I also dedicate this website to all my clients, from whom I always learn so much, and my wonderful friends and colleagues in Hawaii , where the seeds for my workbook and the "career-life" paradigm I created in the islands and throughout the Pacific Basin Rim area, were first nourished by the aloha spirit in the 1970's.
Hi There! Welcome to my new blog about Creating Careers with Confidence (CCC).
Thanks for making a choice to visit here. I hope you make a choice to post a comment if you have a few ideas to share.
If you want your own copy of my self-paced workbook, click Creating Careers with Confidence and you will be able to conveniently order it now and have it shipped today!
OPENING COMMENTS
This blog is longer than most of my future blogs because it is the first blog and includes background information and some important acknowledgments.
Each blog posting will have a title to set the main theme. I invite you to comment on the themes by posting your comments at the bottom of the page. Simply follow the instructions to make your posting.
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I call this first entry The Choice for a reason I explain further on. I put forth this effort into the Universe and ask for God's blessing upon it so that it may do something good for whomever discovers it and trust that the collective wisdom of so many others can be mediated through this new blog about creating careers with confidence!
PURPOSE OF BLOG
Recognizing & Honoring Career-LIfe and
Making Wise and Informed Choices Across All Life Roles
My intention is to provide a forum for anyone out there on the Internet interested in career development-related topics, especially regarding this very powerful paradigm, that is NEW to many, we call CAREER-LIFE. I will discuss this concept soon in another blog.
ALL of us are on our career-life journey.
I have chosen to offer assistance to people such as yourself, who feel they need a helping hand, a fresh idea, and maybe even a new direction.
- ARE YOU...
- A HIGH SCHOOL student concerned about your school-to-college-or-work decision?...
- A COLLEGE student wondering if you picked the "right" major?...
- An OLDER ADULT thinking about making a career change and concerned about your age?...
- A PERSON IN TRANSITION and feeling lost, depressed, with little or no direction at the present?
- A PARENT who is concerned about the future direction of your child, young adult, even older adult?
- A CAREER SERVICES PROVIDER who wants to dialogue about career-life topics and ideas?
You may have discovered my workbook, and want to discuss your experience with it.
Or you might be curious about topics that relate to making career choices and discovering work with real meaning and purpose.
- How is that possible, especially in this challenging, even harsh economy?
So let's have a discussion.
I want to provide YOU this opportunity to share about what truly gives you purpose and meaning in your life--or at least have a discussion about what's up or down with your life, work, and other career and life roles you are trying to experience.
You might be on track and just wanting to share your excitement and enthusiasm about why you feel on track. You might feel totally off track and need to vent and express your frustrations, confusion, depression, or hopelessness. Most of us have been there, and sometimes we revisit that down cycle after several years of thinking we were on track!
MY FIRST CAREER DILEMMA
This is a topic that's close to my heart and fills me with deep personal emotion and empathy. I have walked the path of uncertainty, angst, self-doubt, and low self-esteem as I struggled with my own college pre-med courses at Boston University. I was very worried I would be asked to leave college because of my low grades, despite my efforts and long hours of studying. I was concerned about what my college major should be - if I left pre-med. I was depressed and feeling like I was hitting a brick wall, but also very determined NOT to give up. What would my friends say if I left - what would my parents say!
This is a topic that's close to my heart and fills me with deep personal emotion and empathy. I have walked the path of uncertainty, angst, self-doubt, and low self-esteem as I struggled with my own college pre-med courses at Boston University. I was very worried I would be asked to leave college because of my low grades, despite my efforts and long hours of studying. I was concerned about what my college major should be - if I left pre-med. I was depressed and feeling like I was hitting a brick wall, but also very determined NOT to give up. What would my friends say if I left - what would my parents say!
Other dialogue seemed to constantly fill my mind during my struggles with the BU pre-med course work. Why did I choose pre-med in the first place? How did I ever get into this pre-med program?
I attended an excellent high school, Saint Sebastian's, that proved to be very formative to my life-to-be in so many important ways, yet I had limited exposure to science courses, and did not feel sufficiently prepared for the rigors of a pre-med curriculum. I was probably more suited for a social science major. I only took one HS chemistry course and found it to be very difficult!
I attended an excellent high school, Saint Sebastian's, that proved to be very formative to my life-to-be in so many important ways, yet I had limited exposure to science courses, and did not feel sufficiently prepared for the rigors of a pre-med curriculum. I was probably more suited for a social science major. I only took one HS chemistry course and found it to be very difficult!
I wasn't as excited as some of my HS classmates who seemed to thrive on all those chemistry concepts. The highlight of my interest in that course was the day my chemistry teacher placed the tie of a classmate into liquid nitrogen and then tapped it gently on the desk while we all watched in amazement as this poor guy's tie broke into tiny pieces! (this really doesn't sound like I had any real passion for chemistry)
I thought I wanted to be a physician like my Dad whom I deeply loved and admired, but after several semesters of low grades in my science courses in college, I was facing a huge choice - to leave or not leave pre-med!
What should I do, and when do I do it? Do I make the choice, or do I let time and eroding grades slowly take control over me like a slow-motion tidal wave, that finally overtakes me, covers me, and drowns me? What to do!!! I was so confused.
What should I do, and when do I do it? Do I make the choice, or do I let time and eroding grades slowly take control over me like a slow-motion tidal wave, that finally overtakes me, covers me, and drowns me? What to do!!! I was so confused.
I will share more about me, my choice, what initially got me in and then out of pre-med, and those amazingly important four words my Dad spoke when I shared my decision with him and my Mom one Sunday evening after supper..."Do work you love!".
Finally, a huge weight lifted off my back forever!
My education at St Sebastian's, my early pre-med days at Boston University, followed by my switch to psychology, and then my graduate degrees at Teachers College, Colombia University, have been highy influential because of all the educators who inspired me and my ideas, and the amazing friends and experiences that all three settings provided for my career-life journey.
Finally, a huge weight lifted off my back forever!
My education at St Sebastian's, my early pre-med days at Boston University, followed by my switch to psychology, and then my graduate degrees at Teachers College, Colombia University, have been highy influential because of all the educators who inspired me and my ideas, and the amazing friends and experiences that all three settings provided for my career-life journey.
PLEASE JOIN IN
I hope you choose to join this conversation no matter where you live in the USA such as Honolulu Hawaii, Cambridge Massachusetts, or Calabasas California, or abroad in Austria or Australia, China or Japan, Lithuania, Liverpool UK, or Lebanon, Israel or Ireland, Portugal or Poland, Samoa or Saipan, Russia or Romania.
If you are feeling some angst and needing some direction, join in. I certainly want to try and help, and I'm sure the collective wisdom of many others can also shed some light on your situation as we join with you to support you on your journey--a road most travelled by so many.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
Even if you choose not to comment on any posts, visit Helpful Resources to discover some excellent links that will assist you whether you live in the USA or another country.
HELPFUL RESOURCES
Even if you choose not to comment on any posts, visit Helpful Resources to discover some excellent links that will assist you whether you live in the USA or another country.
THE CHOICE
I called this first blog entry The Choice because I, like all of us, have faced my share of choices, some more difficult than others. Making career and life choices can be so challenging and even painful, but usually followed by some sense of relief, even progress, if we make them in some context of quiet reflection. And I had an occasion to deal with something I called The Choice many years ago when I wrote the first version of Creating Careers with Confidence.
I called this first blog entry The Choice because I, like all of us, have faced my share of choices, some more difficult than others. Making career and life choices can be so challenging and even painful, but usually followed by some sense of relief, even progress, if we make them in some context of quiet reflection. And I had an occasion to deal with something I called The Choice many years ago when I wrote the first version of Creating Careers with Confidence.
There is a fable in the very beginning of my workbook I called The Choice. I wrote it in about 15 minutes after spending most of the summer initially writing the main text of the workbook. I had read the final draft of my workbook and then realized I needed an introduction, a story, something that was totally from the heart, a metaphor of what making choices really involved. And then The Choice seemed to flow from deep within me.
It's about a small angel who is faced with making a very difficult and different choice--after she has already made an important choice about her life and her specific role as an angel in life forever.
Her unexpected choice becomes life changing for all of us on this Planet.
I will write about her in other posts, perhaps include the entire fable if appropriate.
I will write about her in other posts, perhaps include the entire fable if appropriate.
CLOSING COMMENTS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Finally, speaking of life-changing experiences, all of us are influenced by many others as we move through our journey. We are never alone in our journey - we only sometimes perceive we are alone.
Some of the people we encounter on our journey have profound influences on us and our journey, including the choices we make; others, have very subtle, almost unnoticed influences on us, yet often prove to be just as profound over time. It's like the effects and types of different colors we see and don't see in the world about us.
Ever gaze upon a beautiful rainbow with its seven bands of color? Well, the seven visible colors are the ones most visible to the human eye, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROY G BIV).
Some people in our lives are very visible to us, and we are aware of their effects on us. They challenge us, move us out of our comfort zones and into a new world of possibilities; they encourage us to stretch our imagination, touch our inner strength, and move beyond our very being.
Two other colors not normally seen by the human eye are located in the ultraviolet and infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
There are some people in the lives of ALL of us, who subtly influence us, touch our lives, change the direction of our lives, maybe simply through thinking about us and praying for us, and we may not be aware of their gentle and profoundly important influences on our life journey. How special for all of us to have this throughout our life journey - even though we may not be aware of them in our lives!
Ten persons who have had profound influences in my life are my dear friends and colleagues JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, Darrell Luzzo, and eight special people I have known for the past 35 years going back to my days living in beautiful Hawaii, Ed Pei, Michael Gross, Sibyl Kyi, Dave and Dolly Langen, Pat and Dale Cramer, and Camille Gouldberg.
Usually these types of people see something inside us or about us that they believe is true and authentic, and they prod and push us to our potential; they might even see dreams for us that are yet to unfold. They are honest with us and tell us not what we want to hear, but rather, what we need to hear.
I want to acknowledge others who have touched my life, perhaps in ways they may not know. I list them here because they indeed have influenced my life and choices.
I thank these colleagues and friends who have inspired me to do my life's work, especially Don Super, Mark Savickas, Lee Richmond, John Holland, Skip Niles, Deneen Pennington and all the NCDA Executive Staff, Ken Hoyt, Janet Lenz, Bob Reardon, Jim Sampson, Mark Pope, Richard Bolles, Kevin Glavin, Angela Byars-Winston, Melanie Reinersman, Sally Gelardin, David Blustein, Gary Klein, Rich Feller, Dick Wong, Pat Suemoto, Darlene Martin, Michael Regan, Rich Feller, Ronelle Langley, Mike Murakoshi, Phyllis Dayao, Earl Nishiguchi, Elsie Matsumura, Bob and Carla Fishman, Larry Murray, Debbie Chang, Ross and Pat Williams, Thomas Keating, and Julie Glowacki, my undergrad locker mate at Boston University, who inspired me with her intellect, her heart, and her great passion for her life's calling in the medical research field internationally.
Very special thanks to Pete Hubbard and his very gracious wife Heidi for believing in me and Pete's assistance with my first website.
Especially to Stevie Puckett for all her guidance and inspiration with the development of this new blog website. More about Pete and Stevie later in other posts.
Especially to Stevie Puckett for all her guidance and inspiration with the development of this new blog website. More about Pete and Stevie later in other posts.
Most especially, I thank Sandy Johnson, my dear friend who believes in me and the message in CCC. Sandy was my angel who guided me and this workbook through the publishing process at Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Well, that's it.
Thanks for reading this. Remember to comment if you want. Your sharing provides an important contribution to the collective wisdom that guides us all.
It's almost 7:30 on a Sunday evening 10/17/10 and I'm ready for a snack :) EdC
What a wonderful post. Thanks for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteThe impact that your career choices have on your life is enormous. I too have felt "totally off track" and stuck in a hopeless situation with no way out. The endgame, in my opinion, is that "sense of relief" once you do finally find your calling.
It is a glorious moment when that burden is finally lifted from your shoulders and you start moving in the right direction.
Hi Ed,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new blog. It looks great!
I'm so pleased that you started it.
I'm looking forward to reading about all of the great things you have to say to help us all to improve our career development skills to define and find our life's work.
Blog on ...
A suggestion ...
ReplyDeleteYou have 29 exercises in your CCC book.
1. Write a short post about the first one to encourage readers to buy your book and do the exercise.
2. Create a "tinyurl" for that post like the one you posted on Twitter - http://bit.ly/bkHdfU
3. Create a Tweet and a LinkedIn (and someday a Facebook) post that includes that link.
4. Repeat for each of the other 28 exercises.
5. When you reach the last (29th) exercise, go back to step 3 above and repost each link (to T, Ln, FB) once every 2-3 weeks.
Thank you Rick and Pete for your comments.
ReplyDeleteYes Rick, perhaps it is our human nature to be attached to the discomfort of the present until we hit our "bottom" (whatever that is) and then and only then, for most of us, we declare we can't take anymore and are motivated sufficiently to rise up, own our discomfort, and finally do something about changing the directions of our lives.
And Rick, we do experience a real sigh of relief after discovering our calling. I also think we can literally experience a huge sigh of relief once we give up our attachment to what has held us back and squelched our potential for so long.
Both of these, I believe, are physiological experiences that relate to the "biochemistry of belief. There is a release of real, physical energy from within us that needed to explode out of us, much like an erupting volcano. And, as with a volcano, NEW land, new opportunities, new relationships, new career paths abound!
Pete, That's a great suggestion about writing short posts about the activities in CCC, and I will do that.
I would love to have this go viral using Twitter and other social network sites.
Anyone out there reading this is welcome to please help me out.
Thank you!
So nice to be mentioned here, Ed. This is a wonderful extension of the special work you have been doing. I look forward to seeing what you continue to create here.
ReplyDeletePete had a great suggestion on the exercises! A nice tool to complement that effort is TwitterFeed (http://twitterfeed.com). Once you hit the publish button on a blog post it can be automatically pushed out as an to Twitter, Facebook and others.
Also, right on, Rick! Nice comment...so true.
Thanks Stevie,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your words of encouragement, your helpful hints, and your creative assistance with this new blog.
Yes, what Rick shared about "calling" is something MOST desire deep within their hearts, no matter their race, color, or creed, Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Independent, or whatever. People are people worldwide.
However, the way we have a conversation with them needs to be sensitive to their culture, faith tradition, etc., but that soulful yearning for work with meaning and purpose is part of our human quest for making a difference (NBC Nightly News discovered this and others are following!).
This yearning is not squelched even during economic downturns. For some it may mean having a Plan A and a Plan B , and for others, it just means harder work to accomplish their Plan A!
Hey Ed,
ReplyDeleteNice blogging. I hope that we will be able to catch up in the near future.
Garry
Thanks Gary, I viewed your blog and left a comment. Also tried to join but am not sure I succeeded.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is terrific, well written with thoughtful, crisp, powerful ideas and GK's great heart energy!! Keep up the excellent effort. I hope readers will find this comment and link into your blog for a wisdom-centered discussion about politics and related topics. Ed