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Issue 175 |
December 27, 2007 | |
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Dream no small dreams for they have no power
to move the hearts of men. ~ Goethe
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Opportunity Knocks:
Creative Ways to Make a Living Without A Job
What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career
Change?
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Valerie and her wonder dog,
"Cokie Roberts" |
By Valerie Young
As I drove alongside the Connecticut River
today, I spotted two snow-white swans gliding elegantly atop still waters. I
felt so blessed to have been in that place at that time to experience such a
serenely beautiful moment. I feel lucky that way… a lot.
I don’t think I happen upon these moments any
more than anyone else does. I just "see" them more than others do. I believe
that’s because gratitude is so central to both my life and my work. I also
happen to believe that maintaining a state of gratitude is fundamental to
the process of changing course. Yet, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard another
career counselor talk about gratitude as an essential element of career
change. Come to think of it, I’m not aware of any career related books that
talk about the importance of being thankful either.
I think perhaps the reason you don’t hear a
lot of career change agents talk about gratitude is that we’re in the
business of helping facilitate people moving from where they are to where
they’d rather be. Changing your work and life are by definition all about
the future. Gratitude on the other hand is very much about the present.
I understand that it can be pretty tough to be
grateful when what you want is freedom, time, and a deep knowing that the
work you do matters, but what you have instead is a soul sucking job that
leaves you no time to see, never mind smell, the roses.
And yet if you really want to make a positive
change, I believe it’s imperative to shift from a state of constant yearning
for what you don’t have to being mindful of those blessings, however small,
that you do have… right now. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin talked about this
concept in their groundbreaking book Your Money or Your Life. They
write, "So much dissatisfaction comes from focusing on what we don’t have
that the simple exercise of acknowledging and valuing what we do have can
transform our outlook." Said another way, ungrateful people make lousy
self-change agents.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that there is a lot
wrong in the world. Far too many good people dying in too many bad wars… far
too many people losing their homes because of bad loans… far too many people
with no job at all. I know, too, that during this holiday season that some
of you may be faced with dire circumstances. Yet, "Once we are above the
survival levels," say Dominguez and Robin, "the difference between
prosperity and poverty lies simply in our degree of gratitude."
Even during my most financially challenging
and emotionally discouraging days of struggling to transition from my
corporate job to working for myself, I still knew on any given day that I
was blessed. I can see. I can hear. I have all my limbs. I am, God-willing,
free of disease. I live in relative safety. I have food. I have heat. I have
clean water. I have access to medical care. I have transportation. I have
friends and family who love me. And I am blessed to have all of you.
At the risk of going all Oprah on you here, to
me living life from a perspective of gratitude is not just an exercise in
happy thinking. To me it goes much deeper than that. Melody Beattie
described the benefits of gratitude well when she wrote:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of
life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into
acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity… It turns problems into
gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and
mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real
life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a
vision for tomorrow.
On the bulletin board at my post office hangs
a quote from the Women’s Theology Center in Boston. It reads, "We must go
slowly, there’s not much time." Achieving a dream takes hard work,
perseverance, and, yes, time. Yet, life is too short to put off happiness
until we have achieved our goal. In other words, with a dream, as with life,
the journey is just as important as the destination.
As you enjoy a drink of clean water, a warm
bed or the company of a loved one today and every day, pause and be grateful
for what and who is in your life right now. Go after that better future… but
also be here now and savor the journey.
Add Your Two Cents
Want to comment on this
article?
Click here to hop over to the Changing Course Blog!
About the
Author
"Turning Interests Into Income" expert, Valerie Young,
abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at
ChangingCourse.com
offering resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. Her
career change tips have been cited in Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today Weekend, Woman's Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN,
CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor Syndrome, Valerie
has spoken on the topic of
How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are
to
such diverse organizations as Daimler Chrysler, Bristol-Meyers Squibb,
Harvard, and American Women in Radio and Television.
To read more
articles about how to work at what you love without a job go to
ChangingCourse.com/articles.htm
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No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams
must be free to flee and fly high.
~ Jesse Jackson |
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Featured
Resource
Trickle Up
Trickle Up helps very
poor people make their way out of poverty. They
do it by providing business training, seed capital grants, and support to help
people launch a microenterprise, helping start or expand more than 10,000
businesses every year. Trickle Up offers grants, not loans, to entrepreneurs
because they are committed to working with the extreme poor — people living on
less than $1 a day who are unable to obtain a microloan.
Trickle Up identifies
potential entrepreneurs with help from local organizations that are active in
the regions in which they work. They currently have more than 80 such partners,
as well as Trickle Up field offices in Asia, East Africa, and West Africa. Once
they have identified an entrepreneur, they work with these local partners to
provide them with business training and seed capital of about $100 to start a
business. They also help entrepreneurs connect with savings and loan groups.
This three-part approach ensures that the seed capital grants are judiciously
implemented. It also helps entrepreneurs best realize their potential as
independent and capable small-business owners, which leads to self-empowerment.
Trickle Up focuses
their support on women. That’s because the majority report that, once they have
launched their businesses, they are able to provide better nutrition, health
care, and education for their families. They also focus on providing support to
people with disabilities.
Changing
Course is proud to donate a portion of all profits to this worthwhile
organization. I hope you will consider giving
too.
Learn how at
Trickleup.org
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Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
~ Mark Twain |
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Creativity requires the courage to let go of
certainties. ~ Erich Frohmm |
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Guest
Article
Keeping the Dream Alive
By
Thelma Mariano
Like the song by Linda
Ronstadt, "a dream is a wish that your heart makes." To lose a dream is to die a
little yourself. It means closing down the part of you that can soar above the
reality of your current life to see new and exciting possibilities.
Whenever she walks down a street, a friend of mine notices details of
architecture, shapes and colors. As a child she fantasized about being an
interior designer, but her parents, Italian immigrants, discouraged her from
pursuing what they felt was an insecure way to make a living. "I was crushed,"
she says, "and the dream just died."
Our dreams are fragile. It is important not to talk about them at an early stage
to anyone whom we sense will not support them. Often others project their own
fears and doubts onto us.
I have known since my teen years that I wanted to write fiction. No one in my
family supported my dream, because anything in the arts was considered
unreliable. Nevertheless for years I managed to write and sell short stories and
work on novels while holding down a full-time job. As rejection slips started
pouring in, it became more and more of a struggle to keep my dream alive.
By then I realized that I needed positive reinforcement from other writers and
joined one writing group after another until I found the right team. Many
experts in goal achievement stress the importance of getting support when
pursuing a dream. "Isolation is a dream killer," states Barbara Sher, career
counselor and author of five popular books including Wishcraft and
It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now.
Valerie Young, founder of Changing Course (website and newsletter) points out
that assistance can come from a number of sources including colleagues, mentors
and role models. Although friends can make a difference, she says, "you soar
when you tap into the larger constellation of help that is available."
Listed below are the steps I followed in keeping my dream alive. These can help
you nurture your dream as well, especially when you are busy making a living
and/or raising a family and do not have any resources set up to help you get
started.
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Get support and
encouragement
Find others in your field of interest. This could be through discussion
groups on the Net, correspondence, or joining an organization. Workshops or
seminars are also excellent ways to connect.
A wonderful thing happens once you connect with people doing what you love
to do. You begin to see yourself as one of them.
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Find mentors
Speak to professionals who are already living your dream; see how they did
it. I wrote to the best-selling novelist, Charlotte Vale Allen and received
useful advice in revising my book as well as encouragement.
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Research
Read everything you can about your interest - and APPLY what you learn to
your work-in-progress.
In my case I read many books and magazine articles on writing, covering
topics from plotting and character development to marketing and used much of
that information in my work.
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Fit a LITTLE into your
life, as often as you can
Too many of us wait for the perfect time to do the things we are dreaming
of. It is far better to feel the satisfaction of doing something now.
I went through a period where I was stretched between work demands (a
reorganization at my company) and family needs. No longer able to find time
to write fiction, I discovered tanka, a five-line lyric verse that conveys
powerful emotion. This allowed me to fit
creative writing into a very tight schedule.
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Use visual reminders
I pasted images in a scrapbook to remind me of my writing goals. I also gave
myself a date when I would leave my office job to write full-time and put it
on my fridge. Seeing these visual reminders on a daily basis motivated me to
make things happen!
To develop a dream you also
must make room in your life. This may require sacrifice – whether it’s a smaller
income to buy time or fewer social engagements or outings with your family.
I believe that by paying attention to your longings, you are steered towards a
more fulfilling life. Pursuing and achieving dreams is not for the select few.
If you give your dreams the attention and support they need to flourish, you may
be surprised at the results.
About the Author
Thelma Mariano, life coach and author, is
dedicated to bringing clarity and direction to people’s lives. See her on-line
coaching programs, articles and column at
U-Unlimited.ca,
email at
thelma@u-unlimited.ca
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Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to
live. ~ Dorothy Thompson |
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Upcoming Workshops and Teleclasses
Here are a few featured workshops and Teleclasses; you'll find a complete
listing at
ChangingCourse.com/courses.htm
Turn Your Everyday Snapshots Into Cash
This January in
Austin, TX,
You Can…
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 Learn from
professional photographers the techniques they use to shoot pictures
that sell for $150, $400, $600 -- and even higher…
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Get hands-on
practice applying your new skills -- while you explore one of the
world's most enchanting cities…
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Discover how
travel photographers create a need for their photos
-- and double or even triple your photography income…
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Find out just
how easy it is to turn your snapshots into cash… and enjoy the
freedom, independence, and travel that freelance photography
delivers…
The Ultimate Money-Making Photo Workshop
January 31 - February 2, 2008
Austin, TX
Visit:
ChangingCourse.com/recommends/photographyworkshop for more details
or (866) 415-1425 or local at
(202) 370-6459 from
8:00am -5:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Spaces are limited.
Broaden your horizons as you expand your bank account!
Help the poor and gain more fulfillment and fun.
 Ecuador
Import & Export Tour
After 12 years of traveling, digging, exploring and enjoying
themselves
all over Ecuador; Steve and Merri Scott invite those of you who want to
really get out there and experience the Export Trail. You’ll gain exciting
ways to increase your security, independence, freedom, wealth and well-being
while helping this very deserving country and its indigenous people.
Improve the quality of your life, expand your horizons and reduce the tax
you pay as you increase asset protection by having an overseas company and
overseas income!
You’ll go to the high Andes. You’ll see products from Zuleta where they
create handmade "green" cotton-one-of-a-kind tableware, shirts, and specialty
items. You’ll travel every day to see different markets, crafts people and
masters who create special products that will make your eyes gleam with
delight…both for their uniqueness and salability.
Ecuador Import & Export Tour
February 18-23, 2008
Ecuador
Learn More at
ChangingCourse.com/recommends/ecuadortour
"How to Become Joyfully Jobless"
Teleclass Series
hosted by Barbara Winter
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Barbara Winter |
Learn
what it takes to live the joyfully jobless life from the
master − Barbara Winter, author of
Making a Living
Without a Job.
A
vivacious and wildly popular speaker, Barbara will address
such topics as the power of multiple income streams… how to
stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like an
entrepreneur… why starting small is the smartest (and most
profitable) way to launch your new enterprise… and much
more.
Like
mini-workshops, these monthly Joyfully Jobless Teleclasses
are interactive, which means
you get to ask questions and benefit from firsthand feedback
from the woman I call the "Muse of Self-Bossing."
This
series is free to current members of the
Fast Track Your Dream
Community*. Non-members are welcome to
attend for $19 with all proceeds going to the non-profit
micro-grant organization TrickleUp.org
*To
learn more about how you can fast track your dream of
working at what you love - and get a two month membership FREE - go to
ChangingCourse.com/fasttrackyourdream.htm
**A
portion of all revenue from this Teleclass will go to
support the entrepreneurial aspirations of impoverished
people in the US and internationally via the micro-grant
organization
TrickleUp.org
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With courage you will dare to take risks, have
the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the
foundation of integrity. ~ Keshavan Nair |
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The View From
the
Other Side
"It’s not just my story.
It's the story of a lot of people who grew up and took a lot of crap – and
decided, 'I'm going the other way.'"
~ Chris
Gardner in his autobiographical book, The Pursuit of Happyness, which was
turned into a major motion picture
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Resources for
a Change
Here are four resources for people who want to
turn their love of wine into an income stream
Wine Across America
 by
Charles O'Rear and Daphne Larkin is a great
example of two people who found a way to combine a passion for travel and
photography with a love of wine in this
fascinating photographic survey of the U.S. wine industry. The authors
travel to small vineyards in all 50 states to sample such unusual varieties
as garlic wine from California, pineapple wine from Hawaii, cranberry wine
from Michigan, and grapefruit wine from Florida. Listen to the entire
interview on National Public Radio at
ESYUrl.com/3vl
The
Sommelier Society of America
offers a 20 week certification program focusing on wine regions of the
world, varietals, viticulture specifics, techniques of tasting, food and
wine pairing, and distilled spirits, business, legal aspects, and licensing
in the wine business, etc. Classes are held in New York City and Long
Island. (SommelierSocietyOfAmerica.org)
Canadian Wine Studies courses (ESYUrl.com/3vm)
are offered through the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and
elsewhere through
Fine Vintage Ltd (ESYUrl.com/3vn)
SommelierJobs.com lists jobs
internationally for sommeliers, cellar masters, and wine directors. Recent
listings included a sommelier for a five star hotel in Bombay, India and a
wine director for a French resort.
Note: Changing Course does not accept
paid advertisements from any of the resources listed here. This list is
provided to expand your thinking about just how many interesting ways there
are to make a living without a job!
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live
life on purpose