Friday! In Review.

October 2nd, 2009

It’s Friday. My second favorite weekday (Thursday has you beat, Friday).

You may not know this, but I like routines and rituals. A lot.

This is interesting because of how I have precisely zero routine currently in my life, and how I also have zero rituals. So, in light of non-routined and ritual-free me, I’m starting this one: Friday Review.

This may or may not “take” – which is totally cool. I’m just going to try this out today, and maybe next week, too, and see what it feels like.

See? Look at me! I am modeling something that I help my clients do. I try new things that may end up being kind of eh, OR they may end up being JOYFUL and FUN! And that is the way we find our way to a job we love! SERIOUSLY. Also known as: playing warmer/colder.

Try new things that sound like a good idea at the time. This is the best we can do. Also, things that do not hurt our person. Or anther person (intentionally). And, stay loose with it!

The Stay Loose With It, I am not awesome at when trying new things. Instead of feeling light and loose and just seeing where the new thing goes, I tend to PANIC and be very INTENSE with the new thing. And worry about it. And over-work-the-dough about it.

And this kind of kills the new things before it has a chance to grow. It’s like overwatering the just-planted flower seeds (I imagine this is what it’s like – not like I have ever planted flower seeds, outside of summer camp. Though I think I might like to try that out, too….)

Why Rituals are so HOT

I enjoy the comfort and structure of rituals, where we are nudged towards conscious interaction with time and how things are going.

It’s like ancient times, when all of the people gathered around the safety of the campfire and shared their stories.

And, to be totally transparent, I’m copying my internet crush Havi. She does this, and I LOVE it and her readers (also known as, ME) REALLY benefit.

I’m less of a hippie than she is — mainly because of how much I like clothes, how much I love cars with big engines which waste fossil fuels like crazee and how I definitely consume sugar and caffeine and all animals, sometimes in copious amounts, but usually in moderation.

But I am really into you reconnecting with YOU and continuing me connecting with ME, which means (among other things) all of us staying connected with our feelings (there I go again! Talking about feelings.).

I like the idea of having a Friday ritual where we can all review our week and think on the things that were not cool, and also the very good stuff.

So — here goes! Per usual, I will go first:

Not Cool

I kind of get freaked out more lately by putting myself out there on my blog. I am getting better at it (being ME on my blog instead of the pretend-expert version of me) but the better I get (at being ME on my blog), the scarier it is!

Here’s what I mean by scary: There is GOOD scary (ME being ME on my blog, taking a leap of faith, approaching the person you have crush on) and there is BAD scary (the yucky scary that feels like diving into a swimming pool of mud).

BAD scary is the bad stuff, the fear. Yes, we are talking about our feelings, yet again. Fear is the thing that can really, really mess up finding and knowing and DOING exactly what you want to do. What will Everybody think? What if I FAIL? What if no one LIKES the real me?

This stuff is not useful, but it’s just part of us. You are normal to have the little voice that tells you DOOM and GLOOM will come if you stop being like everybody else. And guess what else? Every single person on the planet has this BAD scary stuff to deal with. I do. You do. Obama do. Sarah Palin do, too.

This post is getting long, so I’m not going to get into getting-out-of-your-own-way right now but I talk about it allll the time so poke around a bits.

That’s as much as I’ll say about that. For now. But on to the good stuff…

REALLY Good Stuff!

This week was a really good week. I am in Atlanta right now, and the weather is FALL! I loooove fall.

I got to hang out with new friends last night, which is great because one of my things is meeting new people that I click with. Which is part of why I do what I do out hear in cyberspace, for all to see! I like you, new people.

I had an awesome chat with my most special mentor, Pam, yesterday. I love what I do so, so much [pause!]

If you’re a newbie to my site, basically what I DO is I help people find their perfect job and help them drop major weight — both of these things are done by RECONNECTING with yourself (among other more detailed things), so that’s what I really help people do.

[unpause!] so, what I was saying is that I like what I do so, so much that I just want to do it more and more, with more and more people in more and more ways. More more more.

Pam and I talked about my strengths (working in small(ish) groups, working one on one, talking in BIG groups, writing writing writing, meeting new people) and we decided it’s time for me to go live, in person.

Yay! I like that idea. We also put together a strategy for finding my Right Places to be speaking and doing seminars or whatever this ends up looking like, but in a non-icky way.

You know, ME being ME in the world is all about changing the world (scary to say it out loud! But it’s true.) by doing what I care about, getting you people into work that your Right Work.

And, hey, if that is not something you are into, that is so okay. You can still totally hang out here.

We can’t all change the world by doing what I care about, which is literally changing the world (in this one, particular way (reconnect!) not in every way).

But whenever YOU know what YOU do best in the world, and start doing it in itty, bitty tiny ways, at first – you change the world, too.

Example: Apple has changed the world. Now, are they bleeding-heart, rescue types like me? Not a chance,. Apple is a corporation – cold like steel and hard like the devil. A friend of mine works there, and it’s not at all cooler to work in that corporation than any other big, faceless corporation.

You’re a bottom line at Apple just like you’re a bottom line in any big corporation. It’s not out of hate or being evil that you are a bottom line to the corps of the world, it’s just what people are in corporations.

*(as an aside, if you really, really don’t like being a bottom line, that is good to know! Begin thinking about what it might look like for you not working for a corporation)

In fact, I think you actually get paid LESS (so not cool – my opinion) at Apple because working there has cache.

But Steve Jobs still has changed the world because he seems to have always been very Steve Jobs-ey. And that changed the whole dang world.

He really made the world a better place (in my opinion). And he is REALLY good at being Steve Jobs – and I can guar.an.tee you that it was BAD scary and GOOD scary all over the place. But he decided to be the REAL Steve Jobs and not some watered down, college graduate version of Steve Jobs.

You don’t have to be pure, 100% YOU in your most lethal form right now – besides, the whole figuring out your passions thing doesn’t really work like that. You’re a person, darn it, not a light swtich!

If you want to be in the right work for YOU, though, you just have to start doing more stuff you like (for starters).

You like cooking? Go cook your face off! You like music? Listen, play it, go see it! You have NO CLUE what you like? Remember the last time you had fun – go do that! And notice how you feel while doing this stuff you like. And then we can talk next steps.

Hey, that’s not so bad, though, is it?

Okay,I’ll stop being expert-ey. Back to my REALLY Good Stuff.

I am cleaning out my JUNK. I am selling all of this stuff that I just don’t need or use or LIKE that someone else may like on Ebay (I used to do the Goodwill thing, but I really, really like selling stuff on Ebay. Sometimes it costs me to do it in the end. Worth it!)

My Ebay personae is not Laurie – I have a cool pseudo identity. I’m like your big sister with all of the cool stuff that you want (eh, I get my kicks). I shall reveal my Ebay personae another day, gentle readers.

And that is my week in review. Friday Review day? So far, so good!

Maybe this can be a time for you to review your week – good stuff, hard stuff – if you want to. Totally cool if you don’t.

I hope you are doing well and had a great week, too. And, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

(PS! Sign up for the BluePrint Blog feed if you want to stay up to date each time I enter a new secret to career bliss & crawling into the skinny version of YOU)

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