Annie Binns | Life in the Fun Lane

… than go job-hunting.  And yet, that’s exactly what I find myself doing these days.  I’ve never been a savvy networker, so reaching out to all two of them didn’t take as much time as I thought.  A lot of my freelancing work lately has been writing resumes, so I feel pretty comfortable in that area.  And I just got a haircut, so I’m ready for that Go-Getter-Middle-Aged-Female interview. 

(I am now officially nauseous). 

I signed up on the job boards and found the Usual Suspects in terms of working in the tech field in Denver.  I was surprised to see so many jobs, given the news we are all reading about cuts here, slashes there, layoffs everywhere.  Perhaps these are job postings that will never get filled - I’ve certainly seen that happen before.  But that doesn’t keep me from hitting "Apply Now" button and sending off my Only Slightly Exaggerated Resume to about a dozen employers.

When I left the corporate world, I thought there was about a 50% chance I would never go back.  I’d blame the current economic crisis, but that really hasn’t been a big factor.  The truth is that I was good at what I did, and despite a burning desire to work for myself, I’m not good at marketing my own skills.  There’s another part to this that I’ll talk more about some other day - I had also hoped that I would be able to find something I was really passionate about once I eliminated the stress and noise of a corporate job. 

That didn’t happen.  And I really, really worked on it.  I went to workshops, read books, meditated, kept a journal, drank lots of wine and even did some yoga.  I can say that my stress level is so low that sometimes I have to eat a piece of candy just to be sure I’m still alive.  But the passion thing - it just didn’t happen for me. 

So, any job-hunting advice out there? 

A Flattering of the Passions

September 26th, 2008 Annie Posted in Life in general 2 Comments »

 

Know your strongest quality. 

Know your preeminent gift - cultivate it and it will assist the rest. 

Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. 

Notice in what quality you surprass and take charge of that. 

In some people judgement excels, in others valor. 

Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. 

Time enlightens us too late of what was first only a flattering of the passions.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom, #34, Baltasar Gracián (1601 - 1658)

 

Can you believe this was true 400 years ago?   I so enjoy how he describes our tendency to ignore our passion as "doing violence to it".  And the result is that you suck.  (That’s my modern interpretation).  And then the next line reminds us that we knew all along what our passion was.  We felt it land on our arm, walk around a bit (what’s that tickle?), and then we just swatted it away.

Probably more than once.

What natural aptitude have you done violence to?  Have you managed to ressurect and heal it yet, or is it still wedged in the crosshairs of your flyswatter?

Will ONLY Write for Food (& Beer)

July 31st, 2008 Annie Posted in Life in general 9 Comments »

I’m not having fun playing the Blogging Game. You know, the one where you write a post about the “(Insert Number) New Ways to (Insert Something Useful)” and then you try like hell to have people Digg or Stumble your post because if they do then more people will read it and if more people read it then more people will subscribe to your feed and if more people subscribe to your feed then …

 

What?

 

I wanted to blog so I could get “out there” and have people read “my stuff.” Only now I don’t know what “my stuff” is, much less where “out there” is. “My stuff” isn’t 10 New Ways to Comb Your Hair, but I bet I could get some new readers if I explained how great you’d look if you would only part your hair to the right side instead of the left. On Tuesdays only. But I can’t tell you why, because only people on my mailing list are privy to that secret.

 

I want to write about cool cars, internet marketing, traveling and everyday things that amuse me. I don’t want to create an authority site for any of those things, which is often suggested by the Big Bloggers. The truth is, I don’t want to do the type of work it takes to climb the Big Blogger ladder.

 

Does this mean I don’t want people to read Life in the Fun Lane? Of course I do, but not for the reasons that you think. I’m not trying to create any sort of useful income from my blog. I’d like to make enough to cover the very small expense of running the blog. That’s it. I make my living in other ways that work better (for me) than blogging.

 

Maybe that’s why I can’t be inspired by the Blogging Game. I don’t mind gaming the other ways I make an income. I love playing the Google Game. SEO research is one of my favorite ways to spend a day, just like writing used to be. There’s something about being true to myself with writing that completely conflicts with being marketable. This isn’t to say I don’t write for money – I do. But that’s not the writing I want to do here, now.

 

So I’m getting back out of the game. As a new blogger, it’s times like these where I’m glad I have a chance to stop and reassess. I’m going to continue this blog but forego the struggle to come up with ideas that might make Life in the Fun Lane more visible. If you enjoy this blog, then you probably know someone else who will also enjoy it.  Maybe you’ll tell them about it. But let’s keep it a secret from Digg and Stumble for now, shall we?

 

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