ROADTRIP NATION - WE ARE OF ONE BLOOD, YOU AND I (EN)
Hi guys, hello,
this blog (and audioblog / podcast) is dedicated to the topic “ON THE ROAD”. Those who know me know that I really love travelling, exploring new cultures and mapping everything different and the same, wether it is about local food and/or career management done in different countries.
This blog is written from a slightly different perspective and it is really about each one of you - and also about those of you whose furthest trip is usually to the closest mall in the next town and who loves to spend holidays fishing in the stream right next to the weekend house (... and nothing against this life style). The inspiration for this text was a book which waved at me from the book shelves in San Diego in one of the university campuses which I visited this year on my private work & holiday trip.
And I must say that I immediately fell in love!!! Not only with Southern California near the Mexico-US border but also with the book mentioned above!!! Style, content, perspective of how to look at a career change in the present accelerating worldabsolutely resonates with my point of view which I communicate to my participants during my workshops or during 1-1 coaching.
OK, so now I will no longer conceal this new love of mine - the book is called "Roadmap - The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What To Do With Your Life"collective authors of a group which calls itself Roadtrip Nation.
How did it all begin? A bunch of guys after school dealt with what to do with their lives. Should they pursue what they had studied, and if so, what exactly? And how to deal with doubts about the right decisions? To which extent to let other people influence us (ok, they could be more experienced, but also they might be more mainstream).
How to transform what I can do and I enjoy into something somebody will pay you to do?
Are you familiar with some of these questions? Do you also sometimes have doubts about your future? Do not worry, I understand ... You are not alone. And this was also found out by those guys mentioned above who decided to take (quite popular in the US ) a gap year. They rented a bus and started their big trip around the country doing interviews with interesting people from different disciplines and map their career paths.
But they did not do just this: they went through all the interviews and looked for the common core. And this is captured in my new favourite book Road Map and at the same time they created a web site www.roadtripnation.com where you can:
Follow their blog
Check out their prepared learning career materials for different age groups
Watch new episodes of their online broadcasts
Even you yourself can participate - you can contribute to an online database with your life-career story HERE. And whoever wants to experience (or enabled your kids to experience) that unforgettable gap year, you can pay for three months and become a member of the Roadtrip Nation team and make new interviews with interesting people in the United States or in Australia…
Well, I cannot lie... I immediately went online and checked the conditions and I almost started packing my backpack :) But then I realized I’d need a bit more savings for that... prices start from $ 22k.
And finally back to the book. What can you find specifically? First of all, it contains a lot of stories of inspiring people who overcame doubts (their own as well as of those around them) and followed their passion which they were able to transform into real (paid:) work. It also contains quite a lot of interesting exercises that could help you make the right direction. Some of them I have been using for a long time along with other career coaches / advisors. Some of them were new and inspiring for me. I’ve decided to share with you one of these exercises which I highly recommend doing.
But first, a brief intro to the exercise (why to do it): one of the most interesting (and often very well paid) jobs are
usually not included in any occupation database or other directory. They are often created by combining the original 2nd / 3rd / th interests, fields, areas which are at first sight absolutely incompatible. It is very often a mix of work experience with a hobby or a new work experience with current work etc. For me personally it's a mix of my passions which are: everything around career management + design + online technologies + traveling.
Well, and now the exercise: Write down 2 - 4 areas/fields which are your passion. Really anything. Perhaps mushroom photography, swing, working in a bank ... or surfing, good beats, health care ... or ... or ... (btw those examples are from real people:). Now if you have finished writing, enter these keywords into your Google browser and check the results: see who uses the same key words for her/his work presentation. Who has the same passions and really puts them into business.
What does this exercise bring me? Mainly finding out that a crazy idea isn’t actually a crazy idea. That there are already some work/job positions that you have never imagined and ways you can even make money - yes, most of us need to pay bills sometimes:)
And in this context I would like to return to the title of this blog - WE ARE OF ONE BLOOD, YOU AND I ... the blood of Roadtrip Nation ... This book is not about traveling, but it shows that in today's so rapidly changing world all of us are on the road. In practicing in our career lives we should always have our backpacks/suitcases packed. Being ready and able to go out and catch opportunities will give us a competitive advantage and at the same time this proactive approach will allow us to come closer to our dreams and visions and do what fulfills us (for money).
Even relatively conservative recruiters no longer look at those people who often change jobs as drifters, on the contrary - some of the recent Monster articles even mention the fact that people in their twenties / thirties would probably change jobs 15 - 20 times (!!!).
So keep your eyes and heart open for new opportunities. Map your current and potential interests (for this you could use www.careerdyary.com) and don’t be afraid to jump into unknown waters - although sometimes the water is really cold in the beginning.
I wish you nice autumn days
Petra Drahoňovská, Career Designer
PS - check audio version (podcast) of this blog on SoundCloud (HERE)
