You
My interpretation of this are three folds
- In order to get what I want in anything at work or in life, I need to be specific in the detail, especially our motivations behind our wants. In this case, our family has been discussing the different reasons of why we want to own a dog for awhile plus all the challenges or unknowns.
- I need to stay open minded to the way “the universe” may provide an answer. Sometime, the answer to what I want looks nothing like what I thought would be the answer. So stay open minded and take opportunities to listen to others, even strangers even in the most unexpected places.
- Take action and see what happens. Nothing real will happen until we take action towards what we want. In our case, I signed up our family as volunteer sitters on the Guide Dog for the blind website. We are waiting to hear next steps around attending mandatory training. Where it takes us from here is unknown. However it will give us what we really needed to know once we become sitters – do we really want a dog long term with us? 🙂
Your comments: Can you think of more examples where this approach can help you at work or in life? I look forward to your comments
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