Starting small
- At December 18, 2010
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
The chances are very good that you will not achieve great career success over night.
The Thompson family may be Canada’s wealthiest family by far, worth approximately $22 billion, but they didn’t become fantastically rich over night. The patriarch, Roy Thompson, spent the first 40 years of his life floundering before purchasing his first newspaper and going on to establish a media and business empire.
J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the best known authors of all time. But it took him 12 years to write The Lord of the Rings and even longer to get it published. Ronald didn’t experience financial success and fame until later on in life.
Rick Warren now leads one of America’s largest churches, but (surprise, surprise) Saddleback Community Church didn’t exactly start out that way.
Kentucky Fried Chicken was a bit of a retirement project for Mr. Sanders, and initially not particularly well received.
Stephen Harper didn’t waltze into the House of Commons and become the leader of a great country on a whim.
Things take time.
So start small. Do something to develop your business today. Write something that will benefit someone. Do your best to serve that small church. Make one more sales call. Serve your country, right now.
Small acts of service sometimes turn into something big.
© Career & Life Direction 2010. All rights reserved.
Developing your skills
- At December 16, 2010
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
A career is simply the way you provide for your own needs by simultaneously meeting the needs of others. In order to succeed in a career you need to develop a specific skill that you can offer in service to others.
The trick is to discover what you are wired to enjoy doing and, with some training and practice, could do well. Posing for tourists on safari adventures might not be your calling, but you could have a natural skill that is equally obvious to others.
One thing to keep in mind is that many skills are transferable. This is just to say that you might be able to use your favorite skill in a wide variety of situations. For example, if you are very good at running you could pursue a professional sport or deliver the mail and out run all the nasty dogs in your neighbourhood.
It is important not to expect your skills to somehow identify and develop themselves. You may have been given one specific outstanding ability that is intended to change the world in some positive way. But gold underground needs to be mined and processed and polished and put on display.
It takes some work to develop a relationship and it will take some effort to get to know and develop yourself.
© Career & Life Direction. All rights reserved.
Being yourself
- At December 15, 2010
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Some creatures are quite a bit different from others. The prickly one perched here on the branch of a popular tree appears to be in a league all of its own. Perhaps you feel the same way about yourself. The challenge, though, is to really get to know yourself so that you can recognize your abilities and limitations. This will help you make a wise career choice.
Let me tell you about porcupines. For starters, they are very good at climbing and eating trees. Most dogs would find this exceedingly difficult. Second, they appear to be very courageous. Very little seems to startle them. Cats, on the other hand, are afraid of everything. Third, they thrive on solitude. Rarely will you find a flock of porcupines congregating on a tree in your back yard. Finally, and most importantly, they have thousands of quills connected to their bodies. These things can come in handy when the coyotes come calling.
Now suppose there was young porcupine somewhere out there who lacked this basic self-understanding. Imagine what would happen if this poor misguided creature decided to pursue a career more fitting to, say, a cow. Failure and frustration would be sure to follow.
Sure, sometimes it is helpful to work on an area of weakness. If this means becoming better at climbing certain trees, or being even more courageous in some situations, or more productive during times of solitude – great. But if this means trying to be something that you most definitely are not – give it up.
The one positive thing about banging your head against a brick wall is that you realize just how good it can feel when you stop.
© Career & Life Direction. All rights reserved.
Standing at the crossroads
- At December 11, 2010
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
As I write, I am surrounded by cats. Okay, so sometimes it just feels like I am surrounded. For the record there are two spoiled indoor cats in the small, rural apartment that my wife and I call home, and usually eight or nine friendly farm cats just by our front door. It is another chilly winter day here in Saskatchewan and the furry creatures outside need to stick together and stay close to the free food.
If these cats could read they would likely never bother with this blog because it wouldn’t relate to them. As far as I can tell, cats are not big on introspection, backpacking to Europe, etc. to find out who they really are – getting in touch with their true feline identity. Oh, they certainly have their own little quirks and personalities. One of the indoor cats that lets me live here is phlegmatic and likes to eat and sleep…and that is about it. Meanwhile the other furry creature is more of a type A personality and likes to attack things. Perhaps a cat psychologist (if there is such a thing) can tell me otherwise, but they both seem to know and be comfortable with who they really are.
Purpose doesn’t appear to be a problem for our prairie cat community, and getting paid isn’t much of a dilemma either. The people who serve the food have to be worked and manipulated and made to feel like they are important; but aside from that, what else is there to do? They don’t buy clothes or cars. They don’t need to build homes or plan for retirement. They don’t take expensive vacations or stockpile useless electronic gadgets. They don’t go into debt to keep up with the cats next door. If being a cat wasn’t such a bizarre and brutish existence in many other ways, I just might want to sign up.
There appears to be quite a chasm between God’s creatures, with humans being the most peculiar and complicated of the bunch. So maybe all the career-confused souls who are reading this can cut themselves a little slack. Realize that it may take some time – decades perhaps – to come to a clear understanding about what you really should be doing with your life. But wherever you are at in your journey, hopefully this blog will be of some help and encouragement as you struggle to figure out who you really are and seek to translate this self-understanding into career success.
© Career & Life Direction 2010. All rights reserved.