Stuck again going after Desire!

Sometimes you can put too much importance on completing a task towards a dream and loose site of the dream. I'm talking about getting my website launched. When blog-follower LP asked me, in person, about my progress I said "it's not progressing, I'm stuck!". It's almost as if completing the website made me feel that I had "arrived". However, the work is just beginning.

I have not had the time to send out links to my new site, network with people, or bid on eLance work.

I'm reading a book titled Desire, by John Eldredge. I bought it because it had a pretty picture of a sailboat. It's actually about understanding the journeys we go through in life to be aware of our God-given desires. It acknowledged my desire to use the internet to connect with people to help them find meaningful work.....it actually could be my divinely appointed calling in life. Destiny, eternity, or God brings opportunities into our daily paths, we just need to be sensitive to these types of communications and react.

With LP's question is still ringing in my ears I reacted to an opportunity at my full-time work. Over the next few weeks we will be reorganizing. This is my opportunity, or calling, to apply for work that may give me more flexibility to work to my desire. I'm going to see if there is a way to work at least 1/2 time remotely.....from my sailboat. I should know if 2-3 weeks.

Terry

Finally! Made a move.

My blog has been bugging me. Every time I looked at it, or thought about it, I was reminded that I haven't made any moves towards my career dreams in months. Finally, I got my web page together.

Here I am, a career counsellor, helping people with their career dreams, and being stuck for so long. I guess I'm not any different than most people, getting frustrated with the perseverance needed to follow through on a dream.

I must admit, by writing out my dreams, or at least blogging, created a personal accountability (it's always there to bug you)....and it works. I strongly recommend everyone to document your dreams. It gives your dreams extra potency.
Go ahead, click on my website and check it out. I made it with iLife on my Mac. I needed to upgrade my iWeb to iLife in order to handling the HTML snippets from Paypal (to generate the payment buttons).

Don't forget to wright out your dreams.

Working in the Wilderness

It was a good experiment working on my sailboat from a Northern Ontario lake, Lake Temagami. From the town docks I picked up the free wireless internet form the local library. On the sailboat I was able to Skype people, give feedback on a cover letter, and send out a career counselling training proposal.
Once we sailed to our destination lake, Spawning Bay, we were out of wireless range. However, I noticed a cell town at the Municipal Docks in the centre of the lake. I have no doubt that with the portable (cell) internet stick I would be able to access the web.
What I like about our 21' Sirius sailboat is the ability to trailer it to remote locations. Lake Temagime is huge...45Kilometers from top to bottom. We took our canoe along, tethered behind the sailboat. I would not recommend teathering a canoe since it's just one more thing to add to the already numerous cables and ropes involved with sailing. It's not bad with a head wind, but is tricky with a tail wind. We disovered this as the wind blew the canoe sideways and the teather rope ended up pulling the canoe over filling it with water. What an ordeal! I should have tied the teather under the canoe looping up through the front seats, that avoids the teather rope from capsising the canoe. Oh well...live and learn!

Life is like building a boat

For the past 6 months I've been helping my friend, Steve, building a canoe. We've taken our time wanting to build it from wood we cut and shape ourselves, taking pride that it does not contain any nails. Looking a several completed canoes we had a vision of what we wanted.
I find building that "perfect career" is much like canoe building. My inspirational song this morning, Dare You To Move, by Switchfoot, made it clear that going after your dreams is not easy, full of challanges, and sometimes fears. It's easier and safer "not to move".
Steve and I could have taken the easy way with the canoe and bought a kit and used nails....but, it would not be as close to our vision of a "beautiful boat" if we did not persevere.
This convinces me to preserver after my career and work dreams. What are your dreams?

Am I called to Make a Living on a Sailboat?

It may sound silly wondering if I am "called" to find a way to make a living from a sailboat. During my daily inspirational Podcast I was challenged to consider how I have been gifted to help others. This made me think of two people I wrote resumes for; one in person and the other online. In both cases I could sense the person's confidence building as I helped them create accomplishment statements (such as Katie moving to Toronto from Vancouver who needed a resume to go from the movie industry to event planning). I feel I can help people see their inner strengths and encourage them to find work matching their strengths. I need to not be so lazy and spend more time finding opportunities to do resumes both on Elance and through my own website. It's funny how our weaknesses can get in the way of blessing others. I just got to make a point of getting my website done. I need to make a public commitment....that's it....I'm going to set September at my target month.

Give Elance a Second Chance

Had a good Elance experience writing a resume. I find the trick is not to set up too many project markers for payment. What I mean is not to ask for multiple payments. In stead of establishing a partial payment after each resume draft, simply request 50% up front and the balance after the final resume draft. It's a lot less administrative work and there is less chance your customer's credit card will be cancelled due to suspicious activities with numerous small charges.
I'm surprised that I rank in the top 25% with only $110 in sales and two positive customer feedback comments, and that's out of more than 25,000 frelancers. I guess a lot of people don't actively bid, but just hope customers will look them up.
Even though I get three free bids per month, I think I will purchase the minimum of 20 bids for $20 and see if I can "drum up" more business.

Many make a living from a sailboat.

While on my sailboat this weekend, at Kon Tiki Marina, I discovered several people make a living from their sailboats. The owner, George, said that some of the other sailboat owners work from their sailboats, saying "If you can work from a computer, we have the wireless."
I thought I alot about that anchored in the south end of Lake Simcoe on Saturday cooking dinner on the boat BBQ. I though of how peaceful it would be anchored there all day writing resumes for clients.
I got to start putting out more bids on Elance and getting my webpage done!!!!

Want cheese with your Joomla?

My webmaster, David Bird of www.birdwebwork.com, set me up on Joomla as a tool to help develop my Unlimited Worth website. It's a great idea, I use this interface to create the content of my website. Once it's functioning in Joomla the website "skin" (the layout and images) can be applied over the content.
This makes it much easier to create websites. It eliminates much of the time involved in sending content back and forth to the webmaster. Not only is David Bird a smart webmaster, he's my nephew. Talk to him if you need a website.

Faith to Navigate.

Blogger, Carole, left an interesting post under the "Stick-to-it'ness" blog. She related sailing navigation to career direction. Even though we can use all the slickest navigation tools, such as GPS's and charts, we still use a bit of our "gut feeling". This relates to career direction in that we can take all the assessments in the world, but it comes down to what that "small inner voice" is saying to us....that's where faith comes it. It's so true! So many of my career counselling clients say "I should of listen to my gut" when making career and job decisions.
Problem is, I have two "inner voices" saying "yes" to both my current work and the idea of making a living from a sailboat. A sermon this week challenged me to "feed my sheep". For me, that means to help people see hope for thier futures. I difinatly feel like I am doing this at the career centre, but, I have also recieved positive feedback by offering on-line career counselling (the type I could do from a sailboat). I guess this is where faith comes in, to just continue in both until something forces a decision. What do you think?

Natural Healing

Time to get the sailboat ready! Natural Heeling was the name of my boat when I purchased it, and I kept the name. It reminded me of how nature can calm the soul. Sailing out of Bing Inlet with my buddy Neil, we anchored near the tree in the picture. It was the same area where Tom Thomson, of the Group of Seven lived and painted.
I staired at the tree and rocks and thought how little they have changed from the Group of Seven days. In a world full of change it's nice to be near, climb, and touch things that have not changed for hundreds of years. It makes me think of what legacy am I going to leave? Time in nature is actually a catalyst for me to change.
How does nature heal you?

Gadgets for work and life on the water.

It's worth it to keep your kids. My daughters bought me a set of BlueChart maps for my Garmin GPS (which they also bought for me). With the nautical maps this GPS is a perfect gadget for getting around the lakes, especially when looking for great places to anchor for a day of online work.
With the push of a button I can locate recommended anchor spots close to my sailing location. I can also call up tons of details about the nearby marinas, such as services, washroom facilities, restaurant, and accommodations. I can see myself using this gadget to locate marinas to hang out at for the day.
I especially like the "anchor slippage", a warning that sounds if the boat anchors slip...great if you're "sleeping on the job"!

The Power of "Stick-to-it'ness"

It's funny how things work. A friend knew I liked designing programs for youth and asked me for a proposal. When reviewing the client's website I noticed they were looking for an Internet Liaison. I fired out an email of inquirey and got a call the same day. The organization, Venture Academy, is a residential youth counselling and treatment program. They need someone to participate in chat sessions and blogs to talk about the benefit of youth counselling. This seems "right up my alley".
After talking to the founder, Gordon Hay, I think the internet work is something I could do and would be very interesting. I'm going to give this a lot of thought.
It's funny how you end up stumbling across good things if you are looking for it. I guess that's the power of sharing your dreams. What are your dreams?

Distress vs Eustress

I co-facilitated a workshop last week titled Freak Out Management, along with a well-experienced facilitator Jim McLeod. I learned there are two types of stress.....Distress...that stuff that exhausts you, and Eustress....that stuff that "pumps you up".
With doing 22 workshops for 420 people last week I definitely experienced Distress. I don't think it was the work, but more the environment....talking to so many people....it exhausted me. I think I am more of a one-on-one person. I get pumped when I've helped one person (on-line or face-to-face). I had one on-line client say "I feel like I have my own person motivational speaker".
I can see rewarding work coming from on-line one-on-one career counselling.
Where does your Distress or Eustress come from?

Enviroment vs Employment

It's funny how it's hard to find the ideal balance between between work environment vs employment. I know I would love the environment of working in the outdoors on my sailboat. However, the work opportunities to make that possible are not always close to what I love to do. What I mean is that my buddy, Neil Cragg, has a good opportunity for me to help manage the finances of his business expansion. It's part-time work I could easily do from my sailboat, but, it's not the work I feel "called" to do. Yet, if things work out I could be helping a lot of young people be trained for the new business....that would be cool.
It's always a conundrum trying to figure out the balance. How's your balance.

The new website...to go where no chart has gone before!

I think I will go with Carole's suggestion of a nautical theme for my new website. What I like about sailing is that it is very unregulated, no licensing, no registration, and no fees. It's kind of like the freedom of freelancing.....so.....sailancing is a very appropriate term.
Plus, our futures are as vast as the oceans. Almost anything is possible if we have faith in possibilities. Even though sailing requires a lot of "target setting" on landmarks, when you are in open water you need to depend on chart. I see career counseling as the charts for uncharted areas of your work life. It is my hope and prayer to help people to discover the uncharted possibilities of their lives.

On-line Resume Community

I came across (through Elance) an interesting approach to resume assistance through www.resumeposse.com. It' an on-line community that helps each other with their resumes. Once a person is happy with thier resumes they can upload it to the Resumeposse resume bank, or any online reusme bank. This could be an interesting opportunity for my online carer counselling service.
I guess I better get my new website up and going!

Win credits for your ideas!

I want to give 25 Career Counselling credits to anyone who can help me come up with an image for my new website. Blogger, Carole, gave me some good ideas to blend the "journey/sailing" moteph into the site. I just can't come up with an image for the central work area. This will be the splash image that will be replaced by working screens such as assessments, resumes, ect.
My old website was very corporate looking. I'm thinking about moving towards a more non-conformist look. Here's an image I'm considering.

Let me know what you think and it I choose it I will give you 25 credits that could be used for a new resume, cover letter, and a survey to figure out what you want to be when you grow up.

Sail now, don't wait for better weather!

I bumped into a person, Sherry Burton (maiden name) whom I worked with in 1983. It's surprising how we can catch up on 26 years in just 5 minutes! When she asked "What are you doing now" I jokingly answered "Trying to figure out how to make a living from a sailboat, I'd like to figure this out for my retirement". She questioned why wait until retirement and explained how she reduced her full-time job to 3 days per week to enjoy the things she loves to do.
Today's drawing reflects the feelings I had as a young child, walking to the small public school in Schomberg. Taking the long way through the fields and rivers with the sun on my face, breaking the ice along the rivers. It's the freedom of time I cherished. I'd like to get back to that. A psychologist had a theory that we spend our entire lives trying to get back to the age of 7. What do you think?

Weakness from waiting

It is very possible to making a living from my sailboat. The technology and access to work opportunities is very accessible. I am well suited to work independently. My personality type needs solitude and aesthetically pleasing work environments. I just need to update my website, continue checking for work, and wait. However, I'm not good at waiting. I tend to loose confidence and doubt myself. However, like job search, waiting pays off. I need to hang on to the things that give me strength.
This morning's drawing is of a deer I saw early one morning north of Baxter. The scene reminded me of a Bible verse how God created me with the grace and strength of a deer. If I am created with Intentional Design there must be a special purpose for my design.....I just got to wait while I'm discovering it.

Need ideas for my new website

Encouragement from my bloggers to "stay true to who you are" led me to redesign my website. Here is a pencil drawing of the new layout (click on it to enlarge). I want to help people dream through thier career moves by helping with questions like:

1. Who Am I?
2. What's Out There?
3. How do I get there?

I'll still do resumes since that often leads to these three questions above. I just need to come up with a photo idea for the centre to replace the very "corporate" looking photo in my old website.
Any ideas?