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5 ways to shake up your life in 2003
If the lowly economy has you down, this may seem like the worst time to take a chance. I say its the best. Heres how to think outside the box and improve your life.
By Harry Domash
When I was in my 20s, I moved around the country from one newspaper to another -- the Kansas City Star, the Pottsville Republican, the Asbury Park Press, the Wilmington News Journal. I was pounding out stories about weddings and corporate earnings -- and spending most of my time feeling depressed because the spectacular life-changing event I fully expected hadnt arrived yet.
December was the prime time to feel sorry for myself because another year had passed and I hadnt received a check for a million dollars or an offer to become Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. But December also brought a shred of hope: A new year was coming.
I wonder how many years I waited for my fairy godmother before I figured out that nothing happens to people who do nothing. Change didnt happen overnight.
But for the last several years, Ive thought of December as a time to decide how to take some big risks, to shake things up, to think out of the box, to change my life and my job.
How does one think out of the box? Ive thought about that as Ive read, almost daily, the wrenching stories of jobless, mid-career professionals, many of whom have been unemployed for over a year now. Most of them are not getting out of the box. Theyre surfing the Internet and sending resumes and scanning the want ads. One man stood in front of Grand Central Station with a sandwich board urging people to look at his resume on the Internet, said a story in the New York Times.
Time to act
When youre out of work or worried about the economy or your stock portfolio, it may seem like the worst time to take a risk in life. I say its the best. Whats the advantage of slipping into anxiety? It's time to act; time to try something new.
Here are five things you might do to shake up your life in 2003:
1. Don't just write a check; volunteer. Americans have grown cynical about charities, thanks to the problems of the Red Cross and the United Way. But something healthy has happened as a result: People are getting involved in charitable work rather than just charitable check writing.
Last week I talked with Erin Hemmings at Social Venture Partners of Seattle, a group of mostly affluent high-tech businessmen who wanted to figure out a way to make a difference. Inspired by Paul Brainerd, who created Pagemaker software and then sold it to Adobe, the group decided to use a venture capital model to work with charities. Each partner donates $5,500 a year for two years and then adds elbow grease. Some partners sit on the grant committee to decide which projects will get funding. Others volunteer legal work or the time to set up a database or an accounting system. The idea proved so popular that 25 cities now offer a similar partnership. (For more information on the network of Social Venture Partners organizations, see the link at left under "Related Sites.")
OK, I dont have $11,000 handy. But my daughter and I just completed the training sessions offered by the Literacy Volunteers of America to become certified to teach English as a second language. We worked with a young Korean girl and are now volunteering at a drop-in center to teach English to a group of people -- all eager to learn the language so that they can make some progress in the land of opportunity. There are plenty of projects like this that welcome your time and energy and where you can make some small difference. Another big advantage: It shifts your attention away from yourself.
2. Take up a totally different sport. Going to the gym is fine, and I like to bike and cross-country ski and hike. But two years ago, I felt I was getting into a rut and needed a new challenge. Luckily for me, my daughter expressed interest in martial arts. My son, daughter and I signed up for what I expected to be a short experiment.
It was an eye-opener and brought some surprising rewards. When we were beginners, called "white belts," I felt very old and very slow, especially in my reflexes. The patterns and blocks seemed counterintuitive, and I wanted to drop out. Today, we are red belts, which in our school is the first of the advanced belts. The discipline of working through something Im not particularly good at has been both humbling and rewarding.
3. Describe your dream job and prepare to act. I used to do this even in my most pathetic days. I pictured myself living in a huge, empty library and doing writing and research somewhere among the stacks of books. I didnt turn out to be a hermit, but close enough.
Take a look around you at the twists people have put on traditional careers. Theres a guy in our little village who has advanced degrees in chemistry and education. He set up a business called Chestnut Street Tutors. I remember when only the kids wearing dunce caps went to tutors. But Philip Russo has managed to turn his business into a high-end resource for the smartest kids in the school who need more challenge, and at the same time serve the kids who need extra help. When my son was invited to take the SAT as a seventh grader, we signed him up for test preparation. Russo's path is just one example of thinking outside the box. He's someone who has taken a traditional education and created a job that suits him with plenty of room for personal growth.
4. Stretch yourself in a class. OK, "take a class" sounds hackneyed. Yet it has changed my life enormously over the past three years. First, I completed a master of fine arts degree in fiction writing, which opened a rich new vein in my life both as a reader and a writer. Then I took an art class with my daughter, even though Id never even drawn a stick person. I loved it!
I continue to experience the rewards. Right now, when I look out the window and see the snow on the rocks behind the waving brown decorative grasses and the shadows and animal footprints, they have shapes and values and contrasts that I never saw before. Im just completing a course on Paul the Apostle at Bard College, and its been a wonderful opportunity to apply some brainpower to something that I knew only as the Sunday gospel reading.
5. Really shake things up by acting on opportunities. You always have to be listening for the next new thing, searching for the next door to open. I believe in synchronicity, which is that something falls in your lap because youre meant to know about it. The trick is, you have to respond rather than just staying inside the box.
My goal for 2003 is to do two totally new things -- things that the "old me" wouldnt consider.
No one who knows me would ever describe me as "new age." But a psychiatrist friend of mine has recommended a course called The Art of Living. Its about breathing. A 25-hour course called The Art of Living, all about breathing. Thats about as far from my commonsensical approach as I can imagine. Im going to do it in January.
So Im looking for one more extreme experience to get me out of the box. How are you hoping to shake up your life in 2003? Im open to suggestions in our Start Investing Community.
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