Career Talk Part 1

I use a FranklinCovey planner. It's a brown, soft leather-bound affair with well-thought design as far as the pages and the content; being a planning system developed within the framework of Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

I have a conversation with my self with the theme of "integrity" - which in this particular context means "complete" or "nothing's missing". In how-to terms it is "doing what I said I was going to do, by when I said I was going to do it." This is the background of my practice of planning my work.

In Landmark Education's Self-Expression and Leadership Program, I got a new access to integrity - PLAN YOUR WORK, WORK YOUR PLAN. Against the background of integrity, using this planner rocks. Well, for one thing it actually prompts you to plan your life. Not the kind of activity you normally schedule in your weekend, but before the year 2005 ended, this was exactly what I did.

A disclaimer: It's not like I've never really figured out what I wanted to do with my life prior to that weekend. It happened in the third weekend of November 2004 when I completed Landmark Education's Advanced Course; like really, I got what my life is for.

Back to the planner: It has a clever set of activities that allow you to articulate or distinguish key aspects of your self (such as your roles and values) that eventually leads to a draft of your personal mission statement. Anyone who's familiar with the 7 Habits framework will be aware of how central stating one's personal mission is, in the context of being a highly effective person. So here's what I drafted:

I am the possibility of Victory, Freedom and Love. Victory and Freedom for people is the gift of my Love for life itself.

I choose people as they are and this is my access to loving them for everything they are, and for everything they are not; allowing me to give them complete freedom to be and express themselves fully.

I am best able to express this possibility through providing rewarding and fulfilling work for many - and I do this through inspiring the creation of, and the responsible management of business; be it the ventures of others or ventures I undertake myself.

Through this work I am able to grow my family in the spirit of support and possibility - in my roles of loving partner and responsible father. I am the source of the fulfillment of their dreams and aspirations in a life of comfort, stability and love. (v2 03.04.2006)

Okay, so I got the personal mission statement down. Allow me to note that I actually am not married yet (that happens in December 2006 hello Alecon!), just that family is part of my mission and is a mission in itself as far as my life is concerned.

What I'm reflecting on in this post is how my career (past and present) is aligned to my mission. I studied in De La Salle University to earn a Bachelors degree majoring in literature and minoring in philosophy. At the time I was studying, I had aspirations of being a poet, novelist and essayist; whose writings will be poignant and provocative, deeply sensual and philosophically erudite all at once (So what if Milan Kundera already existed?). I would bankroll this career by working as a professor of literature as well as doing literary scholarship.

It didn't quite work out. Even as I was getting free graduate education, I was nowhere near making enough money to survive. I took on all sorts of jobs - copywriting for real estate ads, secretariat for cultural events sponsored by the government. I found myself teaching and working and studying and partying - but writing very little.

I left the academe and joined the media. I worked as a copy writer, news writer, producer and anchor for an AM radio station - my first time to be really away from school and in "the real world". It became quite the adventure as I got to write and deliver news of the more recent of EDSA revolts. It also brought me face-to-face with incompetent or unfair management for the first time.

That boat sunk, and I was then learning the ropes of becoming a film producer (I then had aspirations of being a film director). I had a brilliant mentor in Jun Urbano, though I must say I completely squandered that opportunity - because then I really thought too much of myself and did not possess the humility to work my way from the cellar.

Sales. Insurance, real estate, healthcare, home and office security systems - you name it, I peddled it; with spectacularly underwhelming results. This must have frustrated all those people who recruited me and saw in me a sharp and engaging personality so suited for salesmanship. What I did not have is the industriousness, the diligence, and the humility required to make cold calls and move product.

(To be continued... NEXT: Training and Development, POLITICS!)