Self-reflection is one of the most eye-opening journeys there is. And there is no better way to self-reflect than to decide on what you want to do the rest of your life.
Remember when we were kids, and people would always ask “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
The answers were always so pure and innocent, and rolled right off the tongue: “An astronaut.” “A teacher.” ” A fireman.” ” I want to play in the NFL”. ” I wanna be a policeman”. “I’m gonna be a doctor”. “I want to be a cake maker”. And the vision of a future was right there. Solidified through the spoken word. Reach for the stars, kids, and you can achieve anything you want to be.
Derailments happen along the busy path we call life. Not everything happens the way we thought it would, neither in a bad way or necessarily good, either. It just plain…happens. Life gets in the way of some dreams, and out of necessity and the crime of maturity, different paths are a must.
Not necessarily a dream-killer most of the time, but a reevaluation of life’s goals.
If you ever want to know just exactly where you stand with yourself, create a LinkedIn page. Yeh. Describe yourself in a catchy, yet professional and inviting matter detailing in so many words just exactly what it is you do on a daily basis. Do you exaggerate….maybe just a little? Do you highlight fleeting moments as if they were events which changed the course of a certain part of the world you live? Like editing that one last wrinkle off your eyes in a photo, do you embellish just a tad?
Or better yet…have you ever decided you may need to get back into the workforce as a COMPLETELY different individual from who you were in your prior life and sit down to pen your resume? Dear Lord. If that isn’t a moment of reflection and introspection, I don’t know what is.
I recently created my resume. My hand hovered over the keyboard for what seemed an eternity, especially over the area of past employment and tasks. It was like writing about a character I had read in a novel…I had no idea who she was. She was somebody else’s creation.
And it got me thinking: What exactly is a resume, anyway? It’s what you have done in the past. It was the old you, if in fact you have been out of the work force for very long. This was the case with looking into myself. I looked at the words showing up on the page as I typed and extolled the hard-working talents of one Jennifer Ann Welsh in her past years as a sales rep and sales manager, kicking butt and rising to the top while making the bucks. “Hard-working”, “Goal-driven”, “Desire to excel” describing her to a pinpoint.
Although true, those old jobs don’t mean a thing. That Jen has long since gone away. She’s been replaced with a newer, just as hard-working, yet different model, with new goals and visions. Her, er, uh, my talents, are vast.
So, instead, I deleted all content. I made a somewhat more refined resume.
Some highlights:
Work Experience: CEO of a major corporation of 8 individuals. Organized schedules, implemented tasks and kept the corporation running smoothly on a day-to-day basis.
Pay: Pro Bono
Upward Mobility: Was promoted year after year, with increased duties and responsibilities.
Reason for Leaving: Still employed. Yet looking to expand on experience.
I am I. I am the I now who came to be because of the I who I was.
jensumandthensome 