Contemplating Career Directions

I have enjoyed David Seah for several years. His current posting is kind of light for him. Although he is currently working and traveling for a job in California, I know part of him is looking into new directions for his career and himself. His introspective articles are quite good at capturing the confusion of emotional change. 

 His article, “Contemplating Career Directions“, can help anyone faced with career change. Too many times in life we try to handle change from the inside outward. But listening and talking with other people that we admire and respect can add more solutions to the mix so that the change can be from the outside inward.

David’s process in determining his career (and self) direction was:

“From this, I could see how I could induce general principles of interest from my specific interests. For the past few years, I’ve been aware that I tend to write about these specific areas:

• Design
• Development
• Productivity
• Personal Empowerment
• Inspiration
• Sharing Personal Experiences

Repackaging these into general principles, I come up with this:

• Design Thinking and Concepts
• How People Work (from a process psychology perspective)
• Building Stuff
• Chasing Dreams and Making Them Real
• Creating Practical Process Guides with Useful Insights

It is interesting to note that my specific interests were inward facing: they are my activities and interests. The general principles, however, are outward facing: they include other people’s interests and activities. For example, I’m very interested in what other people are doing with their dreams, and I’m happiest when I’m a part of that process of making them real. With the general principles, I now have the critical balance of perspective that I was missing.”

In relating to this article of Dave’s, I have done this same process as I have changed careers eight times. For several years I was bothered by not having a single direction is life. But when I finally realized that each career of mine (teaching, selling, counseling, managing, etc.) was really about one talent. That talent is the ability to motivate others to change. So I have really done one thing all my life–motivate.

In 2005, he created the incredible Printable CEO which is a series of free forms designed to help us with organization.  In his words:

“The Printable CEO™ (PCEO) was born from a desire to focus my time more productively. For me, that means things that make my freelance practice sustainable and fun. The Printable CEO name comes from the idea that a good CEO should focus primarily on those things that move the company forward; since I can’t afford to hire my own CEO, being able to print one out seemed like the next best thing! “

“Here you’ll find a series of printable forms that help manage the day-to-day chore of achieving your goals. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.”

“Here’s some quick links to the 2008 Updates; read further down this page for more variations and background information.”

• Compact Calendar 2008
• Concrete Goals Tracker 2008
• Emergent Task Planner 2008
• Emergent Task Timer 2008
• Task Order Up 2007
• Task Progress Tracker 2008

“The following will be updated soon:

• Resource Task Quantizers 2007

Additionally, there’s a new wiki for posting feedback and variations of your own forms.”