Tired

I'm so tired right now. Unfortunately I thought that I could handle more than I can at work. Eleven meetings in one week and more this week is not a good plan, just in case you thought it was. I feel like there's so much to do and there's no way that I'll ever catch up. I'm sure that I will though and I'll be back to being bored in a week or so. The real problem seems to be that I've realized that I no longer like my job, so it's even harder for me to get everything done. There's no motivation whatsoever. Yikes! Overall, I still need to figure out another career path. After discussing with friends I've realized that I could possibly enjoy being some kind of a manager. But what kind of arena? I don't think I want to do retail because I don't really enjoy that scene at all. What other kinds of arenas could I be a manager in? Managing people and encouraging them is important to me. I really think that I'm good at it too. Leading the dance team was one of my favorite things and not just because of the dancing. I loved my team. I loved taking the time to figure out what would encourage and uplift them. Those are some of my favorite memories, seeing the girls come together, get along, and even encouraging one another. I really do miss that. Is there any way that this could morph into a career? 

What kinds of jobs are out there?

Sometimes I feel like I have absolutely no concept of how many different kinds of jobs are out there. I need to find somewhere that lists all possible jobs, so I know my options. (Caution: Change of subject.)

Throughout my life I've always thought that I wanted to work with kids, but at this point I'm wondering if that's really true. I'm still very interested in children including child development and things like that, but I wonder if having my own children will take care of that desire. It's hard to determine if my desire to work with children is actually tied into my eagerness to have my own children. If that is true then there's really a whole world of other things that I can do with my life. Is there any way to figure this out without having kids? I don't know. Basically, I think that my desire to have children is somewhat hindering my search for what I should do with my life. So, my next step is to think more about working with children and finding a list of every job possible. =) Maybe that can be my job, organizing a list of every job available. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

The day after Jon and I started talking about this whole job situation there happened to be an Oprah on with a career coach, so I taped it. The show was not that helpful, but there's a workshop online that I'm planning to work through www.oprah.com/workshop. The first step of the workshop is to take a week and assess your strengths and weaknesses. The way the counselor describes strengths is very interesting. Instead of focusing on the things that I'm good at I'm supposed to focus on the things that energize me. This should be helpful because I always hated looking at strengths before because there's several things that I can do well, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I enjoy them. So, my task for this week to really look at my work (I'm also considering other experiences too since my work is not especially challenging) and find those things that energize and drain me. So far I've had some difficulty. I'm not great at all this introspection. I know that I am energized by working with groups (mostly as a leader) and encouraging people. Besides that I'm kind of lost. I'm also enthusiastic about doing presentations, especially hands on as opposed to giving a lecture although I don't think I mind that too much either. On the weakness side I do remember that I was drained by doing counseling all day, so that is definitely not something I want to do. Sometimes I'm also drained by people, but I'm sure that this is true of everyone, especially when those people are uncooperative. 

I'm going to keep working on this and hopefully I'll come up with some more. Let me know if you think of anything that you think would help. I'm sure that I've been really excited about things before, but just can't remember and maybe you can help. That's all for tonight. =)

Life

So, once again I'm wondering what I should do with my life. I'm bored at work and think I need something more challenging. Jon and I have discussed this several times during our time together, but I don't feel like it's ever resolved. Every so often the topic comes up again and I feel just as lost as the last time. I haven't figured out that thing I'm supposed (or I would even settle for really like) to do. Social work is good, but I don't feel like it's challenging me in the way that a career should. It feels like all I do is busy work and as everyone knows it doesn't pay anything. 

Last week my mom decided to lecture me on my current choice of career and more specifically how I should be doing something else with my brain (I think she meant using my strengths) and while doing that I could actually make some money. Not that money is the most important thing, but it would be nice to be less worried about providing for children and all that other fun jazz that I'm looking forward to. Also, she had a great point (even though she didn't know that I wasn't enjoying my job...well, I never explicitly told her that) why am I not making any money and not enjoying my job like I could. Hmm? What an interesting question. 

So, I'm going to do some soul searching and include anyone who wants to be included. Feel free to comment and provide any insight you have. Hopefully writing about it will help me flesh out and organize some of my thoughts.