The last few years have involved a great deal of personal development and growth for me.
I am fascinated, particularly, in how people make their livings… what others do for work, and how others successfully balance work and life, and do work that they feel passionate about. Ultimately, I have a lot to learn from those people about how to better balance my own life, work, and passions.
Some of my personal development work has been carefully planned, intentional, and done with the help of others. At other times, the learning and growth has been far more internal… more introspective… and more like the lessons flow to me from a universe that has some sort of grand plan. I move back and forth between these styles of learning and improvement, and lately, have been immersed in both.
Among my blessings is the chance to spend time working with coach Amy Christensen of Expand Outdoors. Amy’s main focus in her coaching practice is to inspire, motivate and provide guidance and support for others as they experience the outdoors. Working with Amy is helping me connect my outdoor and indoor lives, toward creating an even happier, better balanced life for myself.
On the more quiet, internal side, one book I’ve found quite helpful is I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It
What have I learned, from all of this work? That left to my own devices, following my instincts, I know myself, my strengths, and my passions pretty darn well.
The tools, exercises, and time spent learning help me feel more confident to follow my instincts when I make decisions about my life and work. They do not point the way, like a set of directions; instead, they reassure me that I am traveling in the right direction, like a subtle glance at the position of the moon during a headlamp-illuminated hike. They help me see my blind spots: where many people focus on identifying and improving their weaknesses, my vision goes to how to maximize my strengths.
Being aware of both is important.
Filed under: Growth, Growth, Personal Development
Very interesting stuff, especially for someone who rashly threw off the chains of regular professional employment at the end of last year…
I read a really interesting article by Oliver Burkeman, who writes a regular column for the Guardian in the UK, about getting a fresh perspective on the whole issue of (as he puts it) living to work versus working to live. The link’s below but the key bit for me is:
“[The authors'] main point, though, is that we’ve confused “work” with “paid employment”. Paid employment per se can’t ever be fulfilling, they argue. But work – defined broadly as productive effort, thus including childcare and much else – may be the only source of real fulfilment. In reality, your work and employment may overlap partly or wholly. The benefit lies in making the mental separation.”
He’s talking about a book I haven’t managed to track down in hard copy yet. But I found his comments alone useful food for thought. His article’s here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/14/work-life-balance-burkeman
Nich – that makes me curious to catch up with you about how you’re now spending your days… and thanks for the suggested reading!
I very much live for work, as defined in that article you quoted. Paid employment pays the bills; work — the things I do whether paid or not, because I love to and am driven toward them… that’s what feeds me. I am beginning to see better how I may be able to someday feed myself with work, and have that work also happen to be paid employment.
For me, that shift is happening because of the revelation that my whole life, I’ve chosen paid employment that is hard, because if it’s easy, I feel guilty getting paid. I’ve gone from difficult career to difficult career, all the while spending my free time doing the “work” I love, whether paid or not.
It’s a pretty remarkable epiphany to realize that — perhaps if I get over myself, and the feeling that employment has to be HARD in order for someone to pay me to do it … perhaps then, I can do the work I love, and make a living at it.
We’ll see. It seems a rebellious thought to me… but I’m pretty dedicated to an experiment in doing just that.
Thank you so much for sharing that great link… I love the clarity of language that it gives, for a concept I’ve struggled to put into clear words for awhile!
Weird. I always thought that employment should be easy, because they should be paying me to do something that I’m good at, not something I’m not good at ;p
Great post as always.
I don’t personally find personality types that insightful beyond “hey, people are different” (and I disagree with methodology of something like Myers-Briggs). Maybe I’m just reacting to the fact that I usually get a type that says I would be happiest sitting at home alone reading a book. Maybe I would like them more if they matched my own perception of myself more and told me less about what I should change.
But if I use your navigation analogy, my theory of navigation is that the best navigation is knowing as soon as possible when you’re off route — which requires constantly searching for evidence that shows that you are off route.
Of course, everything can be a tool for any purpose, and if it works it works
INFP. There have been times in my life where I’m more of an E, maybe. But in the last five years…it’s almost always an I. Speaking of which…I’m learning to not care if I get pegged as an extroverted adrenaline junkie.
I’ve never quite fit any mold or box and I’m glad for it. More so than ever before.
Also, I clicked through to your Two Years post…and was flooded with feelings from that time, when you wrote it.
I’m thankful for your friendship.
Great post, Sara. I love the topic and solid details. I can’t wait to see what is going to unfold for you in the near future!