At one point my career involved providing life management programs for government sponsored re-employment programs. I worked with individuals in the process of building self confidence and skills to enter, or re-enter, the work force. With the numerous hours we spent together I often had the opportunity to begin to see who these people really were -- their skills, and gifts, and natural ways of being. My appreciation for the experience of seeing them, for who they really were, was immense.
However, the agenda or hopes of the sponsors of these programs was not always to assist the individuals to find their skills and gifts and natural ways of being, but to teach them how they should be for certain careers. Although I completely understood the circumstances of the sponsors, I could never bring myself to telling someone how they should act, or be, or who they were. I didn't have the words for it back then, but it felt to me like I would be telling them there is something wrong with them, they needed to be fixed, or different, in order for them to be successful in their lives, and I just never believed that. I did these programs for a number of years, even though they did not feel quite right for me.
Eventually this work came to a natural conclusion. Years later I am embracing how much these programs, and the fabulous participants, taught me about who I am, and my natural way of being. I have come to understand my litmus test for my own work. I simply ask myself, "Is this person wanting someone to be different, or are they wanting to see someone differently?" The former creates lots of opportunities for potential contract work (although I am not so confident in its success). The latter is probably less popular (right now), but I'm your girl!
What do you know for sure about who you really are because of the work you have done in the past?
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