Get with the Program, will ya?!

So I'm taking a course. Well, it's a program, really. And it's been very interesting.

This program is offered free to people who are unemployed and/or receiving Employment Insurance benefits and, yes, that certainly includes me! (Unemployed, but with a purpose!) My best friend Suzie took the program about four or five years ago, and had some pretty powerful breakthroughs with regard to previous experiences and how they subsequently affected her decision-making and, correspondingly, how those decisions yielded particular results.

So far, it's been pretty enlightening. I'm not so sure I've experienced the kinds of breakthroughs that Suzie had, but part of that is due to the fact that I've been doing a lot of personal development work on my own for the past 3+ years. Remember that I moved to Sydney and came to several realizations about my motivations and priorities which helped me make some subsequent decisions (namely, coming home to Canada). But first I did my time as a circus nomad -- where the good, the bad, and the ugly were regular visitors to my doorstep -- I feel like I took that opportunity to, again, better understand myself and my motivations much better than I did back in the pre-overseas days.

So back to the program, which I have been telling people is a life and career positioning course, mostly because it's helping people to determine their life and work values. That, in turn, positions them to make better choices that yield will the kind of results that they're looking for. At least, that's what I consider the best benefit for me, anyway: I think I'm better positioned to figure out my next steps.

And, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure what those steps will be, or what shape they'll take. I feel like I had a revelation shortly before taking this program -- one that I feel that the results of the program have so far reinforced and validated for me -- but actually getting to the starting line of that new career path is still a potential barrier for me. It ain't impossible, but there are a few different ways to get to the head of that trail.

Still, this program has helped me understand that there is a way to make it happen. I have to be honest and admit that I don't always take the hard way -- why do that when the easy way is so much, well, easier?! But perhaps now I'm better positioned to understand that I can, in fact, eschew the easy way in lieu of the way that will lead me to the results I seek. But instead of calling it the hard way, let's just refer to it as the smart way : )

So twelve days of the course are down, with three to go.

(And, coincidentally, the revelation I had shortly before taking this program was one that Lorna helped out with originally. So I'll have to call it a re-revelation. Lorna: remember being in The Vortex (ya, the time when I had to send back the burger) and we talked out several different options? This end result that you helped me get to has been in the back of my mind ever since, and the re-revelation was simply the realization that we hit the nail right on the head that day, and that I need to make it happen. And that just goes to show that great things happen when you have great people to talk them out with. Because seriously, it was just talking it out and identifying likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses that helped us get to that point on that day oh so long ago : ) Lorna rocks!)