Phase One

In Phase One of The Project I am setting out to reduce my wants, wishes, skills, and values down to their essence. There are many terms for this process but I am calling it What I Want.

Smarter people than I have done everything useful. I find this to be a good precept, so for any question I assume someone else has already found the answer, and all that is required of me is a little research.

This belief invariably leads me to the library or the book store to search for my answers. There you are met by an overwhelming array of titles that make selection problematic. My rule is that older is better.

A good story is always a good story and good ideas are not new. I favor older books that retain their popularity after decades. Not a guarantee, but I have found it effective for separating the wheat from the chaff.

My first research tool for The Project is: What Color Is Your Parachute? First published in 1970, there are ten million copies in print, annually revised and updated, and it continues to be immensely popular. That is a far more telling resume than a book that just hit the New York Times Best Seller List.

The book contains two sections. I am doing the section designed to assist me finding an occupation that I believe has meaning and purpose.

I am skeptical going in. To extract the value I have to participate by doing the exercises in the book. Quizzes, surveys, diagrams and charts to complete and create to fulfill the goal of the book. It is a lot of time to invest if you share even a little of my doubt in the outcome.

To help us in our quest I am going to invest the time and effort to complete all of the exercises. I am also going to recruit ten or more other people of varied background, experiences, and goals to do them too.

In future posts I will let you know the results of that experiment.

Read other posts about The Project here.

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