my |one little word| popping up in my world
. . .
I am a bit of a magazine hoarder, and it paid off this weekend.
Sunday (yesterday) morning, while waiting for something on my computer to load, I opened an old O Magazine from September 2007 which I always kept because of the various articles under the umbrella theme: DO WHAT YOU LOVE.
I seredipitously opened to an article I had passed many times, but never read before. The article was called Your Brilliant (Next) Career ...and how to find it. I read the first paragraph, and then the first page, and then flipped flipped to where the story picked up, then flipped flipped to where it continued again, until I reached the end of the article where it said to visit oprah.com and take the 'test' to find your strengths.
A short internet search later, I had stumbled upon Marcus Buckingham's Career Intervention Course. In eight short videos, you meet 29 women, Oprah included, who are unhappy with some aspect of their professional life. (Um, Hello! Me?) Buckingham -- who's an expert in what works at work -- breaks it down pretty concretely and describes in most of the course what's happening with me. Pretty much, he solidified 'the shift'.
He says, in the pursuit of any job you have to ask the three questions of why, who and what.
Why is this the job I'm pursuing?
Who will I be working with?
What precise activities will I be performing everyday?
He says that you start the job because of the why, you stay because of the who, and you eventually QUIT physically or psychologically because of the what.
I'm there. He's nailed me.
. . .
Saturday afternoon, I took a bath. (Stay with me, I think I make a point.) As I layed there under the frothy white suds, I stared out our skylight window and asked, "What do I do?" I held my nose, submerged my head and in between heartbeats asked, "What do I do? What do I do?"
I absolutely HATE HATE HATE the what of my job: the precise activities that make up my day. I became aware of this somewhere between August and Thanksgiving when 'the shift' occurred. Now that it's January, and June seems so far away, I find myself more anxiety-filled then ever, crying on most of my morning commutes, and asking "What do I do?" at almost every turn.
I feel that perhaps, my 2007 O Magazine and Marcus Buckingham were this weekend's 'answer' to my bathtub prayers.
. . .
I'm going to work on his suggested strengths and weaknesses exercises all week long, and I'll have a report on the results by next week. (Post came a couple weeks later.)
Really and truly, reader, if you're someone who's starting a new career or in a career that doesn't invigorate and energize you everyday, I highly recommend setting aside a couple hours this week to watch the eight sessions I linked to above. The insight and the spot-on description of unsatisfaction at work should be in every working woman's psyche.
I feel like I've gained more from the three hours I spent yesterday watching the videos than all my eight years at three different colleges.
Truth.
Watch.
I hope this helped.
xOxO,
