LIFE STORY: or how to identify your transferable skills~

THE ASSIGNMENT:
Think of something you did that was really fun, challenging, adventurous, or difficult. It can be from any time in your life. It can be something very simple, like riding your bike for the first time, or that no one even noticed, like my story below. The key point is that you were fully invested, and you overcame a challenge in order to accomplish your desire. You will need to identify 4 things:

1. The Goal: What was it you wanted to accomplish? “I wanted to…”

2. The Obstacle: What was the challenge you had to face and overcome?

3. The Action Plan: What did you do? Outline the steps you took to eventually accomplish.

4. The Result: What did you learn? And how do you know you were successful?

SAMPLE STORY:

THE TELEPHONE
Ever since my dad made fun of the way I answered the phone, I was fearful and avoided answering it like the plague. By the time I was in college, I knew it was time to put my phone phobia to rest. I wanted to feel comfortable answering the phone in my own house! (Goal)

The challenge was I was still SCARED, and would break into a cold sweat when the phone rang and no one else was home to answer. (Obstacle)

So, I decided to make a strategy to challenge my fear. (Action Plan) I wrote all the possible scenarios that might happen: Someone calling for my parents, someone calling for me, wrong number, etc…and wrote down what I would say in each of those events. “Hello? This is Robin….Sorry, she’s not here right now, can I take a message?” The action steps included jumping up and down when the phone started to ring. I knew enough about energetics to realize this would get me into a more positive space, and also get my voice up off the floor.

Result? I became super good at answering the phone. I found out it was fun, once I got the hang of it. To this day, I enjoy answering the phone, and can handle whatever comes through on the other end of the line. Success!!

Now it’s YOUR turn 🙂 Try thinking of a victory you had, an accomplishment that you’re proud of, and analyze what you did to make it happen. Then write it down and SEND IT!

I’m interested to find out how people challenge difficulties, and what inspires and motivates them to do so. If you contribute a brief story, including your name, age, and where the story took place, I will add it to this blog, and you will have become a contributor-at-large. No pay, but it will be an opportunity to reflect on a life lesson, AND read about other people’s experiences.

You can send your LIFE STORY to projectlifestory@gmail.com, or post it directly in the comment section below. Send me a private FB message when you do, so I don’t miss it. And if you need any help with the editing, let me know~ all my Korean students were grateful for that 🙂 Thank you!

To see the life stories written by my Korean students, see https://teatalksrobin.wordpress.com/category/life-stories-from-korean-students/ or just keep scrolling down. They’re longer than a paragraph because they were prepared for a speech class.

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The LIFE STORY PROJECT is about identifying our unique stories~ reaching into the most important places in your life where you were most alive, most vulnerable, most challenged and most inspired. Richard Nelson Bolles, in his award-winning job-hunters’ Bible, “What Color is Your Parachute?” said that searching for these stories of struggle and success helps us to discover what makes us tick. Hidden between the lines of each of our Life Stories are the keys to our strengths and passions. When faced with something important to us, something that fully absorbed our time and attention, or that posed a significant challenge to us for one reason or another, we found ourselves calling upon our talents and skills to work it out. According to Bolles, finding your life stories is an important way to discover your passion and perfect vocation. He shows us how to take each story apart to discover what skills we used~ what he calls ‘transferable skills,’ meaning they can be used in other areas in our lives. When we use these skills, we are enjoying and expressing our original nature and BEST SELF, so this is what we want to look for in a job or career path.