The Scary Life Of Artistic Talent

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And how would they dance without the fiddler?

Remember when I told you a little while ago that I would never work for free, but I would always volunteer?

Consider this scary trend: career field choices being made depending upon how much money that field pays. In these bad economic times certain people actually think artists should consider themselves lucky that anybody will pay them to do anything at all. Perhaps the thinking goes, artists are not “necessary” like doctors or teachers(?). Artists ought to feel bad–even angry at heaven– about having such a “non-essential type talent”. They should be glad to do it for free.  Therefore painters, writers, composers, musicians, librettists, song writers and graphic artists should be content to beg for a living and feel some kind of stoic honor to boot.

In my short lifetime, I have also observed something else: anything considered of little value in this culture is given to children to play with. Artistic children are “cute” and “precocious”, but artistic adults are “childish” and not to be taken seriously (they ought to put down the crayons and get a “real” job). Art in the USA is immediately relegated to “hobby” status except if it is the kind that helps convince an audience to buy a product. How many parents have convinced their artist children to “get a practical profession”. Do not write poetry. Poetry does not sell. Too many poets die in poverty. Do something “in demand”. Something people are willing to put out big bucks for.

I found this video and it changed my way of thinking about what I do forever. You see, I am a wordsmith. My Divine Mandate is inspiring, informing or educating using written and spoken English language.  I no longer feel guilty or obligated to apologize for the talent-gift set I got when I arrived on earth a little over half of a century ago.  I no longer feel I have to hide my real aspirations or get a “practical” career. As a professional (I have a Bachelors in Journalism and began career life as an ad copy writer)  I accept my responsibility to know and to ask for fair compensation for my work without a hint of shame.

A dance is nothing without the hard work of the musicians in the band. Their talent and hard-won skill is not to be devalued. If you dance at the celidah, pay the piper; When you give a dance, pay the band!

Watch this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

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Victoree: True North And Expanding Horizons

Directions, please

A year or so ago this blog began as a kvetch, a protracted complaint about working and growing older and injustice. Career issues and growing older still concern me, but the blog will no longer have a kvetch session spirit.

As we were exploring the subject of career change, working and midlife, my idealist temperament began to show itself . I am realigning the blog to point to personal “true north” while remaining  faithful to serving our mutual interests. Oh, no. It’s not going to turn into a gooey, bouncy “rah-rah” either…regardless of the pink strip in the new header. There are enough empty-headed “career advice” blogs floating around the internet.

As we grow and change internally, it naturally follows that the change will at some point show itself externally. This is the day the first leaves of the idea seed show themselves above the ground.

“Victoree’s Blog: No White Flag” is expanding to embrace not only the midlife job search, but the general subject of  personal and professional development in “the third age” of life. The point is to remain faithful to the Divine Mandate,  the personal “prime directive” which goes beyond the job search and career goals.

gypsy wagon

Immediately noticeable is a change in the subtitle, which is now,”Conquering in the third age”. I will continue to talk about working in this blog, but in the larger context of an entire lifetime. This opens up  space for dealing with all the seasons of a career. In fact, I am working on “The Work Of Winter”, a book about  managing the season of non-employment–winter.

So, the journey of the gypsy continues. On toward the rising sun we go!

Braninstorming-Make The Job Gypsy Cards Speak To You

Brainstorming-spinning dream cloth

It was fun, wasn’t it? Over the past several weeks, we developed a card game we originally called, “Victoree’s shape-shifting job gypsy card game“. Look forward to a book edition of the game in 2011 as either a downloadable  e-book or an upon-request book. Doing some research of your own along with me through these columns, we built four cards: temperament, strengths, the soul’s choices, and the “wrecking ball”.

Intuition-dominant people have used several kinds of divination methods over the lifespan of humankind to give informed advice about the past, the present and the future. This game is not a “fortune telling device”. The object of this game is to gather together some of the most accurate and truthful information about the self in brief, handleable form in order that a solitary player may make a wise decision as to what his/her “correct work” is– that career, occupation, job, or vocation where the strongest talents will be used to give the highest and best contribution. We gleaned information using some of the best known and respected instruments including strengthsfinder2.o, the Holland Code, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Some free. Some not. The thinking of some of my favorite authors including Richard Bolles, John Crystal, Thomas Moore and Dr. Stephen Covey gave the Job Gypsy Card Game its philosophical foundations.

Being the information pack rat and lover of history that I am, I added the odd  note for a bit of  spike. Basically, I invented this game for folk who, like me,  have a tendency to get so involved with the details of the trip that they forget the original destination. They loose focus. Their natural curiosity about everything draws them off task….often.  Such folk even appear to have no destination or cannot easily explain in clear language what that end point is. I invented this game for you, tuatha!:

• intellection-dominant
• visual thinkers
• holistic/”Gestalt” Jung-visionaries (as opposed to Freudian types)

Last week’s assignment was to “stare”; to “gaze” at the cards. I am straining my strength of connectedness to see how all the information fits together to form a whole. I have been gazing and thinking about what kinds of jobs or occupations are arising out of the information on my spread; what is “manifesting itself” and saying, “you belong here”.  It may take several sessions of brainstorming to get a clear gem of truth.

the alchemist

This is the next step. Let the cards speak to you. This is what I mean: keep staring. Keep gazing. Then, write….or talk.  Get a clean page or a clean tape and write/speak down all the impressions you get from your ruminations. Brainstorm. Let your brain fall out on the page. Yes, it will make a mighty mess, but it is a necessary part of that alchemical process I mentioned earlier.

Indeed, the results of this game will inform my action plan–the next step in the process of fulfilling my Divine Mandate. What about you? Are you thinking about 2011?  How about this–think not in terms of another common New Year’s resolution, but in terms of your own Divine Mandate. What ought you to be about to farther your assignment on planet earth?

A victorious and prosperous New Year,

Victoree

Victoree’s Job Gypsy Card Game Full Spread

Victoree's "Full Spread"

When you finish making all your cards, place them in order on your black or white mat, the “full spread” looks like the illustration at left. With all the information in one place, the next thing to do is…stare. that’s right. Print it out and look at it. I do not mean a passing glance. I am talking about taking this into a space where you are undisturbed for a while and giving it full attention. Concentrate on what you see. Take it to a Starbucks or another favorite place and put it out in front of a good friend. Ask him/her what it is a picture of. A career; a job; a direction may just arise in the middle of your meditations.

Mind you, I am an introspective type by nature and meditation states are my home element. However, when attempting to redefine yourself or “shape-shift” into a new position/way of looking at yourself; if you are trying to recover from the damage of going against your authentic self; if you are trying to course correct onto your true path it is useful to “gaze” at your spread. It may speak to you. Mull over it. Look at it the last thing at night. Keep it handy for quick reference.

Here’s your assignment for the winter holiday-Christmas break-Solstice: take a clean sheet of paper and write down your impressions of your spread. Is it suggesting a type of job; an industry; a service; a business? Never mind about grammar, spelling, and format. This is a free-write.  It may very well surprise you. While you are at it, the time toward a new year is always a good time to take a long look at your present path. I am not talking about making another resolution to loose weight or stop smoking or stop overeating. These are good things, but are you really convinced that this is going to actually happen in your life? How dedicated are you to the work of changing/shape shifting? Do you have the courage it will take to keep your word to yourself?

• Are you headed in the right direction?
• What are you going to do differently in 2011?
• What are you not going to do?
• What are you going to do to further your goals in life; in your job; in your personal life?

This is the last post for the year 2010. It is time to determine whether or not to end or revamp “Victoree’s Blog”. If it has been  useful for your personal development, I would be most happy to know that.

Be at peace within and without.

Put a poultice of intensive love on those spots in your life you commonly neglect.

This is war. Take no prisoners.

Victoree

The “Wrecking Ball” Card: 5 Career Deal Breakers

The "Wrecking Ball" Card

This is the fourth and final card in the spread, the “wrecking ball” card. On this card are five things that will make working at any specific place like living in Hell. Above, I am showing you my own completed card. To get a sense of what should be on yours, Look at your other cards.  Look at your temperament and your strengths.  Look at your gifts and your Holland Code.  Look at your value system. Take all that in consideration and  think deeply about what kind of work environment you simply could not tolerate.  For the “glass half full” crowd: think deeply about and envision the kind of work environment that would bring out the best in you.  You actually could write your card from either angle. You choose. As an aside, “glass half empty” people are not evil. Just different.

Think about it like this: would you marry someone you did not know well? After all, a huge investment of life-time will be spent preparing for, commuting back and forth from, and living at a place of employment for at least two or three years.  Interviewing is much like the courtship period of a relationship–the time you find out that the face she presents comes out of a bottle and that he hates to go anywhere that does not have a TV in it.

With both dating and working it is much better to find out as much as possible on the front end. It pays to be able to make an educated decision about how your most precious commodity, your time, will be spent. This set of five intolerable conditions would be your “career deal breakers”; things you would say, “no thanks” to an employer about in the interview. Though you may think you are desperate enough to “take anything”, that is not quite the truth nor would it be wise. And another thing: you cannot do anything you want to do actually. You came to the earth with an assignment; a “Divine Mandate”. You came equipped to do your job on earth, not every job.

For example: I will always be better with words than numbers. I admire people who can reason in numbers. They’re cool. However, I know myself so well that I am quite comfy being an expert in  language and not worried about my dearest friend, the engineer, who is an expert in her field.

Unfortunately, education is not into strengths development. School has led us into this myth of “you can do everything well”; that “deficiency teaching–bettering your weaknesses” at the expense of building natural strengths is a good thing. Let me tell you this: You can teach a fish to climb all you want. A squirrel will always be better at it. You can reward a tortoise all you want. The hare will always be the faster runner.

Spun out all the way to the end, some form of the “wrecking ball conditions”  may be at the heart of the issues you could be fired for three to six months down the road.

As said earlier, there are things you would rather know on the front end about an employer. The interview is the appropriate time to find out what you might not be able to discern from other research. In the interview, rephrase the statements on your card into positively posed questions to the potential employer. The answers will tip you off to a company’s culture and clue you in about whether or not you might fit.

Many people think they do not have choices in this job search game. The fact is you do. It pays in the long run to make the best decisions possible by researching, asking, talking, networking, listening to employees (past and present), and “reading between the lines”–reading the cards.

Finding Your Passion: The Soul’s Choice Card

completed Soul's Choice card

My dining table is an ongoing feast. Whenever I am not nourishing the body from it, I am nourishing my soul. Small office equipment  sits on the broad end where a now grown and gone daughter used to sit. A short stack of books occupies the queen’s position where I used to sit facing my husband in the days before “the great downsizing”–back when the dining table was just a place to eat.

I collect information like some people collects rocks or bugs or baseball cards. Of course, if you had been following the Job Gypsy Card Game development, you already know that. That’s my “Learner” strength in full glory.  Right now, buried in the perma-frost of paper  on my desk/dining table there is a scrap of paper with some thoughts scribbled down while in a hospital waiting room a few years ago.  I was between jobs and the perennial question that kept popping up every time I completed a project was, “What is your life worth?” My eye was drawn to the cover of “O” magazine promising an article about significance and work on the lamp stand. In it was a wee questionnaire that asked,” Does your job feed your soul?”

I remember the briny, fiery tears of frustration rolling down my face when I recognized what a black hole working was for me.

No. My job does not feed my soul. It diminishes me and makes no use of  any of the skills or talents I enjoy using.

That moment in a hospital waiting room changed my life forever. In the last few weeks we have been working to pull together from several sources intelligence about the self. The big idea is to lay it all out side by side; to see it all from a bird’s eye view to come to the conclusion of a career/life direction. “What Color Is Your Parachute” does this in the “flower” exercise. All the results of the sorters are put on that “one piece of paper”.

The Alchemist

Another way of wrapping the head around the idea is  envisioning it as a process of dropping in all the elements into a crucible. Now, it is time for it to be blackened into the first of its forms so you’ve got to have the fire to do that. The fire is your soul’s choice; your personal reason for moving to do things; your MO. This is the your life’s value system-belief system-ordered way of looking at the world card; short lists of the story content behind our actions.  These lists are  2 five jewel strands of what you determine to be what you value most in life is the first list. NB: these are life values, not career related values.

There is a life values test at “What’s Next” / It’s free. go here:   http://www.whatsnext.com/content/self-assessment-tests  Also, there is a values sorter included in the pages of that job hunters’ fave, Bolles’ annual, “What Color Is Your Parachute?”.

Play this little game: http://www.coachlee.com/valugame/LongList.html.   If you do it with awareness and thoughtfulness, it could be enlightening and it’s free. I like this game. It’s fast and surprisingly good.

the  second list would be valuable to me,  to people of faith and to anyone who believes that Heaven gives “gifts” or special abilities to be used in the service of  mankind and the Faith.  For me (remember the Christian base I told you about) it is one more confirmation–in case I doubted any of the information gathered before. Some may question the validity or the value of this card, but I think this is an extremely important card because  it points  thinking toward seeking to join companies, ministries, organizations or a groups whose “mission statement” ( its value system) matches. Case in point: if your #1value is peace between people, will you ever knowingly work for a firm that creates code to be used to build weapons? If you do, how do you reconcile yourself with that?

You can Google “spiritual gifts” and find a good free test. Team Ministries is a good way to go.

Of course the main thing is to come up with at least five things that are extremely important to you in life…your value system. As you can see, my main concern is to be in “The Will” or have a close relationship with God. Quite correct, because everything else, believe it or not flows out of this very top concern. I judge all things in the light of whether or not it will add to or subtract from my relationship with God/spiritual power base/Divine Mandate/Will of God.

Just to have a bit of fun, Google, “4 humors“. There are several pre-Freudian personality constructions. Thinkers have always been curious about why people seem to fall under one of several “temperaments” or “types”. Aristotle had his theory.  I would fall under, “melancholic”/humor dominated by the element, “black bile”. No biggie. From one extreme end to the other so were the Old Testament prophet, Nathan, medieval St. John of the Cross, Robert Burns and Edgar Allan Poe. If I were career hunting in the 12th century, I would have joined a cloistered religious order and probably would have become its Mother Superior over the course of a career. Modernity makes things so complicated!

See you next time when we draw the last card and roll out the full spread.