angredl:

hidinginthetreehouse:

this kitchen

✔ Day 19

*Even if you are considering starting your own business, it’s a good exercise to create a stellar resume.  You need to clarify your 2 or 3 strongest areas of competence and be true to those, whatever the application may be.  So now build your list of 30 to 40 organizations where there would be a potential match for your areas of competence….Spend two hours with your city directory or a national business search engine, where you can get a brief company history and profile, and the names of proper contact people.

list compiled here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BvyUYtXo_zgSAhcYQmzTec5JINaUYWny74rKw8lLr-Y/edit

✔ Day 18

Read Chapter 7 “Finding Your Unique Path” and like the Robert Frost poem suggests: believe you are going to find the road “less traveled by” and that will make the difference for you as well.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

and sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth:

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear:

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden back.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads to way, 

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

                                          -ROBERT FROST, “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN”

✔ Day 17

Make a list of 10 to 12 kinds of work that blend your (1) skills and abilities, (2) personality traits, and (3) dreams and passions.  

1. operating my own food truck or trailer(this is the number one thing I have in mind right now

2. owning my own full scale restaurant(I don’t think I want the responsibility of that right now, but I definitely think that starting a themed restaurant featuring foods from my travels around the world

3. making a food stuff from my home or private commercial kitchen that I could sell online or in specialty shops

4. invent a new product and be involved in the development of a new company that grows out of the success of the new product

5. travel the world sampling cuisines and get paid well to do it…. either having my own business or working for a company that would pay me to study and sample foods in various cultures and setting and maybe have a blog or tv show that features my travels and culinary discoveries

6. sing for a living…the main capacity that appeals to me would be as a worship leader.  As much as I love to travel, the idea of being gone night after night on tour(especially if I had a family) doesn’t sound as appealing to me as it once might have.

7. be a involved with an enterprise that overseas the development of micro-enterprise in foreign countries where entrepreneurship can foster a sense of taking responsibility for one’s own life and give people a sense of accomplishment

8. work at Trader Joe’s….this has for years been a place where I think I would enjoy working for a season…it has a such a cheerful environment and every employee gets to do a little bit of every job in the store.

9. read books on CD and use my many voices that I can create to emulate accents and certain personalities.

10. Work for a company or have my own business where I get to be around cool tech and gadgets all the time…maybe a company like CNET

11. same as #10, but where I get to be around awesome automobiles as part of my job

12. Market and Real Estate Investing.  This is something that I intend to do regardless of my main profession because if done correctly it can be set up to require just a small investment of time in order to realize very impressive returns

Countdown To Work I Love

1. Do you understand your areas of competence? I definitely understand some of my areas of competence.

2. Do you feel trapped because of your current or past work experience? To some degree, yes, I have felt trapped or more accurately, I have felt like I’ve been in this rut and have not known how to break out.

3. Do you recognize how easily your abilities may transfer to a new industry or profession?  I am beginning to more and more as I read this and other books that are changing my paradigm.

4. Can you see value in those things you may have done as a volunteer through your church or community?  I definitely can see the value in things I have done and skills I have acquired that have not necessarily been a part of what I’ve done professionally.

5. Are there skills or training you need to make you a candidate for the work you love.  For most of the jobs I listed above, there would not be a need for lots of additional training.  I feel that I am already very competent in the skills that I would be using.

6. Has God given you abilities that do not match your desires?  If so, how can you reconcile those?  I feel that God has given me abilities that match my desires for the most part, but the rub has been that I have been leaving out a big part of my heart as far as what I have pursued professionally or in my work.

✔Day 16

Creating My Resume

*link to my resume: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tjsokq3Vjf-Jn_LIVCE2K1wh6yMJtYFKEiz5u8mxYPY/edit

✔ Day 15

The “Nuts and Bolts” Phase of the journey begins.

✔read chapter 6.

How does my current resume sell me?  Does it position me for what I want to continue doing, or is it just a historical overview of what I’ve done?  Will a chronological or functional resume work best in my situation?

✔ Day 14

*personalizing the homework for today

I am going to spend today believing I was totally responsible for everything that has happened in my life so far.  Just for today I can’t blame anyone for anything.  If I accept responsibility for my losses, I will also put myself in the driver’s seat for some big wins.  I am going to start imagining doing work that is fulfilling, meaningful, and profitable every day from here forward.

“A Prayer For Joy”

“A Prayer For Joy”

Help me, O God,

To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad

And to follow where it leads.

May joy, not guilt,

Your voice, not the voice of others,

Your will, not my willfulness, 

Be the guides that lead me to my vocation.

Help me to unearth the passions of my heart

That lay buried in my youth.

And help me to go over that ground again and again

Until I can hold in my hands,

Hold and treasure,

Your calling on my life.

                                                 -Ken Gire, WINDOWS OF THE SOUL

✔ Day 11: List your personality traits.  Common personality traits are grouped into 4 categories:

1. Dominance (Driver)—Lion/Eagle

•Takes charge, likes power and authority, confident, very direct, bold, determined, competitive

2. Influencing (Expressive)—Otter/Peacock

•Good talkers, outgoing, fun loving, impulsive, creative, energetic, optimistic, variety seeking, promoter

3. Steadiness (Amiable)—Golden Retriever/Dove 

•Loyal, good listener, calm, enjoys routine, sympathetic, patient, understanding, reliable, avoids conflict

4. Compliance (Analytical)—Beaver/Owl 

•Loves detail, very logical, diplomatic, factual, deliberate, controlled, inquisitive, predictable, resistant to change

Well, the category that I most feel that I fit into is #2 with element of #3 & #4 in definitely in the mix and I asked my sister-in-law what category she thought I fit into.  She said #2 and #4.  So I guess I’m most strongly an Otter/Peacock.  I see some elements from all the categories in my own life.  I definitely don’t see myself as a Driver—Lion/Eagle, but even in that category I see elements that definitely apply to me when I look at spiritual matters like power and authority.  I really want to be a part of seeing God’s power and authority demonstrated in the world through me.  I am all about the authority of the believer over the enemy that God entrusts to us and expects us to walk in.

COUNTDOWN TO THE WORK I LOVE

1. In what kind of settings are you most comfortable? I am most at home when I am cooking up something in a kitchen or when I am singing.  I like to be in settings where there is variety.  I know more and more that I do need some kind of structure..some kind of framework to work within, but if I had to go into a cubicle everyday and do data-entry and other mind numbing tasks I think I would go crazy.

2. How do you respond to management?  I typically try to be respectful to those in authority over me and meet the demands put on me with a good attitude.  I don’t always achieve this, but for the most part I don’t mind people being in authority over me as long as they are not tyrants.  I have a severe distaste for authority figures who are controlling and manipulative.

3.  How would you manage people.  Well, I don’t typically like telling people what to do, but do like being helpful.  I enjoy helping others realize their potential or help them solve a problem or help them learn a skill.  So, I suppose that the model I would most gravitate to if I were in a management role is a mentor model.  I would want people to feel like part of the team and a sense of welcome, but I would want them to not feel trapped in my organization and I would want to encourage them to be continually learning and expanding.

4. Are you better working with people, things, or ideas?  I like a combination of the three.  I like meeting the public.  I really enjoyed my job as a security guard when I worked at Times Square Church in NYC and basically had a built-in greeter role as part of the job.  I do enjoy working with my hands…especially in the kitchen, but I’ve always wanted to have a lab/shop where I could experiment with projects and ideas that I have and fabricate things out of metal and wood and could build pretty much anything that came to mind.

5. Are you more analytical, detailed, and logical, or are you one to see the big picture and respond with emotion and enthusiasm?  There are definitely some things that I am detailed about(when I’m cooking especially, not that I am one to always make exact measurements for recipes when I cook, but I know that ingredients matter and that this technique or that extra spice or a few minutes cooking more or less here, etc…can make all the difference in the world with how a dish may taste.  But I do tend to think in concepts and ideas…I’m always jotting down lists of possible names for the the food truck that I want or the restaurant I hope to open someday or ideas for inventions or new services that come to my mind.  I can be very enthusiastic about ideas

6. Are you steady and predictable, or do you seek variety and new challenges?  I think that I have some steady and predictable qualities about me.  I am dependable.  When I tell someone that I am going to do something and/or be somewhere at a certain time, I am generally consistent in respecting that.  I strive to be a man of my word.  But I probably lean toward the other side.  I definitely have an adventurous heart….I want to travel to every country and try cuisine from each culture.  I definitely appreciate variety. As far as being open to new challenges, I would say that I am, but talk is cheap.  I have had so many ideas through the years that probably have had a great deal of potential, but having initiative to step out and try to get the ball rolling with many of these ideas has been an area of struggle for me and I have lacked follow-through. 

7. Are you verbal and persuasive, or are you the caring, empathetic listener?  Well, according to my sister-in-law who I just asked the question to, I am the caring, empathetic listener type.

8. What strengths have others noticed in you?  I have been complimented on my singing voice many times sometimes from people I know and sometimes from strangers who have only heard me sing once.  I’ve been singing and performing on stage(mostly in church or small group settings) since about the sime time in my life when I started cooking—6 or 7 years old.  Some have encouraged me to pursue singing vocationally.  I get very positive feedback from the food I prepare.  Many have encouraged me to also pursue a career in this area.

9. What are 5 words or phrases that describe you? Here are 5 that I thought of about myself: dreamer, adventurous, musicianary, culinary, caring.  Here are 5 more that my sister-in-law said are true of me(she’s the only one in the house right now as I’m typing this, so she is my feedback panel today): intellectual, compassionate, creative, in-love-with Jesus, helper

10. In writing your epitaph, what would you want people to remember about you?  Rick Hagans(one of my mentors) would be proud to know this question is in this book.  He has studied epitaphs in depth for years and is writing a book on the subject.  I want people to above all else remember that I was a man on an adventure after the heart of God, that I passionately loved Jesus and wanted to use all that God made me to be, to demonstrate the goodness and love of God found in knowing Christ.