Eating, Praying, Loving, and Finding Myself in Quebec City

I recently had a marvelous time in Quebec City.  C'etait mon premier fois (it was my first time) as the Quebecoise would say.

Now I present my version of Eat, Pray, Love for this charming city:

I found myself Eating many delectable macarons, crepes, and croissants (I'm sure there is another carbohydrate I imbibed, but it's not coming to mind... just to my thighs.)

I kept Praying for my son to go to sleep in our quaint- and shared- hotel room.

I was Loving this enchantingly beautiful, French-speaking city.

Our trip to Quebec, while only two hours by plane, allowed me to reconnect with my passion for other cultures and experience a new city, all the while sharing my love of the French language with my children.  Speaking with native French speakers reminded me of how much I relish conversing in the graceful, musical language I studied in college.

Which leads me to the essence of Eat, Pray, Love, the best-selling novel adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts.  I read the book when it first came out and saw the movie in a movie theatre, which was nothing short of a miracle.  (If you'll recall, I am always way behind in popular books and movies.) While the movie didn't enamor me quite like the written word, seeing the story unfold on the big screen took me back to the marvelous premise of Elizabeth Gilbert's book:  finding oneself by connecting, enjoying, and experiencing life in all its richness.

When I first read Eat, Pray, Love I enjoyed it immensely.  The widely popular autobiography details the author's journey from the time she leaves behind a dead-end marriage to her global quest for self-discovery.  Although I've never traveled solo around the world for a year or experienced a dead-end marriage (and for the latter I am thankful!) I definitely related to Gilbert's multiple passions:  self-exploration, cultural and language immersion, traveling, writing and savoring delicious regional cuisine.  Most importantly, the book also brought back visceral memories of my own need to stretch myself- my life, my career, and my talents.  

Flashback a few years ago when I was in the midst of my acting career.  Although I was faring quite well in the Washington, DC acting community, I feared that I was becoming a bit too comfortable in my surroundings to grow as an artist.  I knew I needed to discover whether I had the ability to make it in New York City, and therefore decided to get my feet wet in the acting community up there. (Note- If you are an actor reading this, especially an actor living in New York, I'm sure you snickered when you read the "get my feet wet" phrase.  Because, seriously, how can you just dip your toes in the biggest acting pool in the world?)

Moving to NYC wasn't an option so I did what I could:  I rented a New Jersey sublet from a former Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.  He lived above his landlords:  a mother, her grown daughter, and their little brown dog (or rather, "dawg") curiously named 'Cheena"  When I inquired about this unusual name they responded in authentic, Joisey-like fashion, "Ya know... as in a mah-owww-kah-cheeenah.  She's like the collah of cawwfee."  Thus, the name Cheena.  (Or was it 'China?  I never asked.)

Needless to say, Manhattan and all of its opportunities overwhelmed me, but at the same time I actually did, at first, feel amazingly revitalized.  I saw so much talent and vibrancy in the New York theatre.  I met and collaborated with amazing people.  I was accepted into an advanced level acting class and loved it.  I began stretching myself artistically, and tested the waters by auditioning for everything I could.   I abandoned my comfort zone of staying at home in my safe and well-known environment in order to venture out into the unknown.

However, with all of this stretching and vibrancy and talent and wetting of feet, comes another, even more profound experience: humility.  (Yeah, that one hurt a little.)  Because I realized that a key ingredient to making it in The Big White Way was not only dogged persistence and extraordinary talent, but also sustainable, consistent, solid performance.  For example, while I have, in the past, knocked the socks off audiences, and made them laugh or cry or experience personal revelations,  I really came to understand that the best actors do this EVERY DAY.  Whereas I could look at my years as an actor and singer and recall killer performances, I honestly couldn't say that I could give killer performances sustainably like those who perform at the highest levels.

(Photo Credit: Rebecca McAlpin for News)

But you know what else I discovered besides the talent threshold?  When I filled my days with acting alone, I felt I wasn't living up to my potential in other realms of my life.  I wasn't helping people like I wanted to.  I craved making a direct and noticeable difference in other peoples' lives.  I also genuinely missed the other things that gave me energy:  painting, writing, teaching, traveling or cooking up new recipes.  I learned that I had a terrible time narrowing my playing field to just one sport, so to speak.  I realized I liked variety, plain and simple.  Perhaps, if I'd studied performance religiously for years and started in New York at a very young age, I may have caught a break by finding a specific niche.  But that narrow focus has never, and will never, motivate me.  That fact I cannot change about myself, nor do I want to.

I also instinctively sensed that I needed to use my brain to solve complex problems for other people, even though I had no idea at the time what kinds of problems they should entail.  (I realize now it was my diagnostic reasoning that was lying dormant- more on that in another post.)  All I knew was that I was spending way too much brain capacity figuring out which monologue or 16 bars of music I should use for my next audition.  I reached a point where I knew that the day-to-day life of an actor could not sustain me for the rest of my life.  Not to mention another year.

So, after time spent "getting my feet wet" and experiencing life as a New York City actor, I eventually headed back to DC to resume a new path.  This new life entailed a career in coaching, new little family members and a restored love for an incredible personal life rich with friends and family.  I didn't go to the ends of the Earth to find myself like Elizabeth Gilbert, but a $25 ride on the China Town Bus and a meager sublease helped me do some serious soul searching. 

I realized that you can "find yourself," whether you are married, single or a parent; live in New York City or Topeka, Kansas.  If you begin to ask yourself some honest, hard questions and face your fears of going to the next level in your career, you begin to assume personal responsibility.  Committing time and energy to self-discovery reaps unlimited rewards. Once you dig deep you'll find treasures lying within you, talents that have gone untouched for too long.  It may not be what you initially seek, but it will be you.

Growing in one's career takes so much courage.  And because of the risks involved many people choose to stay put.  They remain safe and sound in their cocoon of complacency, pleasing everyone but themselves.  Choosing this route may seem easy in the short term, (and we ALL do it at one time or another) but in the end these same individuals will probably find themselves depleted of energy and enthusiasm.  Unfortunately, those who feel stuck may wrongly blame family obligations for squashing opportunities .  It's very easy, and so very common, to use others as scapegoats for their own career failings.

While I can definitely say that, as a mother of two young children, there are real time and energy issues that constantly arise, I must remind myself to find ways to grow personally and professionally in the life stage I am in.  So I try to push myself to take important but sometimes scary initiatives in my business. I intentionally engage in activities and networking that benefit both family and career (and thereby save my sanity.)  I try my best to "find myself" daily by carving out time for myself and my work whether my kids like it or not.  That way they learn that my passions are an integral part of who I am, in addition to being their mother.  

So, alas, going overseas to Gay Paree may not be in the cards right now, but fortunately we gave Quebec City a try.  And brought les enfants.  This time around, anyway.  Next time it's just me and the Mister.  That seductive little city exudes way too much romance for a family trip every time.

So What the Heck is a Career Anyway??? Part IV: Alternative Career Lifestyles

In a recent post ("Part II", to be specific), I mentioned that we could all benefit from thinking of careers in broader terms.  Specifically, I pointed out that while some successful careers may take the form of one straight and narrow path, others are not so traditional.  This post addresses the non-traditional form that certain individuals may choose to take: a combination of paths creatively woven together to satisfy different interests and skills.  As I said before, while different people are drawn to different kinds of paths, ideally all of these paths bring our innate talents and interests to life in the form of a career.  

That being said, I've decided that I would now like to give the latter, non-traditional description the title:

"Alternative Career Lifestyle."

Say what?!!

Yes, I am declaring a new wave of thinking about careers, so much so that I am putting it in bold print and quotation marks. This new wave, which I will shorten to "ACL" (and not to be confused with the ligament found in the knee) describes the individuals who push the envelope of what it means to be fully satisfied career-wise and live well in the process.  These people don't care what "The Book" (i.e. the general consensus) says about what careers look like;  rather, these folks just do what they are:

a) good at
b) drawn to and
c) NEED to do, even if it's not what conventional wisdom dictates as acceptable. 

And no, I'm not talking about doing anything illegal.  I am sure you can find other blogs about that.  What I am referring to is simple:  Do what you need to do, even if it doesn't make other people say to themselves, "WOW!  (S)he has one really important/lucrative/respectable/hoitytoity/pie-in-the-sky/enviable/intellectual job!"  Because, really, who cares if your career path doesn't fit into the 40+ hour work week of say a doctor/lawyer/engineer or whatever else society says is the ultimate in job titles? 

At least I don't, if that makes you feel any better.

So the following are just some examples of people who lead alternative career lifestyles:

1) A person who has a multitude of interests that are better met with two or more part-time, but individually fulfilling jobs (such as a person whose main function or common thread is teaching/advising, and feels compelled to teach and advise in multiple demographics and settings.)

2) A parent that works for him/herself from home, intermittently dividing his or her time between a professional business and family business (i.e. running to the dry cleaner on the way to a client meeting and stopping on the way to that meeting to deliver a forgotten lunch to their child's school.)  
This same individual is less concerned with being the primary bread winner and more committed to raising a family while devoting some coveted hours to personal, career-oriented work.

3) A person who, for one reason or another, physically cannot work a full-time job outside the home but still needs and wants to contribute his or her talents in a non-traditional way.  (Paid or unpaid.)
He or she may start a business or get involved virtually with an organization and/or create a schedule of getting outside the home to work on a less-than-regular basis.

4) An individual who takes his or her training and education and inherent talents and volunteers full-time for an organization, garnering only what they need to live.  These careers may not pay anything but room and board, but many will say that giving of themselves in exactly the way they want to give is a luxury in and of itself.

5) Anyone  who writes, designs, paints, builds, acts, sings, etc. but needs to have some side job(s) that gives them peace of mind.  Having the financial burden lifted allows them to create without the pressure to perform or create for pay.  I must mention one extremely important caveat, however.  If the stability job drains the person emotionally, physically, and/or psychologically, creativity and self-esteem will suffer and peace of mind goes out the window!

All of this Alternative Career Lifestyle talk really boils down to this:  good career design doesn't always have one dimension.  Creating a career that fits your life means taking into account many factors, and talent and passion must mesh with where you are in your life at this point in time.   Therefore, "life design" more adequately describes the process I use with clients.  I encourage them to look at their lives as a whole.  Where are they now?  How is that different than 5 or 10 or 15 years earlier?  How have their needs changed?  How has their physical energy changed?  Have priorities been shuffled around, changing their minds as to what is most important to them?  I suggest they move away from the traditional practice of balancing personal and almost oppositional professional lives.  Rather, I propose that they take a more toward a holistic approach to meshing their lives, talents and careers together.

What that looks like is up to them.

Ringing in the New Year

Q:  Do you know what's bugging me about the 2011 In/Out Lists that I've read in every newspaper and magazine thus far this year?

A: They remind me of just how clueless I am when it comes to current trends.  I just don't get it.  For example, I am still trying to figure out why The Kardashian Dynasty crops up in every corner of the media universe.  I mean, what is the global fascination with this family??!!!  However, now it's 2011 and, according to the IN/OUT lists, they are OUT!  I shan't ever catch up! 

However, I am up on all 'dat career stuff, so here is my short and sweet 

IN/OUT List 
for 2011:

IN: Figuring out what you are good at doing and daring to do it. 

OUT : Settling for anything less.



IN:  Living a life that feels authentic everyday.

OUT : Living life post 5 pm and sometimes on weekends.



IN: Hiring a coach to help you do the above two "IN's"


OUT:  Doing It Yourself 

Now get out there and have a great 2011!*

(*The Kardashians would want you to, of that I am certain.)

So What the Heck is a Career Anyway? Part III: "I Seem to Be a Verb"

I asked career expert, Anthony Spadafore, renowned career coach and co-author of  Now What?  A Young Person's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career**, about how his view of careers has changed over the years.  He has provided an insightful point of view that I want to share with you:

When I was twenty-something I thought of my career as a sexy title.  I thought it would be cool to be an electrical engineer, I wanted prestige and social status.  The driving motive for me was really all about being liked and proving myself to others.  I wanted to get the girl of my dreams and so I figured that a BSEE [Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering] would do the trick.  In essence, I thought of my career as a noun . . . it was something to ‘have’ to show off  . . . sort of like peacock feathers. 

Looking back on it, I was just like a zombie in The Walking Dead, but with good Italian clothes.  I had a condo and a nice car and much of my free time in the gym sculpting my abs, so I was a pretty much a well-toned, clueless schmuck.  I was clueless about what I really wanted to do and the girls I dated all dumped me because I was just a shell of a dude with no substance.

Around 28 years old I hit a wall, I was going to this job that I hated and didn’t care enough about it to learn and stay on top of my field.   I was stumped and felt totally trapped.  I got exactly what I thought I wanted, yet I was miserable and could barely drag myself out of bed.  I got physically and psychologically sick and had sort of a meltdown.  I couldn’t fake an interest in my field anymore.

 All this shifted when I began to think of my career as something to ‘be’ versus something to ‘have’.  I came across this great quote by the inventor, R. Buckminster Fuller, that inspired me:

 “I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category.

  I am not a thing — a noun.  

I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of Universe.”

Nowadays, I think of a career as a way to express my natural abilities and just be what I am.   I seem to be a verb, and so my sense of a career is to do what I do best.  I love guiding people, popular science writing, and coming up with novel ideas.  Since a verb plays an integral function in service to the sentence it lives in, I had to come up with how my abilities could serve the immediate world around me.  I discovered that I wasn’t the only one stuck on figuring out their career direction.  So, I’m a verb on a career to solve a problem I really care about.  I think that’s a fun way to live, to find where your talents intersect with what other people have a need for and are willing to pay a little something for it.

Thank you, Anthony, for your insight!

**http://www.amazon.com/Now-What-Persons-Choosing-Perfect/dp/0743266307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294539793&sr=8-1

Faith

In the spirit of the holiday season, I thought I'd take a break from the career talk to mention a little something about faith.

I have never been what one would call "religious."  I have always felt, however, a pull toward the spiritual.  I tend to believe in miracles, serendipity, things happening for a reason, and knowing when you've found "your calling."  I also believe that it takes a certain amount of faith to make changes in your life. 

I don't know how else to explain why someone would take a chance on following a dream, make a long term commitment with a significant other, have children, try out a new path, or invest in themselves or their prospective business.  These acts require a person to have faith in themselves, their relationship, their talent, their abilities to cope with whatever problems arise.   Believing without seeing is what faith is all about, which is not an easy task, as many people will admit.

I remember a time when I had a really tough, life-changing decision to make, one that I'd been putting off making for way too long.  I'd procrastinated because I knew the repercussions would be personally devastating no matter the decision.  There was definitely a responsible, ethical choice , but I couldn't bring myself to make it because I knew it would be emotionally painful.  Finally, in a moment of desperation, I tearfully explained my turmoil to a friend who wisely told me, "Katie, sometimes you just have to make the adult, mature decision you know is right and live with that decision." 

"Live with that decision."

Those words magically resonated with me and I felt a huge sense of relief.  The fact was, I did have substantial evidence as to the right decision, but the fear of not being able to emotionally deal with the consequences of that decision had crippled me.  But for some reason, those words triggered an ounce of faith that I could live with that decision, no matter what happened.  This faith in my coping abilities enabled me go with the right choice.

Now, admittedly, it was extremely hard, but I had mustered up the faith in myself to live with my decision.  I braved through the after-math with a newly acquired confidence and strength. Making life decisions and commitments require nothing less than blind faith, knowing that even if the change involves a certain degree of failure, you can live with those failures, knowing that the decision is the right one.

So here's my holiday wish for you:  believe in your abilities, your ideas, your passions, your inclinations.  Have faith that you can make changes in your life that benefit you and those you care about.  Allow your faith to grow each day of the upcoming year and see what happens.  While you don't know for sure what the future will bring, you can at least know that you are choosing your actions based on self-confidence and faith, as opposed to choosing inaction based solely on fear.

So What the Heck is a Career Anyway? Part II: A Word by Any Other Name... Might Actually Sound Better

The term, "career" can mean just about anything these days, and to say the term comes loaded with baggage is an understatement.  That is why, when I tell people I'm a career coach, I get reactions as varied as:

"Oh, really?!  I (or my son, daughter, mother, aunt, uncle, friend, cat...) definitely need to talk to you!"

to

"Oh."  (As in, "Oh.  Did you pick that one out of a hat or something?")

to

“Ohhhh.” (As in Ohhhh... you’re one of THOSE people who are going to tell me to do what I LOOOVE and sing kumbaya and make no money and be happy about it. This is typically accompanied by a subtle roll of the eyes.)

I have searched high and low for various definitions, derivations, musings, and general nonsense about careers, and this is what I've uncovered:  the word "career," solely from a dictionary's point of view, centers around three words:  permanency, longevity, and commitment.

Sounds kind of daunting, huh?  No wonder adults, young and old alike, feel intimidated by choosing a career.

When I work with clients, I don't even bring up terms such as the above.  Instead, we simply uncover what they enjoy doing and determine what they are exceptionally good at.  Does commitment follow?  Absolutely.  Does this result in permanency and longevity?

Hmmm...

I'd prefer to use the term, "growth."

Growing entails learning, evolving, making mistakes, re-adjusting, mastering, and, ultimately, succeeding. However, this evolution needs some scaffolding to make the process efficient. I therefore help clients find the one brilliant spine or cohesive glue, if you will, that binds their cognitive abilities, skills, preferences, and passions together.  Once that spine is in place, their professional lives can naturally unfold and flourish. 

Successful careers are living expressions of our brain and body.  They may shift as our needs and lives change, but their essence remains.  This essence must be discovered, cultivated and put to use in order to meet the needs of others as well as our own needs.  They may take the form of one straight and narrow path or a combination of paths that we creatively weave together to satisfy our different interests and skills.  And though different types of people are obviously drawn to different kinds of paths, ideally all of these paths bring our talents and interests to life in the form of a career.

All that said, I won't throw out the dictionaries entirely.  I've decided that as far as a dictionary definition is concerned, I'm going to pay homage to the origin of the term "career", which stems from the Middle French "carrière," meaning "course" or  "passage."  Moreover, "carrière" continues to be the French word for career.  (Most likely because the New French found no need to change what the Old French had started.  And hey, it sounds pretty.) 

I personally find "course" and "passage" appealing for a number of reasons:

1) they allow for a broader understanding of the word "career"
2) they just sound a little less daunting, and I'm all about taking the daunting out of life in general
3) they mesh well with the idea of growing and moving forward, all within a given path

So perhaps I should try calling myself a "carrière coach", making sure to amp up the rolling r's in the middle.

That'll put an end to the bad "Oh's."  And begin the new phase of people just looking at me kind of funny.

So What the Heck is a Career Anyway? Part I: An Enigma for Most People

As I compiled all of the career poll responses, both online and off, my inner monologue went something like this:

"Seriously, Katie.  Why do you punish yourself this way?
Gathering data (yay!!) must lead to sorting data (awww, do I haveta?)
And what do we say about sorting data?
'Avoid like plague!!'
So why on earth did you decide to open this can of worms?
How are you ever going to sort through all of these different responses?
Where does one even begin?"

(I just thought I'd be honest with you, if for no other reason than because I was raised Catholic and I'll feel guilty if I don't.)

Yes indeed, I did panic.  But then, 2 days, 2 minutes and 31 seconds later, I felt much better.  I just needed to let the overwhelming data overwhelm me for a while.  And then I realized how the variety in responses validates my theory of why the meaning of the word career is enigmatic for many people:  everyone has his or her own version. This also means that one post is not going to cut the mustard, as they say.  (That’s a bad saying, but I felt like using it anyway.)  Therefore there will be a sort of blog miniseries on the career definition.  Yes, my dear readers, you are getting your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present early this year.

First of all, I’d like to share with you some of the interesting analogies and definitions I received:

Leslie said she thinks of a career as a "book with many chapters."

For Pat, the term "connotes a chosen professional path, which is probably a way to earn a living, but is also a way to build self-esteem and identity. The word 'career' is stronger than 'job' but weaker than 'calling' or 'vocation'."

Katherine said, "On occasion, when you choose a career and have been practicing in that career for many years, things can turn on you."  This comment pops up in so many conversations I have with people who've been in the same career for some time.  They feel as if something has gradually shifted, wherein tasks, responsibilities, environment, and/or colleagues have changed and now their days look nothing like they did during the first few years.  Sometimes liking a career and seeing it morph into something you never bargained for is just as bad as not knowing what career to pursue in the first place.  However, these two predicaments need the same solution:  think more about what you want to do everyday, and less about the title you possess.  

Another person has come to view a career as more of a "journey" than a "destination".  I definitely plan to elaborate on this career philosophy in the future, which I consider a key ingredient to successful career development.  It's kind of like when you are going on a plane trip and try not to care about how the airlines are treating you like sand in their proverbial swim trunks, and instead you just enjoy your time devouring that book you've been wanting to read or that Snickers Bar you've been saving for just the right occasion.  Now is the perfect time to whip that puppy out since it'd cost you about ten bucks on your flight.

But I digress. On to the career poll.

I personally find all of the poll choices legitimate components of my definition of career.  For example, the first choice, "a job, plain and simple," as basic as it sounds, has merit in its own right.   At times clients may take on jobs not only to pay the bills, but so that they may also reach their meta goal of pursuing their desired long term career path.  (See Alice's comment about her writing career.)  Many artists and performers may find themselves in this position quite often, unless he or she develops an equally satisfying parallel career along the way.

On the other hand, some people are content filling their lives with various jobs (not necessarily draining jobs, but not abundantly satisfying either) that help support one or more passionate hobbies.  I'll be writing future posts about the pros and cons of piecing together jobs and hobbies, but I do like the succinct comment submitted by Rachel.  She explained, "I think of a career as something that builds related job experiences over time into something that means more as a collective than each job could on its own."   I love it.  There’s much to be said in having a common thread, gradually building up your range of expertise over time.

The next, most popular, selection, "following my life's calling and/or passion(s)" has always been a necessary component of my definition of "career."  And come on, if I didn't believe this one, why would I even bother calling myself a career coach?   Job listings and forecasts tell you where the money and jobs are and will be, but not where you personally have a chance of thriving and succeeding.  For example, if you have no passion or interest (or talent) in medicine and healing people, who cares if the job forecast says the nursing profession is a financially promising field because of aging baby boomers?  Without the motivation or interest or talent you will probably find it difficult to compete professionally with those who have a real passion and gift for nursing.  And then you are back to square one, but with college or grad school loans piled on top as well.

The third choice, "uncertainty and aggravation," unfortunately, have their place in careerdom.  (Don't bother googling that word, I just made it up.)  As much as we all wish this weren't true, these discomforts come with the territory. Even when you courageously follow your dream career path, wherein all of your talents and skills and interests line up perfectly, you'll still have moments of doubt and frustration.  (In fact, if you had absolutely NO trouble at all, I'd wonder if you are truly challenging yourself.)

Younger clients, quite understandably, often feel frustrated and overwhelmed with all of the possibilities presented to them.  My poll didn't reach many high school age and college age students, who would probably have selected this choice in greater numbers.  I personally remember feeling overwhelmed with career uncertainty in college and in my twenties;  however, my experience predates the onslaught of information (Facebook, Twitter, bing, google, and so on) that barrage young people today. 

One young person has described career coaching in terms of helping to "tame the monster," or making the ordeal of career selection more manageable. In light of this clever metaphor, isn't interesting that one of the most popular job sites today is called "monster.com?"  Surprisingly, doing a typical career search by itself results in far more frustration and anxiety than self discovery.  One would think the exact opposite is true, perhaps because the classifieds and career search engines such as careerbuilder.com and monster.com seem so easy, so accessible, so immediate. And we as a society- both young and old alike- don't like to think about long-range life planning.  It's difficult to see the immediate gratification.

Add to that the degree to which organizations inundate us with ads declaring that they can meet all of our career needs for success RIGHT NOW. In doing so they make it seem as if it takes less emotional energy to look to the outside for self-definition.  The great secret lies in searching for clues by looking at our own talents and interests;  however, remember this entails steering off the information highway and answering some questions about ourselves.  While it may seem easier to ingest lots of extraneous information (something we're addicted to now) than make a life decision, it's actually much more debilitating.

And the good news?  Great career design helps to ensure that the uncertainty and aggravation are only moments, not incessant daily occurrences.  Furthermore, being in a career that fits makes these moments feel like bumps in the road, not huge potholes that can swallow you whole. The more a client can look within for clues rather than search desperately for outside guidance, the more successful his or her path finding will be. 

Next up on the list, "a journey of trial and error."  Not a very popular choice, but a definite career component.  Sometimes what looks good on paper, in your mind's eye, on You Tube, TV, or on a glossy brochure isn't so perfect in real life.  That's why I recommend trying on a career for size before taking the plunge.  Take as much time as you can to shadow, volunteer, work part-time, intern, set up informational interviews... do whatever it takes to get a true look at a typical day "in the life of" said profession.  As one respondent pointed out, a career is "more than a job title."

And finally, "filling a need in society."  This is the entrepreneur's calling card.  Innovators know they don't get paid for doing or providing something no one wants or needs.  And if the need isn't apparent to society, they show society the need.  For example, computer programmer Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in 1995.  Before that time we all just assumed we had to pay for classified ads.  Craigslist and ebay, Google, Facebook- seriously, where would we be without these innovations?

Well..., probably more sane, but that’s a different story.

Often clients first come in thinking they need to fit in somewhere, when in actuality they discover they are the ones who have the upper hand.  They soon learn how empowering it is to learn that they have something others want.  It’s hard to see an innate talent because it’s innate!  If something comes easily for us, we don’t naturally recognize our uniqueness and that others need what we have.

Whether the needs of others involve healing, nourishing or teaching, or computing, advising, or investing, the fulfilled individual creates a way to fill these needs using his or her own vessel of physicality (strengths, agility, endurance), aptitudes, and talents.   In turn, using our own strengths (and you know something is a strength when your brain needs to do something, kind of like needing to exercise a dog that is pent up in a room all day) fuels us to keep filling others' needs.  Otherwise the vessel is depleted and there is nothing left to give.  I tell my clients that they must get energy in order to give energy, and they heartily believe me because they've usually had a lot of experience with one way giving in their jobs.

Stay tuned for my next post about defining a career, dictionary-style vs. Katie-style.  I'll attempt to help you make sense of the various schools of thought in career development circles.  That way when you go to the bookstore you can expediently identify the various philosophical camps without wading through the myriad career and self help books.  Unless you have that kind of time;  in which case have fun and let me know if there's some little gem I've missed, like, Bathroom Humor Part IX, or something...  (Is that in Self Help, by the way??)