Your diary is unwritten

I found and retweeted these the other day in the Twitter stream:

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #1 we tell the story as we go#work #jobhunt #diary 

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #2 it's not alone but our experience always has a voice #work #jobhunt #diary 

How diaries are relevant to #careers... #3 every day presents an opportunity to add or create something new #work #jobhunt #diary

Then due to being behind the firewall at work, I missed Paul's thank you tweet and his follow up question:

@shersteve I thought of you the other day when I read this tweet bit.ly/AzxQ44 from @Bumble_bee3. Would you have a view?

@Bumble_Bee3's tweet asks if Paul had any success stories about moving to another career from teaching. Once upon a time, I started my career to be a teacher. I substituted for six years in the Pawtucket (RI) School Department and and also coached track and field at St Raphael Academy during that time. It was good but unfortunately did not lead to a permanent position teaching.


I found a position in the corporate world through a family connection and haven't looked back. I also did not leave teaching in that the teaching and coaching background has helped me every step of the way. 


I approach each opportunity as a learning situation. What is the big picture? What is the business problem we are trying to solve? How can we together leverage the skills and capabilities we have to accomplish this? I try to leave ego out of the equation. This is difficult as there are folks that you encounter who can not put their ego aside to consider any other way but their way to do something. So sometimes, you just need to suck it up and do it another way the next time.


1 - Knowing that you can (and we all should) learn something each day paints the world a color of opportunity! Observation is a good way to learn. We all have tools we use but maybe we don't use them all the same way. Maybe something someone else does would help you? and vice versa!


2 - Take what you have learned and share it in a way that in meaningful for the person you share it with. Make it real for them, show them how they can benefit. If you do that, you will more likely be successful.


3 - In addition to learning and sharing, find time to laugh each day. Life is too short not to find some enjoyment. The world is a crazy place, look at it with open eyes and laugh when you can. Time will pass more pleasantly if you do.


When I went to Twitter to dig into Paul's question and find Bumble_Bee3's questions, I also found that I missed the first of Paul's series of tweets:

Q: What book remains unfinished despite the efforts of millions of authors? A: A diary #work #career

It is quite appropriate that the theme song for one of the Job Search Jam Sessions appropriately was Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten". 


Our career needs to be explored. The book on our life at any one point in time is incomplete. What the future holds remains open and dependent upon us. No one else can do what we can. The future is unwritten. Learn, share and laugh as you write each new day!