Skip to main content

48 Days to the Work You Love: Chapter 6 Questions

Chapter 6: 6 Job Offers in 10 Days

1. Do you understand your areas of competence? Not as well as I should. I pretty much feel I'm qualified for nothing, so that pigeonholes me into following the path I've forged for the past 5 years: preschool teacher. I'm making a comfy lateral move to a preschool I admire (from the one that currently sucks the lifeblood from me). I have competent people skills, with children and adults. That makes me good at teaching preschool. But that skill would transfer elsewhere, don't you think? Let's brainstorm, no censoring.
Becky's Areas of Competence
  • reads aloud with organic enthusiasm to groups of children or adults
  • arrives promptly
  • fulfills expected duties
  • communicates effectively with peers and superiors (not necessarily in this current job, but communication is a two-way street, is it not?)
  • voracious quest for knowledge
  • able to understand computer programs and file management on a Windows-based network
  • possesses superior organizational skills
This is boring. I'm not boring.

2. Do you feel trapped because of your current or past work experience? Yes. Feel unqualified for anything other than early childhood education, and recently don't even feel qualified for that.

3. Do you recognize how easily your abilities may transfer to a new industry or profession? No. Feel hopeless.

4. Can you see value in those things you may have done as a volunteer through your church or community? I don't volunteer in my community. I served on the Discernment Committee at the inception of my church's search for a new rector. At church I sometimes serve as lector and teach Sunday School. Those activities don't encourage me to stretch past my comfort zone.

5. Are there skills or training you need to make you a candidate for the work you love? I still don't know what work is the work I love. Still searching.

6. Has God given you abilities that do not match your desires? If so, how can you reconcile those? Just what are my God-given abilities? I feel like I'm missing something here. Too scared to turn my eye to myself.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

wedding gift

On Saturday Dave's cousin Traci is getting married. At the last minute we decided to fly to Ames for the wedding and to see everyone who will be in attendance there. At the last minute, I decided to crochet a throw as a wedding gift. I just finished. The colors in this first picture are true; the other two pictures were taken with flash so the colors look brighter than they really are. I started last Monday night with 7 skeins of Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick in Periwinkle. It's 72 single crochet in the back loop only for as many rows as you want. Then single crochet around in a contrasting color. I chose Wine. I bought the yarn at Big Lots for half the retail price. It's long and skinny but very texturally appealing. Though all skeins were of the same dye lot, you can see that the top and bottom skein are definitely different, not so much in color as in texture. It's pure dumb luck that they ended up at the top and bottom. It's not perfect, but neither is mar...

in which I get knocked down

Sickness saps my energy, both physical and mental. It's surprising, really, how seldom I get sick, since I work in a petri dish. When I do get sick it lays me low and happenings that I might normally take in stride just completely knock me down. Last week I was diagnosed with an embarrassing viral infection, the symptoms of which on their own couldn't possibly have dragged me this deep down: sores in my mouth and throat that blistered and peeled and made every mouthful feel and taste like shredded pennies; an itchy rash around my mouth and nose and on my chest. Compounding that: knees that felt packed in hot wax, the backs of my eyeballs aflame. No fever, so no H1N1. Negative strep. Malaise. But I soldiered (martyred?) through most of the week at work, because I could, and some of the other teachers had to stay at home with their diverticulitis and kidney stones. On Thursday night my laptop died. On Friday night I felt I could deal with my weekend obligations. DH went out of t...

memory