Following Your Passions and Priorities
Do you sometimes think your career is missing something? Or ask yourself "What would it be like to do something else?" Early in my career, I was a high school counselor, helping students and their families prepare for the future which I thoroughly enjoyed. Yet I sometimes felt something was missing. I began to assess with brutal honesty when I felt "in the zone." Although it took awhile, I came up with talents and motivators that became the future core of Unconventional Wisdom® (UW).
I realized that I wanted to travel, work with people in transition, continue to educate, make an difference, and create processes and tools that people could uncover themselves. I had a lot more to offer yet I didn't know what to do, how to do it or where to begin. The short answer...First I got in touch with what I truly enjoy. Then I looked for expanded ways to make a living doing that.
It wasn't long before I left public education and became a workshop facilitator focusing in outplacement, career development and retirement, now third age and encore lives. I loved the work and the consulting firms with whom I affiliated. Many accolades go to Tom Jackson's Career Development Team, Morty Lefkoe's Decision Maker Institute, Caela Farren of Career Systems, Inc. (now MasteryWorks, Inc.), Lash Associates, Vengel Associates, United Behavioral Health and to Beverly Kaye of Career Systems International, with whom I've affiliated for over 20 years. Along the way I met Fernando Flores, Founder of Logonet and Frederic Hudson / Pam McLean, of Hudson Institute Santa Barbara, CA. In their own styles, they introduced me to life coaching and new chapters of development which brought opportunities that I never would have encountered otherwise.
I took command of my happiness and gave myself permission to be who I already was. For 25+ years, I've followed the roller coaster life of an entrepreneur and have loved the work, "feast & famine."
I constantly get asked where the name "Unconventional Wisdom" came from. I met a young comedian, Linda Kanopka, at Hudson Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. During an evening program, she dubbed me "the Queen of Unconventional Wisdom." The name stuck.
FREDERIC HUDSON & PAM McLEAN
For three years I participated in Hudson's LifeLaunch Seminar and become certified in the emerging life coaching field. Frederic introduced me to his "12 New Rules For Living," which helped transform my dream into reality:
Frederic Hudson's
Original 12 New Rules Of Living
Hudson Institute
Santa Barbara, California
www.hudsoninstitute.com
reprinted with permission from Hudson Institute
No one owes you anything...not the government, your employer, your family, your friends or spouse.
RULE: Be responsible for your own destiny; entrepreneur your life.
Global change is the major reality for everyone on earth today.
RULE: Don't whine! Pursue the benefits of chaos. They outnumber the problems.
We are running out of vision, not money and opportunities.
RULE: Live your dreams and stay focused on your goals.
Your life is an adventure through limited time.
RULE: Learn how to enjoy the journey.
Everything is flow. You live on a boat in a river, moving in white water from yesterday's agenda to tomorrow's possibilities.
RULE: Learn how to say "hello" and "goodbye" with grace and style.
Love is more important than knowledge or achievement.
RULE: Nurture the loves in your life and don't let anything get in their way, including your success.
You are your career, an ever changing kaleidoscope of skills and preferences.
RULE: Design your own jobs, connected to the future you prefer.
There are two prerequisites for taking this journey through life: a healthy body and a successful financial plan.
RULE: Don't leave home without them.
The best guides to your future are your values and your vision. Like a rudder, your values will keep you on a course your integrity prefers. Like a sail, your vision will pull you ahead into legitimate expectations.
RULE: Always honor your deep sense of purpose.
Your best future happens when you have the courage to be: reach, risk and dare.
RULE: Live on the outer edge of your possibilities, not the inner edge of your security.
Everyone on earth is linked to the same destiny, sharing the same air, water, food, and capacities for total destruction.
RULE: Seek inclusion. Live for "us" not "me."
Learn how to grow older and better. Model wholeness, wisdom, and caring. "Refresh don't retire."
RULE: Become generative. Leave a legacy that makes a difference.
Hudson advised: "Use these rules until you learn or make up better ones." I realized that my dreams had always been inside me (as your dreams are inside you). We are the creator of our own life script and the pen is in our hands.
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