Career Path: A roller Coaster

Career path are roller coasters but with many loops and checkpoints. The loops are the career stages. The time we spend in each stage is fueled by our drive for growth, the need to excel and our like or dislike to change, our goals and our life circumstances. We all get to that check point at some moment whether by our own doing or by an external force. When we get there will  stay on, or go back around the same loop, or get off completely or do whatever it takes to get to the next loop including seeking inspirational stories about how others jumped the loop.


I volunteer at work to help organized professional development programs. The other day after saying to myself that type of professional program people choose to attend depends on what stage they are in their career and on how close they are to a check point, this thought came into my head: “I am tired of inspirational messages”. Digging deeper, I realized that I am at one of my career check points and I am more than ready to move to the next stage of my career.




I now know what kind of job I want and I know I have the passion and the drive to excel in it. Instead of listening to people currently in the kind of role I want talk about how they got there, I want to hear them talk about what skills they are using to succeed, and deal with job challenges. I am feeling the need for this because I want to  make sure I too am ready to excel in my next stage.

Today i let go and found bliss

The art of letting go even for a moment is a worthy skills I must cultivate. Today, the moment I detached, I felt connected to my inner being. Detaching brought back the inner peace which for the past week, I was struggling to find, thinking it was lost forever. The lightness I felt came with a special surprise, it brought with it smile, my long lost friend.

Lessons for the masses

Let’s stop respecting others, accepting bad behavior based on criteria such as hierarchy, social status, family, foe or friend.

Not all decision should be made on a hunch and in haste. To prevent dire consequences, some decision requires, thorough analyzing which include mapping out good and bad outcomes of said decision. 

The power of fear in society is like a domino effect. It destroys those it consumes, and they in turn can destroy those they touch and in end it can even destroy the brave who had once told tales of beating fear at its game.

Lists! Lists! Lists!

I have finally embraced this “to do list” phenomenon that I have heard about for decades. In May 2016 I took on a volunteer role at work as co-leader of our women's employee resource group. Now weekly and daily lists help me keep track of my to dos for my paid and unpaid role. I even took it up a notch and added my personal “to-dos” the same weekly and daily lists.

My weekly list now looks something like this:

-Prepare Agenda for meeting
-Review and Send out Department report
-Exercise Three days this week
-Buy spoons
-Practice French


I use list to keep track of tasked I assign to others and what needs to be do to run an event.

My favorite things about lists is that they help me prioritize my task and frame my day.

Neighbors

Last night at 2:14 am I sent an email to the landlord office to complain that people were jumping and banging on the roof.  Normally I will brood ( using the term from Dr. Susan David’s Emotional Agility)  and do nothing but I am tired of humans lack of disregard and empathy for others, which is what  I think is the reason for the  landlord posting rules limiting the laundry hours from 8 am to 10 pm and Roof access hours from 9 am to 10 pm. Being aware of our surroundings and environment, as well as considering how our actions affect others  is crucial if we want a world that is productive, thriving and a place to call home.  I should have asked them to tell the pot smokers to keep their doors and window close when smoking because their valuable product is escaping causing havoc  on my respiratory system, eyes and throat..  Karma is real and dues will come due when you least expect it from the people who would never imagine will do anything to cause you discomfort.

Having it all is possible but....

You can have it all but you can’t do it all.  Just as you rely on the electric company to light up your home, or the supermarket for flour to make your favorite dessert or the Surgeon to operate on the patient that comes to your hospital, assistants from others to get your life to be functional is a most.

My Favorite Things : Current Passion

My First Toastmaster speech

I always find it difficult to talk about myself, it is difficult to know where to begin or what will be interesting to others ,  truthfully  I rather observe the world around me. Today I have chosen to tell you about some of my favorite things, my current passions.  Hopefully it will take the spotlight off me a bit.

Before I begin, here are a few interesting tidbits  about me.

I am  one of those curious Gemini who want to know a little about  almost everything, I am the eternal student; I am always seeking out knowledge.

In college, instead of the normal math minor customary of Chemistry Majors, I ended up with Philosophy because I took many social science classes.

I have four first names and a compound last name… My full birth name is Elizabeth, Moriyina Cordelia  Diana Kamara-Cole.

I love History, Archeology and Psychology.  Currently, I am learning about ancient Greece courtesy of my newest favorite Historian Dr. Bettany Hughes.

My interest in the ancient world peaked recently when I stumbled on some of the program she had done for the BBC , while I was  looking for videos of the English countryside  on YouTube one Sunday whiles I was sick - I typed in moorlands and one of the video that kept popping up was “When the moors ruled Europe”.  After watching many amazing documentaries on the countryside I caved and watched Bettany Hughes video and I was hooked, within minutes.  She is an amazing presenter and she could definitely win many toastmasters’ awards. One of my favorite part about her documentaries is when she reads ancient inscriptions in the original languages.

 Speaking of language it is  Another passion of mine.

Growing up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, English was my least favorite subject even though my dad was an English professor; academically I was a math and science person who dazzled in decorating at Christmas.  When I discovered French, my passion for  using languages as a way to learn about other cultures was ignited.  I am currently immersed in the French language and culture  as my goal is to be fluent. I  even get my news alerts in FRENCH, which helps me read in French every day.  I’ve recently joined a website called Open University where I am currently  taking  an intro course on Greek and Latin as I delve  into the ancient world.  

I recently concluded that  I hated English  because it was in English class  that I was forced to read out loud and write about myself.  Funnily, Writing is slowing becoming a favorite of mine, though I am currently working through a writers block and on a hiatus from blogging.

 I use my writing to explore ideas and stay informed;  for instant I was asked via twitter  to contribute to a eBook about  how music influenced culture, I wrote  about how music had influenced my past.  At my first job after finishing Healthcare MBA degree, I started a health care blog because I felt that I was not getting much interaction with the healthcare community.  My writing has also helped me document amazing experience such,  the connection I felt to Paris when I visited it for the first time in 2010 and my interaction with Musician Alanis Morissette when I met her in Boston in 2008.

I hope that you have gotten a glimpse into my life by me telling you about my interests in learning, ancient  civilizations, languages and writing; which are my current passions. My favorite things.

Thank you!