I finished my book today. A book in a week. That’s an amazing thing for me, seeing as how I really haven’t read anything more than a magazine since high school, when books were required reading. Even then it was more a practice of skimming to find lines I thought would fill the needs of whatever report it was I was required to write.
So my stance on the book is still the same - I’m not sure it’s the book for the problem I was having. It is however, a very good book, and I would recommend it. For most of it though, it was just reassurring things I already knew, things about my life I have already figured out along the way. Somewhat disappointing when you think of how you spent $20 on it. However. Yesterday I delved into the relationships chapter, and today, the career chapter. Both of these actually made me think. They made me question things and make connections. Definately the most fulfilling chapters for me. I even went as far as to highlight some lines while I was reading today, something I had thought of doing all along, but the lines in these chapters seemed to resonate more so than in the others.
Something I found very interesting was a line that reads - “every woman who did not know what her passion was had no problem listing a very specific dream job”. I have never been able to pick something I am truly passionate about and stay with it, but if you ask my dream job, I can answer in the blink of an eye. The chapter goes on to explain why this is, how you are in a stage of still learning who you are, identifying your purpose, and what your dream job says about you. If you’re interested in exploring a little bit, try this exercise that came next in the book’s sequence:
1. What games did you play when you were little?
2. When you were a small child and a teenager, what types of things did you just love to do?
3. What kind of events or activities have you looked forward to throughout your life and never wanted to end?
Review your answers to see if you can pick out any common themes that reveal what you have enjoyed in your life. Perhaps you noticed you enjoyed creative things like arts and crafts or educational activities like reading. Notice if any of the things you listed are actually things that you do in your job or anticipate doing in a career you are working towards. Now answer the next set of questions:
1. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
2. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? In other words, what is your absolute pie-in-the-sky dream job?
3. if you were independantly wealthy and did not have to work, what would you do in your spare time?
Review your answers to see which activities would be part of your every day life in each of these scenarios. Your answers for 1-3 may be very similar, or they may be completely different. Record the characteristics involved in each of those activities/jobs. For instance, if you wanted to be a nurse when you grew up, interacting with people would be an example of a daily activity. If your dream job is to be a surgeon, healing would be part of your daily life. If you didn’t have to work and you spend your time volunteering, then helping people would be part of your life. A common theme in these examples is working with and helping people. Notice what common themes are evident in your answers. Do not be concerned is they are not as obvious as in these examples, just make general observations.
All of my answers had something to do with creativity. Well, except for what I wanted to be . . . I used to think I wanted to be a computer scientist. I had no idea what they did, but I thought it sounded really cool :) My other common theme though, was each answer I had was something I would do on my own, or would be in charge of.
Something else I found interesting - as I was reading, my mind was wandering. All of a sudden something came into my mind. It’s something I have thought of before, but never truly realized. I am my father’s daughter - my sister is my mother’s - my father did a lot of construction or manual labour - my mother has always worked in healthcare - I work in, albeit a cleaner version, construction - my sister works taking care of people. Maybe not noteworthy, but it opened a train of thought for the rest of the afternoon.
After all my thinking, I felt oddly content. I got on the bus, and back off at the grocery store to pick up some items I needed. Then, I walked home in the rain. And oddly enough, I didn’t care.
