Being in Transition

A nice analogy, remembering that there is a better future ahead ...

"But it’s about perspective. If you think your life sucks, it means you’ve identified something better for yourself and you simply don’t have it yet. And that’s fine. We don’t have to accept our current circumstances if we don’t like them. It’s normal to want to improve your life situation.
However, while you are IN your current circumstances, you can be happy. And the way to be happy is to be in transition.

Let’s use an example. Let’s say I put you in prison and I tell you that you’re going to be there, doing nothing but rotting, for 15 years. That’s pretty disheartening right? So you sit in prison every day wishing with all your might that you were somewhere else, out of prison, free. And you’re stuck because you’re in prison. The door is locked and you’re not able to leave when you want to. Totally sucks.

Now let’s say I come along and hand you a map and say, “If you can follow this map, you can have your freedom.” You jump at the chance. Anything is better than sitting day after day in prison. I warn you that the map is a little hard to understand, and even more difficult to follow, but that if you persevere and you try hard, you can use the map to get out of prison.

You don’t care how hard it is, you’ve got a chance now! A way out. And even though you are in prison, you’re happier. Why? Because you’re in transition. You have a plan and a way to change your circumstances. It won’t be easy, but you don’t care. It’s a chance and you’re going to take it. The power is back in your hands.

So I tell you now… you are in one of two places in your life. You’re either stuck or you’re in transition."

~Excerpt from Erin Pavlina's blog: http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/2012/11/how-to-be-happy-when-your-life-really-sucks/

2013 Goals

Okay, 7 years later ... time to make some new goals for the future!

Career
1) I want a career that is fulfilling, where I am helping people and adding value to society. Ideally I am working for a company that is focused on environmental or social issues and creating a healthier place for healthier people - biking and walking advocacy, environmental behavior change, recycling/composting, green infrastructure ...
2) I want coworkers I enjoy being around.
3) I want to work in a city where I do not need a car, where there are many events and activities so I have a chance to learn new ideas and skills, meet new people, and find a good community for me.  
4) Volunteer at bike/walk coalition, for a music/film festival, for

Personal
1) Start dating people (once I get settled somewhere) and be serious about finding and starting a lasting romance.
2) Get involved in different activities in the city I end up in ... go meet people with similar interests! Get out and go to concerts (west african), dancing (tango), language classes (french), music lessons (pick a new instrument), volunteer (animals, kids, nature, concerts), spirituality sessions, meet-ups and couch surfing, picnic and nice walks ...
3) Send a post card to all the people who have helped me the last few years and make sure they know they are welcome to visit and stay with me whenever they want.
4) Cook nice meals for people
5) Be more generous
6) Go swimming once per week
7) Drink more water!
8) Be more grateful for what I have NOW

New Skills
1) Learn French - become fluent!
2) Learn Reiki
3) Learn Reflexology
4) Look into getting project management certification (PMI)
5) Get my thesis published
6) Brainstorm how to start my own company
7) Learn HTML and other coding languages (talk to K)

Some interesting thoughts...

"What will determine the course of your life more than any other one thing is whether or not you're willing to tolerate necessary discomfort."  -Barbara Sher (I Could Do Anything...pg.22)


"Ever heard about the Harvard study of business school grads? The study monitored graduates of an MBA program from 1979-1989. Researchers found that ten years after graduation the three percent who had written goals were making 10 times as much money as the other 97 percent combined." -Annette Richmond "How to develop more effective short-term goals" on www.career-intelligence.com

This website could be interesting.  I got this whole excerpt from a book I'm reading called "Beyond Talent" -Angela Myles Beeching, about building a career in music.

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List of Goals

Ok, so here's my list of goals:

 

Information-gathering:

listen to minimalist music

learn about Eurythmics

learn about Kindermusic/Montessori/Orf/Kodaly

learn about Boston

learn about Circ de Sole

think about film scores

learn about other people's jobs in music/arts

learn to make use of all the resources in my school and city

learn about possible schools for next year

 

My Work:

work with D (the dancer)

learn to play marimba really well

compose regularly

take lessons with great marimbists in Europe

plan a recital

connect with musicians here--do performances

make a decision for next year

learn how to wrap mallets

 

Travel:

visit M in Venice

visit A and M in Madrid (visit Barcelona)

visit X in Netherlands

meet up with D

 

Personal:

connect with my family

visit my feelings

go for walks

eat healthy foods

swim

salsa dance

work really hard

learn to work OR relax (one or the other)

meditate

 

Other:

study Czech

listen to Janacek

start to write stories about my travels

listen to jazz

improvise on marimba

 

 

What I'm doing right now, is that I've started a notebook dedicated to career planning.  I've realized that one of my biggest problems right now is that I don't have enough information, and I'm unable to make decisions because of this.  So, I'm spending a lot of energy on gathering info.  I have one page in the notebook which is a list of things I need to get info about before I can make some decisions.  I'm finding it's helping me a lot, and I'm writing step by step how to get the info--similar to SARK's micromovements method. 

 

Right now I'm feeling like there's just too much..like I don't know how to organize my goals and movements.  I'd like to figure out how to make weekly goals and daily goals, and how to plan my time so that the most important things get done.  I attempted it this week, to make weekly/daily goals, but unfortunately most of them didn't happen because they were just too big and there wasn't enough time. Maybe with practice you can get better at making reasonable goals and achieving them?

 

Alright, I'll do the 10 lives exercise soon!!

 

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Carrie's test

Ok, so let's see if this works!  Yea, my first blog entry!  I'll write more today~

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Email Blog

This is a test - I'm writing an email to see if I can publish via gmail.

What To Do With Your Life

This weekend while I was in Seattle I spent a lot of time at the airport and on public transportation ... so while I was waiting I spent some quality time with Barbara's book. Let me share some of the thoughts, topics and exercises I found particularly helpful:

1) My problem has always been that I like too many things: whales, kids, traveling, helping people, painting, math, usability, etc. I can't seem to make a decision career-wise. What should I study in school? What do I want to do with the rest of my life? - as soon as I start focusing on one field (teaching, human computer interaction, architecture) I feel trapped and switch interest to another field (marine biology, international education, social work). My problem is I lack COMMITMENT!

Of course - I'm afraid of closing doors and never giving myself the opportunity to figure out what I truely love and feel passionate about. So as soon as I settle on something I switch to something else out of fear. But what I need to realize is that diving into a field and mastering it is important. It'll give my work more meaning. And if anything, getting really good at something will open up more doors. I still want to use the next year to explore and learn more about the fields I'm interested in but once I choose a field to study I just need to go for it.

Figuring out what to choose is still going to be tough. Yesterday I was reading a funny article about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (the Daily Show guys) in Rollingstone Magazine (I really like adding all of these links!) .. here's a quote from Stephen Colbert about how he figured out being an actor was his path: 'I started as a straight actor. I'd go onstage and I'd think, "Wow, this is the only thing I want to work really hard at. I will rehearse fifty times on a single scene, I don't care. I'll do it again." I took that as evidence ..." I think he's right, finding something you're willing and wanting to spend long hours on might be a good indicator of where your passion is.

2) Here's an exercise for us - if you had 10 lives what would you do with each one? I think we should each do this one and then I'll ask the next questions from the book to help us figure out a plan for our futures.

3) How would you feel if the job you have now you had to do forever? When I did this exercise I realized what I don't like about my job now is there's never an end. I work really hard to bring in more revenue for the company and if I do that's never good enough - the company always wants more. I don't like that I never have a finished product and I don't like feeling that I can never really succeed. It's always import to improve your work but in online advertising where limitless amounts of money is involved, greed gets in the way and people always want more.

4) Finding meaning in work - you need to find something that matters to you. If you don't care about what you're doing you're not going to put all of your energy into it ... I like to give a project I'm working on my complete attention but I've found it impossible to do so when I don't really care about the goal or the process itself.

5) Remember that results are not immediate.

Okay, more later!

List of Short Term Goals

Here's some goals I have for the next year ... I've disguised everyone's names so people don't search for themselves and find this blog.

Take the GRE in February
Take a trip to India with A&J in March
Take a JAVA and HTML course
Apply to colleges: HCI, Social Work/Psychology, MBA, Marine Biology, Architecture, Education

While in SF:
Go to Hawaii (visit Mag)
Go to Seattle (visit J)
Go to Portland
Go to San Diego (visit B and M)

June and onward
Go to CZ
Travel with C
Take a month long TEFL course
Find tutoring/teaching jobs

Once in Europe:
Travel to Scotland and visit old friends
Visit Sweden and Norway
Go to Greece and save sea turtles
Live in NZ and work at a ski resort or pick kiwi
Go to Egypt to visit S

Life will be changing soon .... kind of exciting.