Sometimes I get really lucky. And if I am ready, prepared, open, and eager for the gift, I can get it, harvest it, and life becomes brighter, by a lot. Clearer… by a lot.
This is what happened to me this morning.
I got up at 5:20. The other option was to sleep another hour and a half… and oversleep… So I got up. Better sleep less than more (read my Depression article to see why.)
Chilly morning… sweater and pants, big glass of Energized Water… I am ready for my email… And no, I don’t stretch, I don’t exercise, I don’t meditate… I go to my email and connect. Connect to All-of-it and to my people.
The first email is from a woman who is disappointed in me because I didn’t provide
I am prone to depression. Not sadness, but a loss of aliveness, a loss of inner motivation.
I have barely came out of a bout with one… and have been intensely curious of what caused it.
Depression, as I experience it, has no emotional reason.
When I look, I have no reason for depression, so the cause is not outside of a person… it is an inside job.
My experience has been that the factors are nutrition and sleep.
When certain vitamins are low, whether the consumption is low, or the wrong foods gobble them up, low Vitamin B levels, all sorts, B-1, 5, 12, 9… I have distinguished so far.
Regardless of what you do, how you do it, how good or bad your life is… you are always stuck… Stuck in some deep bad place, or stuck on a plateau… stuck is stuck.
So learning what keeps you stuck and how to unstuck yourself, at will, is one of the most important things you can do… and the sooner the better. Because being stuck is not fun.
Cognitive biases, those knee jerk reaction tiny pieces of automatic responses, are at the root of your misery.
how do you go from one profession to another? having a vague idea is not enough!
learned, school learned profession may give you a process and teach you everything
learning, self-directed needs YOU to build a curriculum, or you’ll fail
law of process, research, guidance, mentors
how do you know what skills to build?
interviewing people
watching movies
reading books
how can you build skills if that is not part of your job?
volunteering
providing services, small services online/offline through craigslist, fiverr
What other than skills do you need?
process capacity
mental representation aka vision
growth attitude… beginner attitude.
Article
How do you choose the next step if what you are doing in the present isn’t it… but you have no experience in the next profession, the next adventure?
You may have no skills that you know of that would get you a job in the next profession…
But you may have some skills… or why would you want to go that way? After all, the rule of thumb is: go with your strengths… and if you have strengths, you know you have them, because you’ve been using them.
Here is how I did it. The time was 1988 and I was an architect. And that opportunity closed for me…
I did a skill inventory, and found that all my skills at that point were putting ink on paper… writing, drawing, designing… and communicating. With people.
Graphics, design, text, communicating… I decided that the best match was publisher, although I had no idea what I would want to say… Magazine publishing.
I was unemployed, so I spent my time training myself… designing ads, writing ads, and I even apprenticed with a small printer so I had some idea what printing entails.
Then I sent out two resumes to small local pennysavers… that I saw all the time in the supermarket.
One answered, and said that the only job available is advertising sales. That I would get someone to train me…
I said OK… The woman who came to train me (I didn’t have any transportation) gave me a script and went out with me to a few stores to sell advertising.
Next day she went and covered all the stores I could have been able to walk in and sold everyone she could… Dog eat dog is the advertising world.
So I called the other publisher. I told him I sold five ads on my first day… He met me and hired me, even gave me a beat up car to use, so that I can get around and do the job.
I was grateful. I worked 80 hours or more a week. I actively participated on Friday’s meetings when every salesperson brought in what they sold. After two weeks I took over that part of the job, laying out the magazine for Saturday printing.
I even delivered all the magazines to the stores in my sales area.
I busted my ass.
I built enough relationships with customers, typesetters, printers that after 14 months, when the owner felt threatened and kicked me out, I could start, overnight, my own magazine.
After that fateful meeting, when I got kicked out, I called the typesetter, called the printer, and asked for credit for one issue.
I got it. I stayed up all night, and next day at 4 pm my own magazine was in the street.
It was the beginning of a wonderful eleven year run.
how do you go from one profession to another? having a vague idea is not enough!
learned, school learned profession may give you a process and teach you everything
learning, self-directed needs YOU to build a curriculum, or you’ll fail
law of process, research, guidance, mentors
how do you know what skills to build?
interviewing people
watching movies
reading books
how can you build skills if that is not part of your job?
volunteering
providing services, small services online/offline through craigslist, fiverr
What other than skills do you need?
process capacity
mental representation aka vision
growth attitude… beginner attitude.
Article
How do you choose the next step if what you are doing in the present isn’t it… but you have no experience in the next profession, the next adventure?
You may have no skills that you know of that would get you a job in the next profession…
But you may have some skills… or why would you want to go that way? After all, the rule of thumb is: go with your strengths… and if you have strengths, you know you have them, because you’ve been using them.
Here is how I did it. The time was 1988 and I was an architect. And that opportunity closed for me…
I did a skill inventory, and found that all my skills at that point were putting ink on paper… writing, drawing, designing… and communicating. With people.
Graphics, design, text, communicating… I decided that the best match was publisher, although I had no idea what I would want to say… Magazine publishing.
I was unemployed, so I spent my time training myself… designing ads, writing ads, and I even apprenticed with a small printer so I had some idea what printing entails.
Then I sent out two resumes to small local pennysavers… that I saw all the time in the supermarket.
One answered, and said that the only job available is advertising sales. That I would get someone to train me…
I said OK… The woman who came to train me (I didn’t have any transportation) gave me a script and went out with me to a few stores to sell advertising.
Next day she went and covered all the stores I could have been able to walk in and sold everyone she could… Dog eat dog is the advertising world.
So I called the other publisher. I told him I sold five ads on my first day… He met me and hired me, even gave me a beat up car to use, so that I can get around and do the job.
I was grateful. I worked 80 hours or more a week. I actively participated on Friday’s meetings when every salesperson brought in what they sold. After two weeks I took over that part of the job, laying out the magazine for Saturday printing.
I even delivered all the magazines to the stores in my sales area.
I busted my ass.
I built enough relationships with customers, typesetters, printers that after 14 months, when the owner felt threatened and kicked me out, I could start, overnight, my own magazine.
After that fateful meeting, when I got kicked out, I called the typesetter, called the printer, and asked for credit for one issue.
I got it. I stayed up all night, and next day at 4 pm my own magazine was in the street.
It was the beginning of a wonderful eleven year run.
The inner view and the outer view of who you are are vastly different. Your chances for success, love, happiness depend on the accuracy of your self-image. ((self-im·age
noun
noun: self-image; plural noun: self-images
the idea one has of one’s abilities, appearance, and personality.
“sickness is an affront to one’s self-image and dignity”))
Do you know that people see you differently than you see yourself? And both you and other people see you differently than you actually are.
You may see yourself worse or better or just plain different than you really are… and so do others.
Your life would work better if the two views were closer. You’d h
Why do I write? Who do I write for? What is important to me? These are the questions are occupying my thoughts…
I just finished reading 1984, Orwell’s novel. I am not an American, so I never even heard about it until about 1984… In Hungary it is not a recommended reading.
It was a traumatic experience for me, much like Brave New World was back in 1977 when I first read it. Much soul searching followed, I am not quite done with the soul searching.
I mentioned to my driver that I read the book… and from her response, I think I was lucky: the best way to make an important b
Sometimes we learned one profession but we want to change… and it is not that easy…
Here are two examples: one is my own, the other is a student of mine…
In the end I’ll ask for your input… please be generous.
After I came to the USA, I worked as an architect for about 30 months.
First I scoured the help wanted ads, and went on an interview with a prestigious Midtown Manhattan firm. They were impressed with me, my experience, and hired me on the spot with a salary that was four, nearly five times higher than what I made in Israel.
On my way out I passed pictures of their completed projects and realized that this job would have no integrity for me: I w
Motto: Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight
Remember who you are
In 1981 I got a letter from a man from Israel. He claimed to be a second cousin on my father’s side to me. He was coming to an educational conference in Hungary. He came with his wife.
We spent time together, they were staying with me, in my one-bedroom high-rise apartment in Budapest. He visited with every member of my family, and witnessed their contempt for me first hand.
He promised to be family to me if I decided to go to Israel.
One year later I packed a suitcase and left Hungary. illegally. It was winter in Hungary when I left, in fact it w
Sometimes I get really lucky. And if I am ready, prepared, open, and eager for the gift, I can get it, harvest it, and life becomes brighter, by a lot. Clearer… by a lot.
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