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Fishing for a Dream

“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone for eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”  No, no, it's the Au Sable river in Michigan.  . . . It’s time for enlightened self-interest. Place your financial future front and center in your life. I’m not a person looking for a job. I’m a company, a financial entity providing cash flow to enjoy a healthy lifestyle over the next 50 years. Wake-up!

Your eyes flicker and slowly open. The clock on the dresser says 3:45 a.m. In a semi-consciousness state you stumble out of bed. You make your way down the hall to that little room where the world has absolved you of all obligations to communicate with another human being. Privacy.

Well, now that you're up - let’s enjoy a cup of of hot coffee. One sugar and a little milk please Junior. Who am I talking to? Shaking your head, you realize, no one in their right mind is up this early, go back to bed. Right Junior? The cat is sitting next to the refrigerator watching your every move.

But you don't understand . . . I’m awake! My mind has kicked into high gear. Thoughts exploding in bright white flashes. Information overload. Words. Ideas. Stories. Suggestions. Maybe it’s panic. Or is it just the way I fish? Call it habit, call it quirky, call it idiotic - but call it. Promise I won't call or text you on the phone.

 This is my most productive time. Deep down, in some peculiar way, everyone knows their most productive time. That special time of day when your gifts, skills, temperament, and experiences collide to synthesize ideas that've been churning in your brain. Now is the time to put it to paper. Create something from nothing. My dream job. I realize you don't have to look very far to see that writers are a quirky lot . . . “When I come back you can tell me about baseball.” Read Hemingway.

 This all surfaced while studying, What Color is Your Parachute? 2014: A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changers. These past few weeks I've spent countless hours reading, writing, and re-writing - a resume! I've discovered there are no rules, really. How do you entice a hiring manager to get you in the door?

 It’s like fly fishing. Find the feeding lane and place the fly delicately upstream to entice the fish. Are you kidding me? All this work just to create a resume? What’s the point? The point, I’m repeatedly told in seminars, webinars, and all the books is this. You need the right combination of flies, key words, that summarizes your skills and accomplishments.

 Ok, I get it. But get this, statistics show “The average time an employer spends reading a resume is about eight seconds.” Yes, you heard correctly - eight seconds.

Ultimately it all comes back to fishing for your dream job. Let’s assume for just 60 seconds, all the tumblers in the universe align. You can picture in your minds eye the job in which you would best shine. Why, because it taps into the best of who you are. The place where your gifts, skills, temperament, and experiences collide. Good luck!

Oh, bye the way, do you know anyone hiring for 5:00 am? If you hear of anything, please let me know. Like The Old Man and the Sea, it’s obvious I need to get back to my fishing expedition. My quest for a fulling life, not just a job. Or maybe, I just need to take a nap and dream.

 Updated January 7, 2019
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