Dreaming is not for the faint of heart

The title of this post really was intended as a two-line poem of sorts - but Blogger allows that not, so here now, my original concept:

Dreaming is not,
for the faint of heart.
(well, it works for me, and it's my blog)

Anyhow...

I took a class this summer called the Psychology of Dreams. The textbook for the class was "Our Dreaming Minds" by Robert Van de Castle. Dr. Van de Castle attended the class as a visiting faculty member. How rare it is to have one of the lecturers for the class be the author of the textbook used in the class. I feel fortunate to have attended this class.

I must say that I had no clear idea about what we might be studying in the class, because the concept of "dreams" was cloudy in my mind. I learned that many of the older ideas about how to interpret dreams (especially Freudian) have been supplemented by new ideas about how you can interpret your own dreams. I also learned that we would survey dreams from many different perspectives and finally, I learned that the difference between our waking mind and our dreaming mind is not a well defined boundary. Eventually, I ended up thinking about it in this way; conscious plans about your future, which many call dreams, are different from the dreams that come to you when sleeping, whether you are aware of them or not. I am now convinced that we all dream when we are sleeping and that if you care to be in touch with your dreaming life there are fairly easy ways to do so. Most importantly, you own your dreams and you can record them (in a dream journal) and reflect on their meaning in a safe, non-threatening manner that has the potential to enrich your life.

So why am I bringing up the business of dreaming when I am supposed to be concerned about career and life direction. Two reasons come to mind immediately:
1. My method for approaching career/life planning is summed up as "Dream It, Learn It, Work It."
2. I thought I would learn more about dreaming that might be useful to my clients if I took the class.

And I believe I did.

What I didn't expect was to become aware of a whole new source of information from dreaming that may be of equal or greater value than the career dreaming (or planning) I recommend in my book and in my private practice. The two kinds of dreaming are complementary in a way I would not have imagined had I not taken the class.

I am going to continue to work with and think about how how this all can fit together. The good news is that something useful may be gained and nothing will be lost. I'm dreaming (planning) about how to build a bridge between what I call conscious dreaming (controlled dreaming) and unconscious dreaming (uncontrolled dreaming) that we may be able to walk together. If you have any thoughts on the subject I would be delighted to hear from you.

Copyright E. Charles Bliss; all rights reserved

Ominous Abundance

Ominous Abundance is a concept I explore in "You Are Your Career." These words came to me as my wife and I were hiking a trail in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier. We encountered a large, healthy chipmunk, a huge black raven and a buck deer, who seemed to be in velvet. I t was a foggy day and many of the valleys we saw were shrouded in fog. That's when the words Ominous Abundance flashed in my mind. I wondered why. It took me awhile to figure it out.

I suppose you could interpret the words in many ways, but what occurred to me was that the animals were living in the abundance of the forest but had no idea what events outside of their control might suddenly alter their lives completely. For instance, since they could not see into the foggy valleys they would not know if a predator might be stalking them. If climate change or a forest fire were to change the landscape of their habitat, I wonder if they could survive under the new conditions. When we saw the creatures they were fat and happy, living the good life of animals well suited to their environment. And yet, I continued to have this feeling of dread.

It finally came to me what the real learning might be: any life form on the planet, most especially human critters, might have a false sense of well-being when random, unpredictable factors might suddenly disrupt their lives.

Here are some examples of what I am writing about as it might relate to your life: recession, weather related storm damage, the loss or gain of a personal relationship, a birth or death - - - need I go on?

Abundance is a good thing, and you may enjoy abundance for long periods of time. But to be more aware of the tenuous nature of abundance seems like an ominous idea. How can you reconcile the good things you seem to be able to control in your life with an unknown threat that may destroy it? I think this is a close as I can come to explaining Ominous Abundance. I didn't ask for the words to pop into my brain, but pop they did.

This entire experience feels like a wake-up call to me. The approach I have taken most recently in my own life is to enjoy what I have now; to nurture important relationships; to think optimistically, but with my eyes and ears kept open; to do work I feel is important; to be relaxed about what I cannot know in advance; to adapt as necessary; to acknowledge greater powers than myself; to live below my means and to enjoy life.

My advice to you: Dance when you get a chance; anytime, anywhere.

Reflect Who You Are In The Work That You Do

That's the subtitle of "You Are Your Career;" but what does it mean?

Other than the connection to the book title, it is just a fact of life that you can hardly avoid. The only question about the statement is whether it is a conscious decision to pursue employment that is in sync with who you are a person or it just happens as a course of nature.

I'd say the split is about 30/70 -- 30% of careers are the result of a conscious decision to pursue compatible work and about 70% is based on available work opportunities. Many times people are pushed into a career by family or circumstances that is NOT reflective of who they are and they are miserable. Because they are miserable they often fail. Then through years of trial and error, they finally find a career they can stick with -- it doesn't mean they consciously matched themselves to a career, it just means they found a way to survive.

I am strongly suggesting that you consider becoming part of the 30% group who tackle the problem of matching your career and your life values as an active process of assessing who you are and what you have to offer the world. Why were you put on this planet and what mission are you supposed to accomplish? It's about looking at yourself and taking positive steps to make your career meaningful to you and your life meaningful to world.

It is easy to do ? No, it is not. Can it be done? Yes, with vision and persistence you can move ever closer to the ideal career and the ideal you. It may take a lifetime, but there is no more important pursuit than actualization of self and career.

My First Blog Attempt

I have been working with a friend and fellow traveler to set-up this blog so I can communicate with readers who are interested in examining their careers and their lives -- the two, in my view, are so intertwined it is difficult to separate them. In fact I wrote a book titled "You Are Your Career" where I muse about how I think this whole thing about career and life really works. It is available at amazon.com.
However, the purpose of this blog is to communicate directly with those of you who are interested in exploring your own life/career and who may have questions they would like to talk about. I work professionally as a career counselor, as both a college career counselor and a private practitioner, so I deal with career issues every day.
I will try to make at least one entry every week unless I hear from some of you with questions or comments, at which time I will respond in a more timely manner.
Let me end this first post by saying that I do not believe that there are magic formulas to make your career and your life outrageously successful in an instant. We are all so different. I do believe, because I have seen it work many times in my practice, there is a natural path you can find that if followed will lead to greater fulfillment in your life/career pursuits. I'll do my best to help you.

E. Charles Bliss

The Book Is Finally Here!!!

You knew this blog's name was for a reason, right??
To Order You Are Your Career, just click the handy Amazon link below.

http://www.amazon.com/You-Your-Career-Charles-Bliss/dp/1439220646/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240454741&sr=8-1

Welcome!!

This will eventually feature your queries and my answers (as well as my musings) from You Are Your Career.