WHO ARE YOU & WHY ARE YOU HERE?

"The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that . . .Accept that it's unknown, and it's plain sailing." John Lennon

I remember the first time someone asked me, “What do you do?” I was 23 years old, shyly attending my first dinner party. I knew what the questioner really wanted to know, so I introduced myself as my occupation.

Thirty years later, I still used my occupation as the number one description of the person within. Throughout the years, even when I disliked my work or circumstance, I always made the effort to put the best spin possible on my answer to “What do you do?”

The problem with side-stepping the real question of who you are is that your true self can get buried beneath the spin and temptation to define yourself through your work. I do not recommend this approach when you look in the mirror. Life is too short to get sidetracked by polite answers and innocuous chatter, especially to yourself.

“Who are you?” matters. Forget about matching yourself to good work if you don’t know what you bring to the table.

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Who Are You & Why Are You Here? (The Line of Your Life)

Often it's easier to understand something when it's visual. First, draw a straight line on a piece of blank paper.
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Next, put a dot somewhere on the left side of the line signifying the day you were born. Put another dot somewhere on right side of the line signifying when you will die. Label each dot accordingly, in your own words, such as: “My birth”, “Death”.

Take a good hard look at the space in between. This is your life. It began with a blank line: the truth is that circumstance, fate, fortune, and your own efforts and choices determine what happens between the dots.

Now put a dot somewhere along the line signifying where you are now--today. Label it.

To the left of your dot is where you have been; to the right is where you will head.

Your imaginary line will look something like this:

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_o___________________o_____________________o__

Birth............. .......Today................ ..Goodbye!

Next, in between your birth-dot and your today-dot, add and label 1 or 2 or 3 dots that signify important events or things that have happened up to now. This could be anything--a graduation, a marriage, the birth of a child, a move, a loss, a promotion-—anything that has been pretty significant in your life up to this point.

Take another look. You cannot change the past, but you can honor it. The dots you have placed represent events in your life that influence and color who you are. They are significant, but they do not lock you into a permanent playback or control your destiny. You get to decide that yourself.

Here comes what you CAN control. Now place and label two or three dots on the line between where you are now and your death-dot. Each will represent a significant event or accomplishment—a certain goal you hope to reach, a level of accomplishment, an event you look forward to, activities, plans, achievements, anything that plays a part in your hopes and dreams for the future.

This is the Line of My Life. This is the big picture. Anything else is just small change. I can look at this and know what's important.

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When I look at my Life Line, there is no doubt about the importance of my daughter, my business, writing, jb, travel and teaching. Here are a mere SIX WORDS that define who I am and why I am here.

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What about you? When the Line of Your Life is complete, what do you see?

In a notebook, on your lampshape, inside your wallet, or where ever, write down and hold on to your important words. They are the beginning of your roadmap to the job of your dreams.

Oh, and by the way, you can change your mind. Your future is not cast in stone, and your values and priorities may change to the point where the purpose of your life will change also. Should that happen, you lose nothing by re-defining and re-directing the little dots that symbolically sit between your life and your death. Until then, you know now, to the best of your ability, what matters most. Hold that information close. You'll be using it again soon enough.

WHAT TO EXPECT

"To be nobody-but-yourself---in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else--- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."- e.e. cummings
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This space affectionately called CAREERS will loosely follow a four part program called Good Work If You Can Get It!, based on an upcoming book by yours truly to help you achieve the job of your dreams. Normally it's a three to four month journey, we'll weave in and out of that schedule somewhat, but if you want to follow along over the coming months you will have plenty of chances to don new information and ideas--about yourself, your labor market, and your job search. Or you can just stop in when the topic interests you. You can do either leisurely and in any order you wish--there is no right or wrong approach and flexibility is an asset here.
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If you are confused or discouraged about your career, or lack of it, you'll quickly find you are not alone. Please allow me to start at the beginning:
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Who Needs Career Help?
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Who doesn’t? Eight in ten work-aged Americans report that they are somewhat to moderately unhappy in general. Fifty percent of workers say they fall somewhere between dissatisfied and miserable with the job that they do. Most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings. There’s not much more to say.
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I’m a career counselor. That means that I work with people who for some reason need to decide or re-decide what to do about work.
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I work with all kinds of people—from company presidents to attorneys to teachers and marketing reps, to graphic designers to woodworkers and assemblers.
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When I meet a new client I say, “I’m the counselor everybody should have had in high school and nobody did”.
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That almost always brings a knowing smile, because most adults of all ages know that throughout time there has been too little assistance in the way of vocational advice and career guidance.
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People find their way to me or to someone like me for one or more of several common reasons:

· They have been laid off or are just out of school, have not had a job offer, or worse yet, aren’t sure what they should be looking for,

· They have already achieved career or financial success but have a strong desire to do “something that matters”,

· They have been depressed or otherwise stuck and a family member or someone else has pushed them to do something about it,

· They are being “outsourced” or encouraged to change jobs--which is a polite way that many employers say, “Take a hike”,

· They have been unable to work, or had an interruption in work, because of a physical or emotional reason.

The average person is not likely to find me or receive much help in any of these areas unless they are, in a sense, either very desperate or very lost. If you’re a department manager wanting to design playgrounds or an Insurance Specialist longing to be a jeweler, you’re generally out of luck.
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Sometimes it’s not the job but the circumstance. If you hope to stay in the same field but have a supervisor from hell, or you have lost your confidence that the work can be good again, it’s hard to know where to turn. Schools try, and there are some excellent training programs, but usually the time when you really need the help is when you’re out of school, not in it.
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I am describing different kinds of people who need career help to make the point that, by and large, even though work takes up almost half of your waking life, most people muddle through their jobs and careers on their own, and often on automatic pilot, entering law because their father did or staying in food service because its was their first job in high school, or choosing an occupation or accepting a job simply because it was offered.
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Most Career Resources don’t work either. First of all, they're not commonly available. If you check out your local bookstore or library, you will find several dozen good books and resources to help you write an effective resume, complete an impressive job interview, or organize a comprehensive job search. But the problem with this focus is that most people end up looking for work before they know what kind of work they can and should do. Better to know what your mind and heart are looking for before you start searching for it.
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There are many books and resources that ask the right questions about your mission in life, likes and dislikes, your values and visions. But too often you will encounter difficulty in applying your core values to the demands of the real labor market. I am always saddened when I encounter someone who has been “holding out” for the perfect job for months or years. In the meantime, his/her self esteem, confidence, energy and motivation have withered so significantly that it is near impossible to make a good impression or make the necessary adjustments. Good work doesn’t mean perfect work. Career joy doesn’t mean total satisfaction. But neither means long term misery or hopelessness either.
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Let's face it: mMost of us have never been taught, guided, or exposed to the process and skills needed to make one of most important decisions in life. You probably have more experience in buying a new car or computer than you do in choosing and finding good work.
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So here's what to expect here. First, you'll look at YOU: your hopes, fears, challenges, goals, preferences, skills, dreams, aptitudes and interests. You'll be introduced to the Good Work Circle, an interactive tool that will help you learn about yourself, the labor market and, finally, kick off and successfully complete your job search.
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From time to time I will also address career questions you may have. Not to mention you will no doubt find some terrific comments from terrific visitors that will get you both thinking and moving ahead.
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That's what to expect ahead. I hope you find what you're looking for. And I hope in the process we'll learn and laugh our way to the finish line!

WORK THAT MATTERS

This blog aims to provide helpful information in choosing or changing your career. Work takes up too much time to be stressful, miserable, dull, or depressing.

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There are three essential parts to choosing work that will satisfy both your head and heart:

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1. You have to know yourself.

2. You have to know the labor market.

3. You have to know how to conduct a dynamite job search.

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Here's a good place to start:

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Rule # 1: It's HOW You Work, Not What You Do

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Philosopher Matthew Fox tells of an Auto Mechanic who was depressed by his work but stuck with his job because of family responsibilities. He saw his work as meaningless. Through the advice of a Sufi teacher, he began to speak a religious term each time he turned the ratchet to repair a vehicle. By doing this his whole relationship with his work changed. “Now”, he said, “I love my work. I love cars. They are alive. It is a mistake to think of cars as inanimate. A car will tell you, if you listen deeply enough, whether it wants to be repaired or whether it wants simply to be left alone to die.”

Does this story sound silly to you? It is not as unusual as you might think. Gardeners will tell you that plants tell them what they need. Pet owners will tell you that they understand their animals’ communications completely. Homeowners will tell you that they have an unexplainable connection with their houses and sometimes know intuitively what attention the house needs. Artists and scientists will tell you that they are given ideas and information from sources that they do not know about and do not understand.
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To think about your work as a living thing, to tend to it because the tending somehow matters, will bring you closer to good work.

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People who do good work feel that their job means something, that in some way large or small what they do makes a real difference to somebody, or to some situation or some event. It does not matter if the worker is the President of General Motors or the Grill Cook in the company cafeteria. It does not matter how much money the job pays. What matters is that the work matters. And what matters most of all is HOW you work, not WHAT you do.