Pampered Chef Option

So, as I've been taking some time away from thinking about what I want to do one idea keeps coming back to me and I'd like to hear your opinions. My idea is to put more time into Pampered Chef and actually build a team that I can lead. This is the cool thing about Pampered Chef, as you build your team (find people who are interested in joining Pampered Chef) then you get to lead them. I think what's appealing to me is being able to lead my own team, organize meetings, and encourage my team members. The only real concern with this is that right now I have a full time job, so it's more difficult to put in the time in order to find people who are interested. Also, I need to have a team before I can stop my full time job in order to do Pampered Chef full time. I'm going to look into this more, but I'm wondering what your thoughts are? 

I'm Still Here

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in awhile. I'm trying to take a step back from the whole process of figuring out what to do with my life and hoping that during this time something will come to me. I'm still open to suggestions though. =)

Problem Solving

Last night Jon and I were talking more and he made some funny connections. First of all I love CSI, which he decided makes complete sense because of my problem solving. I also enjoy Jodi Picoult books and I get excited when I figure out what happened. So, it sounds like I'm right on with the problem solving strength. Now I need to figure out what area I would like to use my problem solving in. Jon and I were throwing around some ideas, but so far nothing has jumped out as the perfect thing. We talked about some kind of business consulting, team building (involving problem solving), and even lab work (genetics or something like that). None of these seem quite right, so let's see what you can come up with. What kinds of things do I enjoy where I could be helpful with my problem solving? Also, just to throw another wrench in the machine I also really like team building and think I would really enjoy leading a team. Give me whatever you've got. =)

New Insight...I may be running out of new ones soon

So, today we had a staff "retreat" (really it was a training and there was no real treat involved) and there was a speaker who was talking about his experience working with people with disabilities. While he was talking he mentioned a situation in which he was called upon to close down some kind of residential center in 24 hours. He talked about organizing people in order to get everything done in the small amount of time. This lead me to realize that I thrive on problem solving. I loved the idea of having someone bring that problem to me to solve. Unfortunately this new insight probably leads me in a different career direction especially since I think that problem solving is probably the strength that I should focus on (my best strength or something like that). Counseling as I've learned calls upon the counselor to help the client through situations. A counselor is specifically told not to solve the problem for the client. No wonder I'm frustrated! I know the rules of counseling and I completely agree with it, but that's not what my strength is. I want people to bring me problems that I (or me and a group) need to solve. What an exciting thing! So yeah...I wonder where this new realization will lead me?

Medicine, hospitals, school, oh my!

Well, after much discussion I think that I have decided (with Jon's help) that I would like to work in the medical field in some way (at least at this moment...it could very well change tomorrow). This is helpful, but I don't know in what way I want to be involved in medicine. I know that I don't want to be a medical social worker (too much case management, not enough of the right kind of brain power). There's the possibility of being a nurse (school...yikes!), but I'm not sure that's the way I want to go either. The possibility of being a genetic counselor is still intriguing to me. My understanding of the job is that they counsel families on the genetic risks if they are trying to have children or on specific genetic diseases for those who have been diagnosed. The information I was reading also mentioned interacting with doctors in order to help them better understand the genetic components of disease or something like that. Whatever I was reading had mentioned that genetic counselors sometimes consult with doctors which I think I would like. Then there's also the possibility of presenting information to groups of people which I also like. The one thing that bothers me about being a genetic counselor is that there are not really "emergencies" to deal with. For some reason I think that I work my best under pressure and especially in emergency type situations (or at least something that could potentially be an emergency). When someone gets hurt I get into my zone and do whatever I need to do to help. I feel like that's an important part of me that should be utilized in my future career. 

All in all it sounds like I'll probably need to go back to school. Yikes!

All this figuring myself out stuff is tough. =)

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.