How Does the Online Idea Party Work?
You have a dream or a wish, and an obstacle to getting there. (If you don’t think you know your wish, work through my kick-starter and read this post. To learn why you must put logic aside to find your dream, read the following.)
The online Idea Party is here to help you – and the other fellow party goers – with your wishes and obstacles.
Voices from Success Teams and Idea Parties:
Having a team to report to and hearing what everybody did each week is very exciting. It’s kept me moving all year. In the past I made some good starts on my own, but found, every time, when the energy ran out, I ran out. Now it doesn’t run out.
Jade G.
Children’s Playroom Therapist, New York Hospital
I would do a painting a year, a sketch a year. If it was only me I know I would never do it. Having to tell you makes all the difference. It’s crazy why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy all of a sudden.
Caroline R. Personnel Executive, Macy’s Dept Store
Post Your Wish and Your Obstacle Here!
And help your team mates out when you can. Use the Reply link to help, the form below the comments to add your own Wish and Obstacle.
(Your first comment below has to be approved, so it may not display instantly depending on the time of the day. Once your email address is approved you can post instantly. If you want your own profile photo to show up beside your comments, instead of the cute little design, upload your photo on Gravatar.com and give them an hour or so to make it happen.)
Hi Barbara,
I attended your Resistance-Course on September 14th. and I wanted to ask if it is O.K: to stay in Mail-Contact with you, I organized an idea-party on the Meet-Up-Board (Meet-Up is quite a big thing in the big cities in Germany,) and even though my home-town is small, someone signed in and we will start November 1st. Just wanted to let you know.
Frank
Great news, Frank! I’ve recommended Meetup.com to many people but wasn’t aware that it was a big thing in Germany. Thanks for that information!
Good luck with your Idea Party!!! Ask the one person who is attending to bring a friend or two (no one who is negative or critical), and you try to do the same. It would be really good to have at least 3 or 4 people there, and 9 or 10 would be even better.
If you can do it in a public place, in a coffee house or something, that might be really good. If you have a sign on your table that says “Idea Party in Progress” in German, people might come over to join. Idea parties are the way to meet the most interesting people in your town.
I’d be happy to stay in touch with you, of course!
Thank you for your answer. I am goin to put a ad in the local weekly ad-paper and I am goin to check the venue tommorow. Besides its only 2 weeks ago that I drew my first flowchart and it made “boom”. Since then I managed maybe like 10 or 12 things to be done that I wrote on my flowchart lists (goal:my own private practice). A day before yesterday I even managed to talk to woman who offers a therapy room for reasonable money per hour. (Before the resistance course this was a very vague thing in my mind) Today I feel exhausted, because at the same time right now I have to find me a new job, because my contract wont be renewed and my bank is knocking my door once a month and says:”Where is the mortgage?”. 900 bucks. I put that on the flowchart as well and it feels good that things come together, even though very often I experience a lot of bad feelings, like strong anxiety or even panic, but also very strong anger, so in the morning I drive my car to work and I am shouting, crying and yelling. Feels good. Feeling exhausted has also something to do with the fact that I am not used to get things done in a short time. I dont know how to deal with this exhaustion because thats part of my resistance to stop to work on my goal, and lean back and relax. I like to rest on my laurels.
So far,
Dear Frank,
It sounds like you’re going through the same emotional turmoil that I’m going through right now, and you’re describing things very well! Are you trying to start a private practice as a psychotherapist, or what? This is what I’m looking at doing.
Hi,
Mary Ann. I set one of my goals to have my own private practice, I drew a flowchart 3 weeks ago. Since then I managed to so many things that I always thought about but never did. Still in progress. First sub-goal is “Clients” , second sub-goal is “Room”. To get both I need money, which means I have to stay in a employed mode for a while to get my motgage paid and all the rest. A part of my Ideal-Day is to have 4 clients between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and do , how I call it, Acu-Point-Process (Other people say EFT, TFT or something else with this energy thing to these methods) I wanna treat clients with this acu-pont-process because its a great combination of acupressure and different types of psychotherapy methods. So at the moment I am writing short descpriton for my homepage, and then I can refer to my homepage on my flyers, my biz-card and other things to tell other people what I am doin.
Thats what I am working on right now.
I just want to say, that I am fascinated of this forum!!! It is amazing how other people just help out without knowing anybody else or having any benefit of it. I would love to meet you all in person! It’s so strange – I’m feeling so connected. (I hope you don’t think I am weird now…) The only thing I can imagine it being like that, is that everybody can be who she/he is. Nobody blames anybody else for what she/he has done or wants to do! That’s so surprisingly pleasant!!! Thank you!
If you think *this* is good, you ought to see what gets accomplished in Hanging Out!
I’m just sayin’…
🙂 Yes, it’s a whole new world, Isabelle. Most of us are just getting accustomed to how warm and helpful people are online and how willing they are to help each other.
In 1999 I set up my bulletin board (www.barbarasher.com/boards) and though it’s kind of fallen off for a while because I wasn’t over there, almost all the time people have asked for help and gotten it. Some places on the internet people can be unpleasant. But there, and here on BarbarasClub and best of all, as Jennifer says, on Hanging Out, I won’t allow anything like that, and everyone seems to know it. So the kindness shines through, and there isn’t any meanness. It’s so wonderful, especially for people who don’t have lots of people around them that they can open up to.
We’re in the business of helping and supporting each other here, not hurting each other.
M&C, veterinary science, and psychology? What a great combo. But you don’t need to go to school for all of them. Get an M&C job with a veterinary magazine or with a manufacturer of supplies for vets. You’ll need to do your research in vets’ offices and animal hospitals. Observe and write about surgeries and treatments for various animal problems. Hang out with museum researchers who study animal behavior. Interview folks who raise mice (and those marvelous see-through fish!) for health care research.
Then pitch stories that require you to interview psychologists about how animals help humans through tough times, how an pet’s illness or death affects their owners, how owning a horse or a raising a lamb or sharing a dog helps children develop character strengths, maybe even about animal therapy.
You’ll get the education you want the way scanners love to get it (one topic at a time with you asking the questions). You’ll gain access to things vet school or psych school would make you wait forever to see. And you’ll get paid for doing it!
If it turns out you want to get credentials in any of these, you can even find a way to keep getting paid to write while you’re in school, which will save your sanity when the schoolwork gets boring.
This is a great idea!!! I thought about something that combines all my interests, but I couldn’t think off anything. This seems so obvious now!!! 🙂 Thank you so much! Thanks!!!
I already checked which journals there are, most of them are english (I guess there aren’t enough people buying journals like that in Germany, as the journals and newspapers are dying out…) But I want to improve my english anyway. And I could start with that right away, even if I don’t get a job in that area yet, I could start a blog! I wanted to start a blog before -set everything up- but then i didn’t know what to write about. Thanks to you, I have an idea now!
I also committed to an online newspaper for students in Germany, where I always had good ideas, did the research but then I found it hard to write down everything, because I know everything and the interest was gone. So I have never actually wrote an article… But this can be my masterpiece now, trying to finish an article, which I can post on my blog and maybe I find a theme that might also fit for the student newspaper.
That’s what I needed, something to start now!!!
I can finish M&C and then see where it takes me. All the research I will do might help me to figure out if I still want to go into the depth of vet med and if so, why I want to do that. So answering the question, which Mari suggested to ask myself.
I thank you so much for the support!!! This makes life so much easier! Thank you!
And thanks to Barbara for putting up that forum!
This sounds very exciting, Isabelle! I hope you will post your blog’s URL here to inspire all of us. A blog is a great start on landing the perfect job after graduation, too.
If the writeups after the research are a bore, try one of these. (1) Team up with someone else who will write them. (2) Create infographics. (3) Create photo essays. (4) Use the writing as a separate creative challenge in which you imitate the style of a different popular blogger or magazine writer every week and keep notes on how easy, effective, and engaging each style is for you.
WOW!!!! That’s great help!!! Thank you!! I will try all 4 tips! I don’t know how I could thank you for this! That’s so great of you!
And yes, I’ll post the URL here, that’s something that puts a bit of “pressure” on me to really do the blog! 😉 It’s positive pressure, of course!!!!
Thank you!!!! 🙂
Hi
I have tried to do my own blog for the whole week, but I just didn’t like what I wrote or have done. Finally, I also spoke to my boyfriend about it. He liked the idea as well but that he said, if I am honest with me, I don’t enjoy writing in an “official” way. Which is true, I came to realize. So a writing-job might not be the “right” job for me later. 🙁
As I have to write am commentary for one of my modules until thursday about Youth identity and digital media, I have done a lot of reading about it. One interesting fact, why young people use blogs, is to find their identity. And to be honest, I think that’s what I am looking for as well. So I decided to do the blog about “finding out who I am”. So I can write about what I do, what I have done in the past, what I wish to do in the future and everything that interests me. I can try a lot of different identities with the blog (being an imaginary vet, or psychologist or PR consultant and everything at the same time.) I can keep track on what I enjoy doing, posing different stuff etc. Maybe that will help me to find what I like most and what I would love to do for a living.
So if anybody is still interested in my blog, here is the url 🙂 : http://katjesworld.tumblr.com
Hi everyone,
I’m Isabelle, 24 years old, from Germany.
I would love if you could help me with some ideas and tips, what to do. Here the thing: I think I am a scanner, actually I am pretty sure of it… So here the short version of my “problem”. My parents split when I was 18 in 2007. I quit school (just having half a year to go to get my a-levels), went to England and did an internship there as a kind of team assistance. There I discovered that I don’t like office work at all. So I remembered my children’s dream of becoming a vet. After one year in England, I moved back home to my mother, worked there at a veterinary practice and started school after 11 month to get my a-levels (which I needed for applying to uni). After one year (so in 2010) I had my a-levels, but they weren’t good enough to get a place at vet school in Germany. My aunt & uncle offered me to pay vet school in Budapest, I applied, got a place, everything was arranged, but as I visited Budapest for the first time, I didn’t want to do my studies there for the next 6 years. So I had to come up with another idea. I discovered that in Belgium you can just enrol to vet school, if you speak Dutch. So I went to Belgium in 2011, learned Dutch and enroled to vet school. I did one semester, but just before the exams I quit. I said that I don’t like Belgium and having no real friends over there was really hard. So I went back to Germany, this time moved to Munich where my boyfriend lives and started a training to become a veterinary nurse (with the plan in mind, that it is easier to get a place at a German vet school if you are a veterinary nurse already). I started in one practice but after a month I changed to another one. I didn’t really like it so I quit again. After that I was so depressed, that I just said I will study anything. So I applied for a lot of studies and also started a lawsuit to get a place at Munich vet school (you can do that in Germany). The first offer I got was for Biology, which I thought was perfect, because then I might switch to vet med after some semesters. So everything was settled again but just before Uni started, I got another offer to study Media&Communication. Spontaneously, I decided to do that. After one semester the lawsuit was finished and I actually got a place at Munich vet school!!! But then I didn’t want it anymore, because I was happy with M&C (having friends, life sorted again) So now I am studying M&C in the 3rd semester, just doing a semester abroad in England. And I just can’t stop thinking about vet med. M&C is interesting, but I don’t want to do that the rest of my life, even if there are so many different jobs you can do with it. I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that I have to finish vet med. Just that I have done it.
After reading Barbara’s book about scanners, I am thinking a lot about my wishes and how I felt when I finished vet school so spontaneously. I always tell everybody that I didn’t like Belgium, but know I am sure I was just afraid not being good/intelligent enough for vet school. I was afraid of failing.
Also I discovered that I love to make planes. So In England in 2007 I started my plan of becoming a vet, I had to finish school first, that try to get a place at vet school. As I had “achieved” getting a place, it wasn’t that interesting anymore, because I got what I wanted. It like “the journey being the reward”. But this didn’t make me a vet and i think I still want to become one.
But I am also thinking about Psychology studies sometimes, so I confuse myself what I really want. And I can’t talk to my family and friends about this, they already think I am crazy… I have also read Barbara’s Book about ‘how to get what you really want’ (before I had read that, I never allowed myself to admit that I still want to be a vet) but when I did the exercise, writing down my perfect day, it was me in my own little vet practice…
Now my plan, that I made for myself now, is to finish M&C and try to get into vet school again. With finishing M&C I have a degree I can rely on if I fail in vet med.
But still, this plan doesn’t seem perfect, I don’t know why, it’s just a feeling. So as I can’t talk to anybody else, what do you think, when reading that?
I automatically thinking of me being crazy, as I had so many chances but didn’t take them…
Any suggestions?
You must lead a very interesting life! I enjoyed reading about all the twists and turns in your education – I don’t think I would ever be bored if I were you! I find it wonderful how you find a way to make your plans possible, regardless of the technicalities or realities. HOW do you do that? You seem to live in a world of possibilities.
I am so impressed that you went so far as to learn dutch, just because you wanted to go to school in Belgium! That must have taken a lot of work and willpower. I also liked that you combined travel and education. Just curious, but how did you manage to fund your way out through all of this?
I don’t look at it in the way that you didn’t take the chances that you had, because if you did, you life wouldn’t sound as fascinating to read! Your experiences mold you and individuality is greatly appreciated in our world today. Your individuality shows me that you aren’t afraid of risks, you can plan your way out of any obstacle, you have a great mind for devising all these plans and executing them, and that you work hard to go the extra mile. I think you should just accept yourself the way you are, as a scanner, and spin your tale in the best possible light.
Now as for your current plan, if you are not a 100% happy with it, then may I suggest that vet school can wait? After all, it’s not going to go anywhere and you certainly aren’t obligated to stick to M&C your whole life! Why don’t you try working in M&C for a while or something else, and then when you feel that strong urge to go back to vet school, then go by all means! But maybe you should also ask yourself why you want to go back and whether you are going to finish what you started. Sometimes we go back to things because we don’t want to look at them as failures or regrets, but sometimes that is all they are meant to be. If it is guilt that is making you go back to vet school, don’t go!
I can relate to the “journey being the reward” part! Unfortunately I cannot offer any real insights, as I am also trying to figure my way around. But I can say this – crazy or not, you are one person I would love to have coffee with!
Thank you Mari!!! You can’t imagine what your message means to me! It nearly made me cry. Thanks for saying/writing these wonderful things! That just made my day, because nobody ever saw my life that way you do! I thank you for that!
I think you are right, I have to rethink why I want to go back to vet school. I never thought about it as being guilt that makes me go back to finish it, until I read your message. I thank you so much!
About the funding: The first time in England I was paid for my internship, so that was no problem. And turing the year in Belgium my really generous aunt&uncle helped me out. (They have no kids and I am there goddaughter, so I was lucky with that! And we agreed that I will treat their cat for free when I have finished my vet studies…) The funding for my semester abroad comes from working during the semester and also I got an student loan for that, just to be save. After the semester in Oxford, I will have 4 month of free time, where I will try to work as much as possible to repay that loan.
I guess Mari stands for Marion? I just read about your problem. Where do you come from? Maybe, if we can’t have a coffee, we can exchange emails 🙂 If you like to do that, just contact me: Isabelle_stumpf_58@hotmail.com
And concerning your motivation problem: lately, I have read the book “The Life List” by Lori Nelson Spielman and I found it really inspiring. I think it has a really great message in it and as well some really good sayings/quotes. One of them was said by Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you”
I think this is brilliant! Because the things that scare us, are often things that mean a lot to us. So maybe – I don’t know if it is like that, it’s just a suggestion – your lack of motivation is because you are afraid about what can happen if you really do something you want to do. But you will never know if you don’t try it.
With all your ideas, just start with one. And if you don’t know where to start, do some research about it first. After that the jigsaw pieces might form a proper jigsaw. I hope that helps a bit.
And thanks again for your help!
Hi Isabelle!
Sorry for getting back to you so late but I have my midterms going on, so please don’t mind my late replies!
I came across this article and I thought you would find it especially helpful.
This is for all the scanners out there:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/05/10/how-to-quit-every-job-and-still-have-a-good-resume/
Hi Mari,
don’t worry. I know how stressful Uni can be…
Thanks for the link, I like it! It’s interesting to read!
How are you getting on with your ideas?
You’re not crazy, just a Scanner! I think your plan is good. Finish the one thing in M&C, get the degree, and then go ahead with vet training. It’s obvious from your “Ideal Day” exercise that you want to be a vet. Part of what’s been upsetting you is the switching from one thing to another that you’ve been doing without completing any of it. So I think your plan’s a good one!
Valentina,
I love your persistence. Go for it, girl!!! Is there a possibility of doing something with some other people, a sort of independent tv project or group of projects that you offer management and legal consultancy for? I may be naive, but I think that we need to think of other ways, some times, to create what we want, with passion and consideration of truth.
Oh I wish i knew about scanners while I was in college!
What would you do different if you had? Just wondering.
I for one wouldn’t have bothered trying to pick a specialist major. I would’ve looked for a general BA or B.Sc. degree program and enjoyed all the courses I wanted to take without worrying about how far they put me over the breadth limit. As it turned out, I’m not doing anything related with my field now anyway. And I predicted that even before I knew I was a Scanner.
When I started Uni, I imagined being a lab research scientist. By the end of first year, I thought I could be a field archaeologist. Then later, a commercial photographer. Then a lecturer in political history. Then a forensic anthropologist. Then an osteopath. Then a journalist. Then a sports therapist. And so on.
Had I known about Scanners and that I was one, I would’ve experienced far less angst and unhappiness for being a “failure” in specialising.
Wow, that sounds interesting! Did you do all these things??? And what are you doing now? Sorry for being so nosy, but I love to hear/read other peoples stories. And yours seems to be very interesting!!!
And how did you manage to find a job that makes you happy? Or do you keep changing your jobs?
Hi Isabelle,
I didn’t do all of those things, professionally. I just really enjoyed the courses at uni.
Today, I’m a digital media factotum in my full-time good-enough job. I design websites (not just layout templates for WordPress, but strategise and architect sites in keeping with branding, business, and marketing goals), do some backend coding, head the videography team, edit video, do graphic design for print material, and take care of almost all the photography.
Re; “Finding a job that makes me happy”: I just got lucky. I got this job through meeting friends of friends over dinner and all talking shop. When my friend’s friend was leaving this job, he asked me if I wanted to apply. Rest is history.
Knowing what I know now, I would say that if you’re a Scanner, or just someone who wants the ability to explore and grow in a job (regardless of the job you apply for), look for a small but growing entrepreneurial company. If you want to take on a lot of jobs, be responsible for a wide variety of work you’re not really qualified for — if you like that kind of stress — work for a very small entrepreneurial company (under 10 people). You’ll have plenty of opportunity to try everything.
But if you want to be able to grow into doing something you’re really passionate about, join an entrepreneurial company of at least 40 but no more than 120 people. Whatever job you get hired for, be exceptional at it. Then, whenever you hear of some new project that sounds interesting, ask to take a role. Come up with good ideas and share them with team members who can make things happen. Keep coming up with good ideas. Keep exceeding expectations. You’ll be given more and more of what you love to do and they’ll pay you more and more money to stay and do it.
NOTE: Finding a job you’re happy with is not the same as being happy with the job you find. I’m one of the latter, not the former. I didn’t apply for the original job here because I thought it would make me happy. What I thought was it would let me pay my bills and I would get great experience.
Being happy with the job you find is easy when you’re adaptable, not easily stressed, alert, responsive, curious, and resourceful —because you can create your own opportunities and move into doing the things you like and the company will be more than happy to let you because you produce results. (Of course, this strategy doesn’t necessarily work in bureaucracies and highly structured corporations. As I said, I’d stick to small (but growing) businesses if you want variety and opportunity.)
Hi everyone,
Before I start, I want to thank you all (in advance) for reading and/or replying. Thanks to Barbara for providing her readers with this new platform.
Background:
So to begin, I am in my final year of undergraduate studies. I am doing a double major in history and english from a top university.
Obstacle:
Around second year, I began experiencing (what I would later learn) was the quarter life crisis. I owe my lack of self-confidence and positivity to it.
The crux of the matter is this – I have ideas (some business-related and others, non-profit related) ranging from various disciplines but the problem is ME.
1) I am overwhelmed that I do not know where to start or which is worth pursuing.
2) Lack of funds.
2) NO motivation & very little excitement to make those ideas a reality.
3) Lack the know-how, which deflates my self-confidence even more, allowing me to drag on without doing anything.
4) Still very much in the quarter life crisis.
Vision:
But the end result (at least in my mind) is that some time in the future, I will actually get started on (at least) one of these ideas and lead a respectable, hopefully well-to-do life around them. I also want to live around the world, instead of committing to one place for the rest of my life.
Thank you for listening.
I’m replying because several of these issues sound familiar and I’m curious about other people’s answers. One thing that I really love doing is using my Scanner Daybook (from Refuse to Choose) to fully write out my ideas and see if I get any further inspiration after I get it out of my head. What happens for me is that everything swirls around, I get distracted, and then I lose interest (in a nutshell), but the daybook lets me have enjoy it, revisit it with positivity, and then move on if needed.
Thank you for commenting, because I would have never known what a “scanner” was or how it applied to me! I do remember there being a mention of it in the “I can do Anything” book but I haven’t read Refuse to Choose yet.
Having said that, I don’t know if I am a scanner. I will have to read Refuse to Choose to get more information on it.
I used to write out my ideas, so that I would not forget the details later but I stopped – I have to get back to the practise. I did find it useful to keep track of my ideas that way. Thanks for reminding me!
Excellent suggestion from Becca. It’s a good one.
I work in a company that has workshops for people aged 18-25 to help them figure out who they are and how to get what they want. I really wish this program was around when I was going through university because, Mari, I feel ya. I was just like you and perhaps worse (perhaps not). Way all over the place, and even a little depressed.
I got over the depression, but even today, decades later, I will have days when I wonder what’s wrong with me and why I have no motivation to get things done. It’s not depression (I don’t think), because I’m generally happy about life and my day to day. It’s only when I look into the past or future that I start feeling badly that I didn’t get started earlier (at whatever I ought to have started already) and that I still don’t have A Plan.
What I’ve been slowly learning (on-going) is that it’s okay that I’m not like everyone else. I’ve always known I wasn’t like everyone else, but it’s hard to reconcile that when you’re expected to behave like everyone else and want the same things as everyone else. I’ve never wanted the same things as everyone else.
Not to get too touchy-feely about it, but I’ve discovered that the key to my happiness is living in the moment, or the Dao. I’m not actually Daoist, but I can get with the idea of it and in moments of great self-conflict, I remind myself that struggling against your own nature is fruitless and painful.
“Hi, I’m Margaux and I’m a Scanner.”
My nature is mercurial. I need to know things. I’m curious. I’m ideas driven. I’m– SQUIRREL! I’m not “follow through.” When I see opportunities, I do my best to take them so that I can see where they lead. If I get interested in something, I work at it. If it falls by the wayside after a couple of months, I let it go, knowing that I’m likely to pick it up again in the future. Or not.
So to embrace the Dao (sort of), I follow the flow as much as possible and steer a little when I can, but mostly let stuff happen naturally. It’s not easy because other people will tell you you have to choose, you have to plan, you have to produce results, you have to have goals. I will often come to the brink of believing them, but when I do, I find myself becoming very unhappy because then I’m overwhelmed with decisions to make—what major to pick, what skill to specialise in, what business to start up and run on my own, etc.
This is probably of no help to you whatsoever. But believe me, I really do understand the feeling you have of being at the crossroads and thinking you have to make a choice that you have to live with for the rest of your life—“no pressure!”
Many other Scanners here will tell you how they overcome their inability to get with the main programme. Many of them have achieved success by finding “work” that allows them to scan continuously.
If you want to talk tools for getting past feelings of overwhelm do email me (swannekke@gmail.com) because I’ve got some good ones.
Otherwise, Hanging Out with Barbara will do wonders for your existential Scanner pain! Really!
Hi Margaux (like your name!),
Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out here – I appreciate it.
Reading about your experience was very helpful. It takes years to get used to and understand, I suppose. It is hard to “know” what you want to do, because I have no idea – not a clue, except for my ideas. I don’t have the fear of picking only one career area all my life, because I know that even if I choose something now, I have no obligation to stick with it for the rest of my life. So that’s not an obstacle. But knowing what to do first is!
I’m not sure that I am a scanner. I haven’t read Refuse to Choose – will have to get more information from there.
In the meantime, I took the “Are you a Diver or Scanner” test from here:
The Article:
http://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/what-do-you-do-when-you-want-to-do-everything.html
Quiz:
http://www.psychologies.co.uk/tests/are-you-a-generalist.html
The result:
YOU CHART A STEADY COURSE
While you enjoy change and learning, you like to keep key aspects of your life constant as you rotate others. Maybe you chose a career in your twenties that you’ve stuck with, but you play with variety in other areas of your life – perhaps by always going somewhere different on holiday. If you sometimes feel stuck, ask yourself whether the stable elements of your life still satisfy you. Is it time to replace them, or to find a new way of doing them? For example, you might want to stay in the same career, but with a different employer.
————–
I agree with the result I got above. I don’t think I am a “scanner” in the traditional sense of the word – I think I might possibly qualify for a “type” of scanner or a borderline scanner. Something like that. But I am hesitant to take on the label for myself, without knowing for sure.
There is one thing I know for sure though – the influx of ideas I get almost every day. But the rest, I’m not so sure. With the quarter life crisis (and the depression that comes with it), I can never know if the way I work is because of that or being a possible scanner. Sort of like the “which came first – the egg or the chicken?” idea.
Thanks for the kind words!
Is the problem really you, or are these ideas for businesses and nonprofits about as appealing as putting on a grey suit, catching the bus to work in the dark, in the early morning rain, getting off the bus as it’s breaking dawn, only it isn’t because it’s raining, going 5 floors underground down tunnels with scary steam pipes in them that have big patches on them, and working in a windowless environment with grey paint, grey carpeting, grey cubicles, grey file cabinets, and grey fluorescent lights, as a poorly-paid secretary. Then catching the bus home in the dark! Yikes!!
Somehow, I’m getting an inkling that these ideas are likely to be money-makers, but not fun in any way. Am I right? Could that be it?
Haha that was funny – thanks for the laughs! I wish the ideas were uninteresting and boring, then I would have no guilt about brushing them aside. But they are actually interesting, transformative, and engaging. In other words, they will open up a new life.
Thanks for replying!
thank you
You’re very welcome, Elizabeth. Hope it was helpful.
Knowing you are out there and finding this forum is so helpful ! !
Hello!
I’m going to try really hard to keep this relatively short. Wow, I never really notice how convoluted my goals are until I sit down and try to present them to other people…oh man.
Well! I have spent the past 10 years in NYC but recently moved to the middle of nowhere, North Carolina. While in NYC I was enrolled in an Womens Studies undergrad program. I got asked A LOT “what are you going to do with that degree?” I never had a truly coherent answer…I knew I liked Womens Studies and I would not mind having pretty much any job helping women (well, if it was in an organization I believed it). Well, like I mentioned, I moved, without finishing the degree…I guess I should really get to the point!…
I would love to own land, with animals, grow my own food, make my own products from the animals, and work towards self sufficiency. On top of that I would love to write–books preferably (love writing, don’t know why). I’m very open to having multiple income streams however–although I’m not sure how much of that is from dreams and how much I have conditioned myself to be ok with that idea cause I need money.
Right now I have no job–but I have been a bartender for the past 6 years so I CAN do that for money for the moment–I probably will.
Thank you!!! 😀
You have a beautifully liberating dream! Just reading about it quietened my mind and gave me a sense of peace and calm.
While I don’t have any advice or tips pertaining to making that dream a reality, I do know of a way you can experience that quality of lifestyle for a shorter period of time; and more importantly, for free.
It’s called “house-sitting.” When home-owners go away on vacation, they sometimes need an occupant in their house to make it look “lived-in” or to take care of any pets.
You can “test-drive” your dream by “house-sitting” for cottage/farm owners, away on vacation. You can find more information if you just google “house-sitting”…
Here is an example of a house-sitting ad:
http://www.mindmyhouse.com/sitters/assignment/436
I wish you luck and hope that you will find a way to make your dream happen!
I think a “recepie” might be a “good enough job” which supports you but doesn’t take up all your time so you can write. And simultaneously, get going on your writing. As to obtaining land: Land can be had for cheap for forclosures for back taxes. Check with your county office in the area where you would most like to buy land. And check with HUD in your area. And check with the Department of Agriculture. There is a program through the Dept. of Agriculture here in the West, at least, which I forget the name of, but it’s the Rural Development ——, —–, and it’s a grant program, I think, which enables people, especially women, to be able to build houses on their land. I know of a woman living near Taos, NM who did just this, through that program. That way, you can establish a homestead. The back tax foreclosures are not the same as ordinary foreclosures. Property becomes foreclosed when owners don’t pay their taxes over a period of time. Check with your county. Finally, don’t obtain any piece of land or property without seeing it. You need to do that to guard against the possibility of an irremediable junk heap or other utterly deal-killing feature. Once money comes in through your writing, you are in even better of a position to bargain. In some parts of the country, property is auctioned off cheap.
Hi everybody, I am italian, live in Rome, 33 years old.
I would love to become a tv manager, overviewing the projects, making creative choices and managing the money and the deals.
The obstacles are that, even if I passed the exam to be a lawyer and after the one to be a journalist, I have worked for a few years in television as a journalist for a tv show and then I quit two years ago, because I was confused about my future and I couldn’t stand the people of the show. Now I have a lot of problems in going back to tv, because the story of my quitting has spread out, and they seem to judge my behavior strange and not smart.
Although since then I published two books of broadcast journalism (a nice idea but the money is very little), it seems that nobody is going to give me credit in the tv industry.
At the moment I am working for a national daily newspaper, writing about Rome events and stars, but I find the topic quite boring and the money is so little that I cannot live on it. What can I do???
You are blessed to have experience in the industry you want to work in. You not only worked for the TV industry but also published a work related to it; as well you are working for the media. I think you are on the right track, you have passion, and perseverance.
If the TV industry in your city is not interested, then perhaps you should apply to other cities in your country – that is, if you don’t mind travel. Also, I believe having a blog pertaining to your field can be worthwhile. You will be more accessible, in terms of social media and may gain contacts that way as well. Also join LinkedIn and scour job boards.
I don’t know how much help this was, but at the very least, I hope it provided you with some encouragement.
Good luck!
How isolated are you? Do you have friends within the industry, or could you create them, to buddy up with and start a show, or maybe even an independent broadcasting station or channel? I once wrote a grant to fund a small-wattage FM radio station. I know of a talk show host who has very successfully broadcasted out of his home, over the radio, for years, and his program has gone national, over many AM radio stations.
Thank you so much….I really need a lot of encouragment because sometimes I feel like I screwed all up going away from the show where I was working….!
Dear Valentina,
Sometimes going away from where we’ve been working is the only way to make progress, even if it was going away in a wrenching manner, or not under the best of circumstances.
Hi, Mary Ann –
Saw your (encouraging!) comment here; just touching base. Emailed you last evening at your yahoo.com address re: resistance class. 🙂
Hi Valentina,
you wrote that you have problems going back to TV, because the story of your quitting has spread out. Why don’t you move to another country and have a new start over there. Nobody will know your past.
Or what about trying a new “way”? Do you like teaching? Maybe apply at an University as a tutor for broadcasting or so… as you already have written some books that might be helpful. While being a tutor you could still write some articles so you have a double income, which can be helpful. Maybe time will solve the problem and people will forget about your quitting, they might give you a new chance in some years. And maybe – who knows – you like being a tutor, sharing your knowledge about broadcasting, newspapers and working for TV, also your knowledge as a lawyer will be helpful, giving lectures about rights (like which photos you are allowed to use etc.)
I hope the idea might help you. As I really love to make plans, I can already imagine you making a, lets say, 6 or 7-year plan, with getting a job as tutor, being good at it, sharing your knowledge, let the people in the Tv industry forget about your decision to quit, gain some new experience and than be back at the age of 40. Might sound scary but as I said I love making plans and sometimes “anticipation is the greatest pleasure” (that’s a german saying)
I wish you good luck! Keep us updated (if you like to 😉 )
Thank you is a good idea to change place, maybe not country, as I am really close to MY family…
Right today they offer me a job in television…same place where I was …obviously I accepted but this is a tiny step to MY goal, which is to become a tv manager… the reason why I didn’t work as a tutor was that I felt a little unsure of myself….because down inside I feel much more as a lawyer and manager, not a journalist…
Thank you is a good idea to change place, maybe not country, as I am really close to MY family…
Right today they offer me a job in television…same place where I was …obviously I accepted but this is a tiny step to MY goal, which is to become a tv manager… the reason why I didn’t work as a tutor was that I felt a little unsure of myself….because down inside I feel much more as a lawyer and manager, not a journalist…I see journalism as a mean to do entertainment but I do not like it, because the deepest truths that you discover cant’ be said…