At last the
world is realising that, while some of us knew almost from birth that we wanted
to be doctors, others of us are now middle-aged and still not exactly sure what
we want to be. We have many different, varying talents - and so why shouldn’t
we get to use them all in our careers? I’m really loving the current trend
towards fluid careers: understanding and embracing the concept that we don’t
need to be good at (or choose) only one thing, nor have a simple, straight
career path. It’s OK to chop and change.
We are the
multi-potentialites who constantly transform ourselves throughout our careers,
with great results! We don’t feel the need to give ourselves labels, nor are we
afraid to adapt to change, redirect our paths and reinvent ourselves. There is a
great blogger, Emilie Wapnick, who calls us putty-like...we are strong, yet
malleable, flexible and can easily change. http://puttylike.com
My former
boss’ favourite quote was: “There is no such thing as a career path anymore –
these days it’s crazy paving and you lay it yourself!” I like that thought: we
can start building one way, change direction, adjust the design, pause if we
want to...and we keep on going – adapting to current conditions, situations,
environments, obstacles, markets and changes. Isn’t this especially true for us
women, who very often are the ones having to compromise or accommodate children
and spouses?
When I left
school I went for the whole shebang of psychometric tests, and all I recall is
being totally perplexed by the report advising that I should be a teacher or
journalist or psychologist or lawyer. So, I started out as a high school teacher,
detoured into journalism, got my MA in Counselling Psychology and worked as a
counsellor. Who knows, maybe there is still a lawyer lurking in me!?
But for now,
like many moms, I enjoy being a bit flexible and I’m fortunate that I’m able to
work for myself from home, doing a whole lot of stuff I love. For some reason,
people still insist on asking: So what do you do? I used to reply with this
long and complex answer, explaining how I do a bit of training, writing,
counselling, looking after my kids and dogs, attending to my large, old, needy
house and pool (and husband!), am responsible for all the home admin (right
down to the tax returns, which I must say is rather dangerous!)... blah, blah,
blah. I actually got bored with banality of my answer, so I’ve taken to calling
myself an Asset Manager. Technically, it’s true: I manage my kids, husband,
dogs, house and other assets I’m rather proud of. For some reason, with this
response, people look impressed and don’t tend to ask much more. If they do, I
just say I work from home and they think I’m fabulous and I find it all rather
amusing!
