My Observations Re Scanners

by Charles Lamm

Scanners exhibit a number of specific traits which separate us from the masses. None of these make scanners right or wrong. Of course, it doesn’t make society right or wrong either. It’s more important to understand what is happening instead of judging.

1. When you see friends and associates who are less intelligent pass you by on the corporate ladder, you start to question your own talents and abilities.

2. When working in a “good enough job” considered beneath you or blatant underemployment, you allow others’ opinions to poison your mind against that job or company.

3. You don’t trust your own gut feelings.

4. When you are finished with a job/hobby/interest/relationship and want to move on, you see yourself as a quitter.

5. Others feel sorry for you when you are at your happiest.

6. If you learned on Friday afternoon that you had to be an expert witness in court on Monday morning, in a subject you knew nothing about, you could fool a jury with your expert testimony.

7. People suspect you have ADD when you don’t.

8. You don’t want to specialize in one particular field because it would take time away from exploring other career paths.

9. Scanners allow themselves to be tagged with labels like “selfish” or “self-indulgent”. Others tag you with these labels in order to manipulate you into following their rules.

10. Universities have changed from scanner safe liberal arts environments into vocational training schools. Many “core” courses of the past such as art, music, foreign languages, and physical education have disappeared as requirements for graduation.

11. Scanners are often afraid to update their resumes because it “looks bad” to have a wide variety of short-term jobs. Employers want drones, not free agents. A scanner resume is a red flag.

12. Instead of seizing control of our lives and taking full responsibility, we drift.

I have gone from employment highs like practicing law and serving as a U.S. diplomat to lows like tech support in a call center.

I have destroyed more good careers than most people would even dream of attempting.

I have walked away from more relationships than I can count.

And yet, I’m not broken. God doesn’t make junk.

The scanner solution is to:

1. accept yourself as the scanner you are

2. embrace and exploit your diverse talents on your own terms

3. create a new life around those talents, not a traditional career

For most scanners, your path will now start with your own YOU Inc. business. The trend with globalization is a shift away from traditional jobs and toward a free agent nation. Scanners who accept their own strengths and celebrate their differences will prosper.
---
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at http://www.virtualjoefriday.com. His websites include http://www.clixforbrix.com and http://www.your-dating-directory.com.