Feedback Fridays

Last week I explained that the lighting of the fire happened much more abruptly.  So as not to leave anyone hanging any longer, here's what went down.

After returning from my weekend in Madison, the newly unemployed me decided I'd use my Monday morning to do some research on getting into publishing to see if I could help my dear friend find any resources that might be just the ticket for her job search.  The result of that research took me to this gem of a website, http://www.jobjenny.com/, where I was freshly inspired to re-evaluate the heart of my job search.  I putzed around a bit more on the internet, but quickly decided it was time to pull out a little resource that had been recommended by my beautiful and astonishingly brilliant aunt.

What Color is Your Parachute, by Richard N. Bolles, not only touts an ability to answer some of the more classic job hunt questions, but goes so far as to seek to answer some of the more daunting 'life' questions, most notably, "Where do I go from here with my life?"

While I've not yet made it too far through the book, and therefore cannot offer a full review of its offerings, this is the first area that I'd like to solicit other's insight.  After reading the first couple of introductory chapters, I decided it would be prudent to go ahead and jump to the second section of the book, "Finding a Life."

This section starts by explaining that this activity, "is concerned about what the world most needs from you."  In explaining the value of this section, Bolles explains that "for this journey, you will need only half the information you thought you would need about the job market, but twice the amount of information you thought you would need about yourself." 

This resonates with me because I have always been confident in the sense that I know myself quite well.  And yet, I feel like I keep floundering between these different interest areas without being able to pick what I want to pursue.  Perhaps I know the answer in my soul, but I'm simply too scared or too complacent to make it happen.  Or perhaps it has more to do with the fact that while everything that I have pursued has had interest for me in one respect or another, interest is not hard for me to come by.  In fact, there are very few fields that I would simply look at with boredom or disinterest.

The first activity asks you to answer one simple question ten times.  The question really is extraordinarily simple, though I highly doubt the vast majority of the population has ever stopped to thoughtfully consider its answer for themselves.  The question this activity poses is simply, "Who Am I?"  To be clear, the activity goes beyond just asking the question, and I have completed the activity and will explore my answers with you in future posts so I'm not just trying to pass off the hardest part.  However, today I want to solicit your help.

While I certainly have my notions of who I am and what my strengths are, I wholeheartedly believe that God created us in and for community for a reason and that the insight of those who know me, who care about me, and who spend time with me is indispensable.  It may have been many years since some of you have seen me, and each of you certainly knows me in different contexts and different depths, however each of your perspectives paints a picture of who I am today.

So I ask you, please take a moment to consider how you would answer this question for me.  In one word (or brief phrase), who is Crystal?  If you would be so kind, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post, or shoot me a private message.  Either way, I so value your insights and feedback, positive encouragement and constructive criticism all the same.  Know also that this isn't all about just finding a job.  It' about the constant process of growth and becoming who God has created me to be.  And it's about journeying together.  Certainly I hope to gain insight for my own life through this, but I hope to challenge each of you to consider this question as well.  Perhaps we can enter a dialogue that will be mutually beneficial.

And finally, as a teaser for some of my upcoming posts as well as a starter for this brainstorming session, my first (of the requisite 10) answers to this question is this:

Crystal is... a friend and mentor.