Co-operation

My community recently participated in an online competition for consideration for funding from a corporate donor.  At first we were encouraging people to only vote for our own project, but we were a small community and were not generating sufficient numbers.  There were some other small communities on the other side of the country who were in the same boat.  We began to support each other, potentially giving the competition a boost over ourselves, but recognizing their effort and need. We left messages of encouragement for each other, we voted for each other.  We encouraged and voted for an individual project that was discouraged by their lack of followers.

Not only did the three small communities succeed, we all won in that we found a larger community and had the chance to give back while we were making a request.

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. "
~Albert Schweitzer

Employment counselling is rekindling. Where else can we do this?

In co-operation,
Keltie Creed

Attitude

Thanks to Michelle, one of my colleagues, for sharing this quote.

"Attitude
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude to me is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."
~ Charles Swindoll

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

The doctor says...

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
~Theodor Seuss Geisel

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Marine theme

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."
~Rabindranath Tagore

and

"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there”
~Edwin Louis Cole

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Re-focus

To continue in the same train of thought:

"If a captain does not know the destination, for his ship any wind will be wrong"
~unknown

and 

Alice: Can you tell me which path I should take?
Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to go!
Alice: I don't really know.
Cheshire Cat: Then, clearly, any path will do!
~Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Why Chose?

Some of the workshops I facilitate are for clients referred for career decision making (CDM) tools such as the Strong Interest Inventory.  Recently one participant was quite resentful that her referring employment counsellor felt that a decision had to be made.  She was an experienced worker with a varied background and she did not want to commit to focusing on any specific type of work. She felt that choosing only one would hamper and limit her.

Although I encouraged her to discuss her feelings with her counsellor and find out why s/he thought it would be useful for her to go through this process, when I put it in the context of job search it began to make more sense to her.  Another participant had been a manager and stated that she never hired people who said they would "do anything", that it was a red flag that the person would likely be uncommitted.

When I used the analogy of catching 2 rabbits (see previous post), the client seemed to "get it".  She saw that it would be more effective, and a better use of her time to focus on a specific type of work, even if only for one day or one job posting at a time.

"One never goes as far as when one doesn't know where one is going."
~ Goethe

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Focus

Phrases I hear daily are "I just want a job" or "I'll do anything."  Kudos for motivation and willingness to be flexible, but not the most useful approach to job search.  They often don't realize that employers usually prefer someone who has experience AND interest in the specific task that they are hiring for, not "anything". Being a team member and willing to take on anything requested of them is different from saying that they will take any job.  Care about the specific job, then add the flexibility.

"If you try to catch two rabbits, both will escape."
~ proverb

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

T or F?

I am one of those people whose preference is not immediately clear on the Myers-Briggs Thinking/Feeling (T/F) scale.  My colleagues sometimes think that I am a T, probably because I love learning and puzzles and can be quite direct at times.  I find it easy to be analytical, and as a strong Introvert I don't always express my feelings as readily as they might themselves.

However, my decisions are almost always made based on my personal values. If I am analytical, it is because I choose to use that ability in order to fill a need or because someone asks/expects me to. I am objective only when I make the effort to be so. Subjective is my natural preference.

From early childhood I was wondering what my ulitmate purpose is.  What is my contribution to the world?  I am proud of and foster my uniqueness.  Being authentic and following my own path is very important to me.  That includes using my mind, my curiousity and my creativity.  So I may appear "green" or "T" rather than "blue" or "F".  In True Colors and Personality Dimensions I refer to myself as Teal - comfortable in both worlds.

Thoughts or comments anyone?

"At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Ageless

Today is my father's 83rd birthday, and when I called he was working on a Photoshop project.  He is taking a class (he says the rest of the students are a third of his age) and enjoying learning new techniques.  Last year he sent me a DVD of a series of documentaries he made on the Bluenose II.  He had to sleep on the floor while shooting as he sailed with her on several long journeys.

He is always involved with something, always learning, always creating something.  When I do my MBTI and Personality Dimensions, he is in my mind while describing NT and Inquiring Green qualities.

He says that he still has most of his hair, but it is turning grey now.  I asked for a photo of him as he is on the other side of the country.  If it arrives, I will post it here.

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
~Mark Twain

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

On Remembrance Day

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."
~Maya Angelou

With Respect
Keltie Creed

Reframing problems

Hard to remember when you are caught in the moment, but still a favourite of mine.

"Problems are nothing but wake-up calls for creativity."
~Gerhard Gschwandtner

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Starting today

Many of the clients I work with these days have a preference for Sensing and Perception (ESTP, ESFP, ISTP, ISFP) or Orange temperament.  It can be challenging to keep them engaged, and but they often also have an innate optimism that can help them through their unemployment.  They are especially likely to take to heart the following:

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
~Maria Robinson

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Change

A lot of my clients are very resistant to change. But the ones who seem happiest, who have the most success in their job search usually are the ones who either welcome it as a new opportunity, or at least accept it as a part of life and look for the best direction. Change is movement, and if we aren't moving we aren't really living.

"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge."
~Tuli Kupferberg

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Finding Yourself

Every week I hear at least one adult job seeker say, "I don't know what they want to be when I grow up." Often they are hoping that I will provide them with an answer, which of course I can't. I can interpret assessments for them, offer observations on their skills and abilities, offer occupational information and listen to them while they work it out for themselves.

Some people need longer for self exploration, perhaps because they never had the opportunity in earlier life. Others know themselves pretty well already and still others are looking for excuses or avoiding taking a close look at themselves.

I love working with the people who see this period of challenge and change as an opportunity to be a different person. Perhaps the one they dreamed about being in the past, or perhaps discovering a whole new and exciting direction.


"Life isn't about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself."
~George Bernard Shaw

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Reflections on a Job Fair

This week we hosted a career and job fair. About 700 people came, and we had close to 40 employers and educators.

Some job seekers went to every table, and talked to as many people as possible. They took the chance to learn more about the companies in the area, and to meet the people who will be involved in hiring decisions for those companies.

It is my hope that some of them will feel less nervous in future interviews, and perhaps will be able to see the people on the other side of the table as just that - people. People who have to find the right person to help them make their business survive. Hiring decisions can sometimes make or break a business, can have just as much impact on an employer's life as on the employee's life. Not every hire of course, but yes, there are some times when it is critical.

Some job seekers were only looking for one type of work, and if there wasn't an employer in their field, they left early in frustration, saying it was a waste of time. Yet all those employers took time from their regular work day to be there to meet the public. There were more than a dozen employment counsellors in the lobby and work tables available to help with resumes, interview practice etc., or back in the resource room to help in the computer lab. So much opportunity to get help or talk to people who might know someone who needed their skills.

So for today:

"No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have all of tomorrow. Success depends upon using it wisely by planning and setting priorities. The fact is, time is worth more than money, and by killing time we are killing our own chances for success."
~Denis Waitley

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Remembering Helen

Although I am late by a couple of days, I had planned to post something in memory of my mother earlier this week. It would have been her 81st birthday. There isn't a day that I don't think of her and I feel very lucky both to have had her as a role model, and to have had all her support and love.

I choose a very simple epitaph for her - "open heart, open mind". She loved deeply, gave freely and was a voracious reader. After learning that she had MS, she fulfilled a life long dream of going to college and became a Social Worker. She continued to help others both professionally and in her personal life. There are so many quotes to choose from for her, but for the moment, here is one that fits:

"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die-whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our uniqueness."
~Gilda Radner

Missing her,
Keltie Creed

When You Fall

I have been working with some colleagues on a workshop for people who are just starting their job search. We were looking for a stimulous, and I came across a video clip about a young man without limbs who is a motivational speaker. He dramatically demonstrated that if the effort to get back up is far more important than the fact that you fell.

There are a number of variations on the quote below from Confucius:

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”.

Take a look at the clip from Nick Vujicic.
http://www.charliephillips.net/Video/Theater3/NickVujicic/tabid/866/Default.aspx


I bought one of his DVDs so that we can show short clips to stimulate discussion.

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Double meaning

"Whenever you fall, pick something up."

~Oswald Avery

The first thought that comes to me with this quote is how my partner was feeling depressed after major surgery and a need to change careers. To cheer herself up, she donated 50 bears to the Sick Children's Hospital. She did something for someone else.

The other interpretation is to learn something. From the fall it self, or about something unrelated just because you have a new perspective and perhaps the time.

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Attitude continued

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."
~ Henry Ford

This could be interpreted as accurate self - assessment, as realism, or as the power of attitude. There is some truth in all aspects. Part of the job of a counsellor is to ensure that the client has a realistic goal, but it is also important to en-courage them to stretch, to go beyond the comfort zone. We have to kindle their attitude, not dampen it.

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

Attitude - barrier or boost?

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. "
~Winston Churchill

I think that this has been most evident to me while working with people with disabilities. Their attitudes spanned the full continuum from "I can do anything if given the chance and time to figure out the best way for me to do this" to "No one will let me do this so I won't try". Most people are midway between the two, but the ones who had confidence and willingness to try were the most successful. They also taught me the most!

I also have a button that reads "Attitudes are the real barriers." Attitudes of job seekers, of employers, of counsellors, of society and governments.

So I try to do a periodic attitude audit, and encourage others to do the same.

Enjoy!
Keltie Creed

In memory

It was 14 years ago today that my mother-in-law Marie Lemire died of cancer. So in her memory I will share one of my favourite quotes that I use for Bottles of Hope.

"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. "

~Barbara Bloom

Also included is a photo of some of the Bottles of Hope that my partner and I and members of the Vancouver Island Polymer Clay Guild made for the Relay for Life in 2008.

Windy day...

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain."
~ unknown

This may be a variation on:

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."
~Louisa May Alcott

With all the snow, rain and wind these days this is an apt reminder that we can still enjoy and maximize each day. These record snow falls are a business opportunity for anyone interested in snow removal, eaves trough and roof clearing, errand services, chauffeur services, snow tires etc.

Encouragemints

I have been using encouragemints for my clients (and sometimes my colleagues and friends if they are in need of one!) since taking a workshop from Emily Sylvester at NATCON in the mid 1990's. She gave them to the workshop participants, and I have been doing that ever since. She also gave the suggestion in her booklet, "A Book of Surprises: Games, Stories and Magic for Career Practitioners".

I love giving these out at the end of a workshop, or having them on my desk if I see clients one-to-one.

My encouragemints are wrapped chocolate mints placed in a 2"x2" ziplock baggie along with an appropriate quote. If I remember correctly, Emily used scotch mints.

So I decided to use this blog to post my growing collection of encouraging quotes. I also use a lot of these for polymer clay "Bottles of Hope" which are empty medicinal bottles decorated with coloured clay and filled with a quotes.

I hope to post regularly with a quote for the day. Enjoy.