I’ve heard the above question a lot lately, and it excites me—because I can answer it!

In the book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” I came across a concept known as the Circle of Concern vs. Circle of Influence. The Circle of Concern is the all-encompassing large outer circle that many of us focus on each day (world hunger, politics, environment, the next President, the weather, etc.). The Circle of Influence is a much smaller circle, closer to home, that each of us has influence over. What time we go to bed, how many jobs we apply for, how we dress each day, our attitude, and what career path we choose, falls within our oversight of “self.”

The challenge to this concept for each of us is to examine what you can do instead of focusing on those worries over which you have no control.

Let’s talk VA Scandal. No, let’s not. I have no influence on that, although as a Marketing Manager, it concerns me. How it impacts our mission, the stress it places on our staff and leaders and a feeling of embarrassment when I see these stories repeatedly. As a Veteran, the scandal does not sit well for me. I have good friends that use the VA, including myself. I know first-hand the challenges we read about on a daily basis.

What I can influence is Recruitment Marketing. VA is Hiring! If I do my job well, VA will meet our mission of caring for Veterans. There are no more important people in Veterans Health Administration to me than the health care professionals who care for our Veterans. The rest of us at VA support them. By being in control of what we can do, we demonstrate a total team approach to delivering proactive, personalized, patient-driven health care to our Veterans.

Health care professionals and support staff make a difference in Veteran care.

Health care professionals and support staff make a difference in Veteran care.

If you would like to part of the VA team of health care professionals and support staff providing care to our Veterans, visit VAcareers.va.gov to learn more about opportunities to serve Veterans at VA. If you are media, be sure to include the Call to Action to learn more at our career site TODAY! Thanks!

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