Dream Job

After finishing my senior year, I will start the next four years deciding what I want to do for the rest of my life. I will have to consider the economy and job markets when deciding on a major and future career, but I don’t want to neglect what I might be best at doing and what I would enjoy. If money and unemployment didn’t matter my choice would be a lot easier. I would rule out any job that has anything to do with blood, makes me work with spreadsheets, or forces me to understand chemistry. With those jobs

Lessons from CO-OP

I was nervous about giving up my time in school to be in the Co-Op program. I wanted to be involved in as many things as I could. I didn’t want to have any regrets. The choice to Co-Op was not easy. I had to give up a few activities like soccer and chorus, but I made the right choice to do Co-Op. It was always hard for me to focus in school. I was always pretty much brain dead by 4th block. Now I only have two classes to focus on a day. My grades have improved because I

What Do You Envy?

Are you envious of the guy who has started his own restaurant? What about the attorney who has argued a case before the Supreme Court (this is one of the examples in Quiet)? How about the friend who is a stay-at-home mom by day, painter by night with happy kids and her art in galleries all over the country? Maybe you’re jealous of the teacher who inspires you when she talks with passion about what the students in her class are learning. You wish you had that kind of passion. In reading, Quiet- The Power of Introverts in a World

Help Your Child Discover

I’m going to completely contradict myself today, so hang on. In a previous post I stressed the importance of 10,000 hours of practice in order to achieve mastery in a given field, implying that if you are a student that wants to succeed in a particular arena, or if you are a parent wanting to help your child become successful, devote most of your time to a single effort.  Is a singular focus in the teen years the right thing? Does this set a child up for career success? I’m beginning to think not.  A singular focus in one thing may

The New Career Series: Your Light

As a child, I remember singing “This Little Light of Mine” in Vacation Bible School.  My favorite part was when we got to sing, “Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine!”  I think I, in part, loved this section of the song because we got to yell the word, “NO!”  when yelling was hardly ever allowed in church or at any other place for that matter.               Now as a career and leadership coach, I find that I love this part of the song because shouting a resounding “NO!” to hiding your “light” under a