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"!