Decision time
- At June 23, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
One fine day, or “unfine” day as the case may be, you will have to throw yourself out of bed in the morning, stand up tall, and loudly declare to the world or at least a few crickets in the corner: “Today I will make my grand and glorious career decision – so help me God!” And you will need God’s help, along with the help of many other people, for such a large decision is not easy to make.
As I read these words once again, I feel in a way that I am one to talk. But maybe, just maybe, you will be able to benefit from some of my embarrassing mistakes. Looking back, some of my major career decisions were much too random and not at all well thought out. A decision was make when it needed to be made, in part, because there was no other choice but to decide to do something. This is to say, that while making a firm and timely decision is important, that it is not enough. Choosing wisely and sooner than later – that is the ideal combination.
Much of the content on this blog is devoted to helping you, in some small way, to make a wise decision and pursue a career and a life that is a fit with who are. This modest resource isn’t, however, intended to consume your attention any longer than it takes you launch you in an exciting career direction. “You’re going the wrong way!” John Candy called out in the film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles as he drove madly into traffic on the freeway. While he was actually going the wrong way, nobody could fault him for failing to make a clear and a firm decision.
Second-guessing yourself is of course a good idea when facing the prospect of a head-on collision, but a carefully considered career choice is something altogether different. Unless there is a dramatic change in your life situation, you need to stick to your plan and stay the course. Things take time. Career goals are not often accomplished overnight. Sure, some fine-tuning will be required. But planning on becoming a doctor one day and a lawyer the next will most likely mean that you will be working at McDonald’s for the rest of your life.
Now I happen to enjoy McDonald’s restaurants and usually appreciate very much the friendly service I receive there. But is that where you want to work? I seriously doubt if the person who served me today really wanted to be there.
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved.
The Butterfly Circus
- At May 31, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Looking for a little inspiration in the midst of career struggles or an otherwise difficult journey though life? The award-winning short film “The Butterfly Circus” is well worth your time.
Set in the United States during the Great Depression, down and discouraged people are exposed to two very different takes on human dignity and potential by way of two travelling circuses. One takes advantage of Will, a severely disabled man played by Nick Vujicic. This circus benefited by routinely condemning him and keeping him down. But the leader of the Butterfly Circus, Mr. Mendez, together with the circus family – who are all really a lot like Will – help him struggle to joyfully realize his true potential.
“The greater the struggle, the greater the triumph,” Mr. Mendez says to Will one day. And Will is obviously facing seemingly overwhelming obstacles of magnitude that very few people can relate to. Then again, perhaps a great number of us know what it is like to feel like we really don’t have much to offer, and that the challenges we are facing will never, ever, in a million years, be overcome.
The importance of self-talk is emphasized throughout this brief and beautiful film. Sadly, Will initially believed the lies he learned from cruel people and accepted the labels others placed upon him. Slowly though, he learns that words like “magnificent” and “beautiful”could be applied to him.
Warmth, encouragement, and camaraderie are on display in the renowned Butterfly Circus, and you get the sense that Mr. Mendez finds great joy in seeing his performers “turn off” the internal and external voices that had been holding them back.
While this short film is a story about one man and two circuses, it is also about each one of us and two worldviews that are clamouring for our attention. Mr. Mendez may remind a lot of discouraged people about somebody else who has an interest in seeing them become all that they were created to be.
Whatever else may be said about “The Butterfly Circus” nothing will compare to the experience of actually watching it. The effect of great art on the human soul cannot be overstated.
Enjoy.
*Google the film title and you will soon be able to watch it online.
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved
Home on the range
- At May 10, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Pursuing the quintessential “at home” feeling at your home or by way of a career may well be elusive in this world. At one level you will always feel like you do not fit simply because this world is not really your home. Generations come and generations go. Civilizations rise and civilizations fall. Life is short. Houses quickly change hands and new names turn out to be easy to attach to office doors. And yet there is no point trying to make your brief stay on this planet as awkward as possible either.
Horses seem to be at home on the range together with the roaming buffalo and the infamously playful deer and antelope. There are, in fact, a wide variety of creatures that thrive in a pastoral or prairie environment. But not all of them do. Polar bears are few and far between. Penguins appear to have other preferences. Seals like the sea. Mountain goats…well, they tend to stay in the mountains. This is to say that people also feel at home in a wide variety of situations and that it is often possible to find a partial fit.
So, if you had a choice,where would you live? Do you prefer the city of the country? Are you interested in mostly staying close to where you grew up, or would you like to travel? What could you do to eventually make that dream a reality? And what would you really like to do with your life in terms of career? It is possible that at this point you really do not know. How do you suppose you could go about finding out? Where could you get more information in order to determine what you might be interested in? What are you good at? What have you been affirmed for? How could you go about developing your strengths into a marketable career?
These questions could help you determine where you might feel more at home and what you may find yourself doing there. Notice though that nothing has been said here about the importance of relationships when it comes to experiencing the “at home” experience. It takes effort to determine an appropriate career direction, energy to establish a home, and time to nurture meaningful relationships. Singing about the beauty of the range, or whatever setting you happen to enjoy, is somehow much more enjoyable when someone else is there to listen.
Career Direction & Earth Day
- At April 22, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Choosing to celebrate whatever we happen to feel like celebrating when it comes to personal, family, school, and national holidays has very little to do with freedom and a whole lot to with choosing our own chains.
Birthdays are traditionally a big deal for many people. Here in Canada, family and friends routinely gather to sing celebrating human life with cake and candles each time the Earth revolves around the Sun. The majority of people tend to have fond feelings about life. But just imagine what it would be like if a decade or so down the road many Canadians surveyed chose to celebrate death.
Happy deathday to you! Happy deathday to you! Happy deathday. Happy deathday. Happy deathday to yooooooou! A toast: May your life be ever so brief, filled with grinding poverty and great pain, and may the state-funding flow freely so you can hear this message again and again.
Of course the consistent, inclusive, progressive, tolerant take on “Death Day” would be to equally treasure and celebrate this demonstration of minority culture as an important part of our rich and diverse culture mosaic. Dis “Death Day” and the hate-speech people would be sure to come running with their generous supply of sticky labels.
With all of this in mind, stop for a moment and consider that Earth Day is going to be celebrated on the same day as Good Friday this year. The Earth – one of a billion or so dying planets, inhabited by dying people and orbiting around a dying sun – is presented as being on par with Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross on behalf of a dying world.
On the one hand there is encouragement to recycle, car pool, and cut down on carbon, and on the other there is God’s method of dealing with human sin and the headline consequences. There is hope that the environment will last a little bit longer, and hope that you will live forever and creation will be restored to its glorious original state. There is Mother Earth, a planet that could care less about you – about your family, school, country, and career aspirations. And then there is the most powerful being in the universe clearly demonstrating that He cares a lot about life.
And finally, we have secular people who are passionate about trying to save this planet for no particular reason, and others who have been inspired yet again to make a difference in this world, in a thousand different ways, and take care of God’s creation.
The contrast is striking and, may I suggest, the choice is clear.
Purpose and poverty
- At April 14, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Millions of people woke up this morning to face another day of extreme poverty. In situations like this, finding clean water to drink and enough food to eat may seem like all that really matters.
A young Russian man named Oleg once informed me that he and his mother had lived on potatoes and tea for an entire month. Many would feel lucky if they had that.
Heart-breaking stories of deprivation, especially involving children, are difficult to deal with at the best of times. Placing these stories next to ones about comparatively wealthy North Americans trying to “find” themselves and identify a more fitting career will not produce much in the way of sympathy.
These young boys in the Mathare Valley slum on the edge of Nairobi, Kenya, were full of life. But they also faced a life full of hardship.
Even without leaving the continent, there is no shortage of stories to be told about difficulties and hardships faced by previous generations that make ours seem insignificant in comparison. Many fled from other countries because they were facing political and religious oppression. Others came because they had nothing where they were. And building a life in a new country, learning another language, etc. was no small task.
Just remember, though, that endlessly obsessing about yourself was never the ultimate goal to begin with. The idea is to figure out who you are so that you can move on; so you can be yourself for your own benefit, yes, but also for the benefit of others. How is trying to be something you most definitely are not going to help anyone in the long run? It is just going to make you miserable and ineffective.
Imagine a world where everyone is functioning to their full potential. What would it be like? If you just focus on the economy it is fair to say that, all things being equal, our productivity would improve and our GDP numbers would jump. With this in mind, Canadians might want to consider that our neighbours to the south are known to be very wealthy and also very generous.
© Career & Life Direction 2012. All rights reserved.
Filtering advice
- At April 09, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Seeking advice is, well, highly advisable as you pursue a more suitable career and journey through life. It is shocking at times to suddenly realize, yet again, how small, fragile, and limited humans really are. Even the best and the brightest among us must, at least occasionally if not regularly, ask for assistance and seek out the advice of others.
Notice, though, that you will be talking to, or reading a book written by, another limited human being. Even the experts do not know everything. Unless God shows up, in this case to give specific and clear career and life guidance (and this does happen from time to time), you will need to get in the habit of carefully evaluating the advice you receive.
A growing understanding of who you are under God will function like a filter. Setting boundaries is, I am told, a basic skill that is normally acquired early on in life. I am not you. You are not me. That toy is mine, although I may be encouraged to share it with you. This sounds straightforward enough although the implications are profound. But one problem is that developing a deeper sense of who you really are, determining how you are similar to and different from another particular person, can take a really long time.
Be aware, as you mix and mingle, that career suggestions can be based, often unconsciously, on the interests, dreams, personality, strengths, and convictions of the person you happen to be talking to. You may find yourself listening to excellent career or life advice that is perfect for somebody like them and not quite as appropriate for you. Your new friend may mean well and think that they want what is best for you; the only problem is that they do not really know you.
In your friend’s defense, you can’t really expect them to know you if you haven’t taken the time to get to know yourself and let them in, just a little, on the real you. Yes, the importance of healthy navel-gazing has just been hammered home once again on this blog. And you are indeed noticing a pattern.
Four words to keep in mind as you filter career and life advice: I am not you.
Courage and victory
- At April 05, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry – four small hobbits – faced overwhelming obstacles and incredibly frightening adversaries in J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
The hobbits, together with Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, Gandolf, and their dwarf, elf, and human friends, often appeared to be no match for an awesome army of orcs and goblins; not to mention Gollum, the Nazgul, Saruman, and the Dark Lord of Mordor. Moreover, the struggle was constant; the battle was intense. Their friends were few.
And their cause often appeared to be hopeless. Defeat seemed inevitable. Each step on their journey could have been their last. And yet, they struggled together, and marched deep into the land of Mordor – right up to Mount Doom – in order to finally destroy the oppressive ring of power.
Courage led to victory.
During the Cold War, I believe it was C.S. Lewis who pointed out that although the U.S.S.R. could launch a nuclear attack against the West, they couldn’t make us cower in fear. And how we deal with our emotions during a major life challenge or crisis is sometimes what matters the most.
Of course, ongoing career struggles pale in comparison to Tolkien’s epic tale or a potentially catastrophic world conflict. But courage is required nonetheless.
Courage will help you send out another resume when you know full well that you may be rejected again. Courage will help you take action after putting together a carefully crafted career plan. Courage will help you acquire new skills that are necessary to achieve long-term career success. Courage will help you make the changes that are needed in your life in order to move ahead.
A courageous spirit needs to be nurtured together with a sense of caution. Adopting a reckless and haphazard approach to developing your career will tend to result in setbacks and failure that could have been avoided. So be sure to identify dangers and then avoid them. At the same time, carefully identify worthwhile goals and determine to work towards them – despite how you may feel.
Small people sometimes accomplish great things.
© Career & Life Direction 2012. All rights reserved.
Dreams, direction, and God
- At April 02, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
It is sometimes difficult to discern how personal hopes and dreams relate to God’s grand purpose for our lives. Our aspirations can be so strong and seem so significant, and yet somehow we know that they are secondary.
Goals that are tightly tied to who we feel that we really are must matter. Still, our particular plan might connect directly with God’s plan, and then again, it might not – or at least not in the way we imagined.
Atheists do not need to wonder about or agonize over how their own aspirations connect to the larger scheme of life. For denying God amounts to admitting sooner or later that life – all of life – is pointless. Pretending that it is otherwise is just an exercise in self-deception. Many try not to walk down this dark path towards nihilism, but it is the next stop after naturalism on the worldview highway travelled by millions in the West.
This observation, I should mention, can be traced back to James W. Sire and his book The Universe Next Door.
This means that thoroughly secular parents should, in all honesty, tell their kids to ditch their dreams: For according to their ideology, whether they realize it or not, human aspirations matter about as much as humanity, which is to say – not much.
So it is better to be a little confused about which direction to take, in terms of a career, than to be completely paralyzed by a philosophy that serves to deconstruct all human endeavors. Living with a mysterious arrangement or two in the universe beyond our present comprehension isn’t all that bad when you consider the options.
The Apostle Paul prays to God for people in Greece like this: “May he give you power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do” (2 Thess. 1:11, NLT). At the same time, over in Italy, it becomes clear that not everything people – even people like Paul – attempt to do will be accomplished (Romans 1:13).
Paul is famous for making several missionary journeys on and around the Mediterranean Sea, and yet his plan to travel to Spain never really worked out.
The point of this post is actually quite clear in a hazy sort of way: Your personal hopes and dreams for the future may really matter, but only under God.
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved.
Snorkelling in B.C.
- At April 01, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
“B.C. stands for Bad Choice.” That’s what Leighton, a friend from Saskatchewan, had to say after yet another gruelling summer planting trees in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia.
Wouldn’t you know it, he went on to marry a girl who grew up watching the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean in Courtney, British Columbia. And he lived for close to a decade, as I recall, right on Vancouver Island with all the cool granola people.
Eventually, I also discovered that B.C. has a number of good things going for it, including being the home of Regent College. Stepping through the door into Regent, as a student in 1994, was ironically like opening a window and getting a breath of fresh air.
To change the metaphor, it was comparable to being handed a face mask and a snorkel while floating along and floundering in a state-subsidized secular sea.
Recently I was informed by a fine Regent staff member that a course they are offering in May 2011 would fit quite nicely with this blog. Indeed, it does. And so, here I am putting in a plug for my old alma mater.
Vocation, Work, and Ministry sets out to help bewildered students figure out who they are and how this relates to what they should be doing with their lives. Paul Stevens, a person and a professor I admire and respect, has been fine-tuning this course for at least 17 years. I can only assume that he has recruited some high-quality help by way of Gray Poehell, who is a career consultant with Egron Communications.
“C’est pas cher” would not likely be an appropriate introduction for a French version of Regent College or this 3-credit course. One way to cut the cost in half is to sign up to audit it. But if you have enough money, some time in the afternoon May 9-20, and are looking for quality Christian-based career guidance, this course is sure to help you determine your career direction.
May I only suggest that you be sure to use this quality reflection time in order to develop a clear plan of action. Choosing endless articulate reflection rather than a specific career direction is truly a bad choice.
More information is availabe at www.regent-college.edu/academics/summer/invest.php
Globetrotting
- At March 26, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Travelling is expensive. There is nothing wrong with exploring and expanding your world by travelling here or there as you have opportunity. In fact, I quite enjoy it. I write as one of your typical North Americans who has purchased a train pass and traveled through parts of Europe on a whirlwind adventure.
I have toured the canals in Venice, inspected Michelangelo’s masterpiece in Florence, surveyed the ancient ruins in Rome, and relived The Sound of Music story in Salzburg, Austria. I have watched the sun rise over the Swiss Alps and raced along the German autobahn – although my friend’s BMW was never quite the same after that. Castles, cathedrals, concentration camps…it was an educational adventure.
But as you pursue a new career, not to mention God’s purpose for your life, it is also a good idea to carefully consider how you are spending the time and using the limited resources you have been given. It is prudent to have a plan.
Planning is important. God answers prayer and miracles do happen but it is wise not to always presume upon them. Don’t expect God to routinely do for you what He may well expect you to routinely do for yourself. Arriving back in Canada in 1988 with seventy-five cents in my pocket, after studying and travelling in Europe, was not a prelude to a spectacular divine-intervention story. God’s provision came rather by way of a very demanding and difficult job. Consider that jobs are usually created because somebody somewhere had a detailed plan.
Developing a career plan is likewise critical for career success. So if you enjoy traveling, try to do it in a way that fits with your career direction plan. If you are considering a medical career, you might want to consider a short-term trip that ties into that. Many African countries, for example, would be happy to have you. I have met farmers who have traveled to western Australia to see how the “Ozzies” do things down under. Met a pastor who flew to London, England, to meet Nicky Gumbel, the Anglican minister who helped to make the Alpha program a global success. The possibilities are endless.
The thing is, a large world to explore and lots of opportunities to travel can be a paralyzing combination. In order not to get sidetracked, remember that it is impossible to see and experience first-hand even a very small part of this planet over an entire lifetime.
My wife’s grandfather was quite convinced that the valley surrounding his prairie farm contained more to see and experience than he would ever be able to take in.
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved.
Risk & Rivendell
- At February 19, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Moving towards a new career involves taking risks, but the level of risk involved needs to be limited and measured. Make sure that you will be able to look back on your career preparation time with fondness rather than regret.
Planning on going to college or university? Be aware that investing in a long and expensive university education is no guarantee that you will get a secure and well-paying job in the end. In the classic manual for people in career transitions, What Colour is your Parachute, Richard Bolles mentions all the mournful letters he receives from unemployed university grads.
Signing up for a specific program of study is sometimes more of a benefit to the school than it is to the student. You have heard what the university graduate said to the college drop out, haven’t you? “Would you like fries with that, sir?”
As a result of the risk involved, and significant risk at that, it is necessary to carefully consider the formal education decisions that you make. Remember that student loans need to be repaid. Your carefree and subsidized college days will come to an end. What then? What skill will you have to offer to employers when you step out onto the street as it were, and begin to pound the pavement in search of a job.
Keep in mind that while marks and academic exploration matter a lot in college, production is more of a priority in the work place. What will you have to offer that would be of value to a company or a non-profit organization? A liberal arts education may be valuable in many ways, but it needs to be balanced with acquiring specific and tangible marketable skills.
If you see yourself as an academic, be certain that your education decisions will prepare you for a paying academic position. Getting paid matters.
Unless you have very deep pockets, I would not recommend investing more than two years in a formal program of study that will likely fail to translate into a sustainable career. Recently, I read about a new Christian-based liberal arts program called Rivendell Sanctuary. It is named after the elves’ sanctuary in J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings and is located in Bloominton, Minnesota. I mention Rivendell here because their program is limited to 18 months for this very reason.
Try to balance intellectual exploration and development with acquiring practical skills. A college education should launch you out into a productive and satisfying life, and this includes getting a real job in the working world.
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved.