Have you completed employee reviews in the last month? Did it feel like a good use of your time? Did you feel like you were really building value in your company or did you feel like you were checking off a box on someone else’s cover-my-butt list?

Be honest.

When your Outlook calendar is completely colored in and you don’t know what half of the meetings are, you should probably start to think about giving yourself a demotion.

I’ve been inspired reading Seth Godin’s new book “Linchpin” which launches today. (Buy it here. I love the book because you can dive in anywhere and pick up some uncomfortably challenging advice.)

In the spirit of Seth's book, I offer my favorite way to free up time while making a bigger impact at work...

One of Seth’s most uncomfortable sections (for those of you in corporate jobs) is on the commoditization of white-collar jobs. If you are just checking off other people’s boxes you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk of becoming just like any other middle manager. Which means that you can be replaced with any other middle manager.

Instead, Seth challenges each of us to become a Linchpin:

The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create and make things happen. Every worthwhile institution has indispensable people who make differences like these.

If you are sitting in someone else’s meetings all week you aren’t becoming indispensable.

You are in a career holding pattern at best and in danger of a career death spiral at worst.

Working more hours will just make it harder for you to make a big contribution. You need a way to focus your efforts on something that will challenge you and bring real value to your company, without requiring another 30 hours of meetings each week.

Here’s my radical suggestion for creating more time and flexibility in your job: give yourself a demotion from management to a position where you can directly make a strategic contribution. I call this “strategic downshifting”.

Just like downshifting in a car, this gives you more power and control. It also makes your engine rev higher and gives you faster acceleration. That is to say, you can create a place where you can be excited about your work again.

I’ve done this three times in my career and I know of dozens of others who have had similar experiences. There are several factors to a successful downshift:

• Find a place where you are excited and can see new possibilities

After we sold a company where I was VP of Sales & Marketing, I was excited about applying our new parent company’s licensing business model to our old industry. I knew it was a chance to influence a significant change in the way optics were sold for cell phone cameras. But I couldn’t do it from my management role. Instead, I took responsibility for leading the business development efforts by myself with no team.

• Look at previous jobs to find great launching pads

Bob got passed over for a promotion early in his career at GE. Instead of continuing to press for a management role, he focused his productivity on inventing new products. He had a happy, sane 40 year career there and was awarded over 50 patents. (The guy who beat him out for the management job was let go 6 months later in a restructuring effort).

• Build a new constituency to support your efforts

Work with your management to ensure a graceful transition. Even more importantly, make sure that you have support from people excited about what you will be doing in your new (old) role. They can help smooth over any resistance you encounter.

• Watch out for the pull back into management

Traditional advice says that taking a step backwards on the career ladder means that you are done for. This is exactly the opposite of my experience. I have found that the wisdom and passion you bring to a downshifted role tends to bring results and recognition. My shift to a direct sales role netted me a bonus within 6 months.

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Nick Williams’ career as an author began in 1999 with the release of his first book The Work We Were Born To Do and he has recently started a new online community called the Inspired Entrepreneur.

Nick began his working life selling computers in London. In the midst of this successful career, he found himself sitting on a beach in Antigua asking “is it worth it?”.

In this first of a two-part interview, Nick talks about his “A-ha!” moment and the steps he took to begin changing his career.

Read on to find Nick’s thoughts on:

1. How to start a change while working
2. How to face internal resistance to change
3. How to be an entrepreneur without being a jerk

Read the full interview:

Avocationist: Tell me what you do for a living.

Nick: I suppose I would call myself a renaissance soul because there is not just one thing I do. I coach people, give talks, run workshops, and do broadcasting. I’m a writer and I create information products about helping people find what they really love to do. I have created a whole little business around it. That seems to be my area of specialty.

Avocationist: Could you tell me a little bit about how you got to where you are right now?

Nick: In the UK I followed a fairly conventional educational and career path. I did all my exams and then I completed a degree at University in business studies. It was my way of delaying the decision of what to do with the rest of my life. So in my early 20’s I went into sales and marketing for a few years and had 3 different jobs doing varying aspects of sales and marketing. The last one was working for a big company called Digital selling computers to Japanese banks in the city of London. By my late 20’s I started to realize that although I had enjoyed it, I did not enjoy it anymore. On the surface I was reasonably successful, but in a deeper emotional and spiritual level, I was very unhappy. It just led me to question a lot of things in my own life. Often we find out what we want to do by being unhappy in what we are doing. So that was my route, experiencing frustration and unhappiness.

Avocationist: Was there any particular event or one time when you realized “Wow; I have to make a change…” or did that occur over time?

Nick: I had two “Road to Damascus” moments. The first was in my second job. I had actually done very well and had very high sales, so they sent me to Antigua for a week. It was wonderful. I was on the beach in Antigua drinking a Red Stripe beer. I was in paradise, but in my own mind, I wasn’t in paradise at all. I was in hell because I was thinking, “I don’t really want to go back there. If this is what success is about, it is lovely but… I had to pay such a high price for it all. Is it worth it?” So that was one time that I thought, “I know I can’t carry on with this for too much longer.” However, it was probably about three to four years before I actually did leave.

“This guy is living on the streets and he is telling me to cheer up”

Then when I was back in London I had moved to another job in sales and marketing and I specifically remember the place in London. If you ever get to London there is a place called The Embankment which is down by the River Thames. My office wasn’t too far away from there. I took some time there one day because at that moment I was just so fed up with being in the office. I had to get out of there and decided that I needed to go for a walk. So I went down for a walk on the Embankment and I suddenly heard this voice call out to me. Somebody said to me, “Cheer up, mate.” I was obviously looking miserable and unhappy, but when I turned around, it was a homeless guy telling me to cheer up. I thought, “This guy is living on the streets telling me to cheer up. I’m a guy with a great job, a BMW, and a nice flat and he is telling me to cheer up. There is something not right here.” That was the other time when I thought, “Hang on. Something is not right with me and my life here.”

Avocationist: So how did you go about making a change at that point?

Nick: My first venture was into my own kind of counseling and a bit of therapy for myself. That was my inroad to personal change. I suppose many people, once they go to counseling or therapy, they think, “Maybe I will become a counselor or become a therapist.” I suppose I went down that route a bit. I thought I would love to share with other people what I had learned and what had been helpful to me, but I don’t think I really wanted to be a counselor or a therapist. I knew I wanted to become somebody who could help other people. Even in the days of selling computers, I realized that there was a part of me that loved helping other people. I never grew out of that desire to help others and so found a way of curving that into my living. I paid for it myself.

Avocationist: What did you do first once you realized that? How did you get started helping people?

Nick: The first area I became immersed in, which I found most helpful, was an area called transactional analysis; TA. There was a woman I found out about called Julie Hay. She helped people to use transactional analysis in an organizational context. So I did some training with her, and she would help me find a day or two of work. I would disappear from my job one day and reappear at the London Bureau of Bromley running a day of time-management training using TA. The next day I would jump back to my job as a computer salesman.

“I realized that when I was doing these presentations, I really loved it”

But I realized that when I was doing these presentations, I really loved it and it really gave me an experience of what it was like to present and share ideas, and I thought, “Yes; I really love doing this. If I could put this at the center of my life, I would like to do this.” So I got a taste of it, but I didn’t really have a plan. All I knew is that I needed to follow my heart because it was getting too painful not to.

“Looking back on it, I am probably embarrassed by how many mistakes I made, but luckily I didn’t dwell on it at the time”

Eventually I quit my job and followed my heart. I have probably made so many mistakes, but gradually became clearer about how to do it. I do not come from any kind of entrepreneurial background and I had no idea how to run my own business, let alone run a business that had deep meaning to me. So looking back on it, I am probably embarrassed by how many mistakes I made, but luckily I didn’t dwell on it at the time and I learned to swim. I have done quite well since then, in the long, long journey.

Avocationist: Did you just quit your job and start your own business, or did you kind of work into it?

Nick: A little bit. I had done a few tasters while I was still employed, but I didn’t really have a business plan. The concept that I know of now is the called “The Shadow Artist”. I don’t know if you have heard of, have you?

Avocationist: No I have not.

Nick: It is in one of Julia Cameron’s books. She wrote a book called The Artist’s Way, and it is a concept in her book. One of the things I did when I left my job was to start promoting other people who were more advanced in the world of personal development than I was. It was a good thing because it helped me to get a bit of profile and to make connections. Looking back on it, I realize it was also a great way of hiding out and doing what Julia Cameron calls being “A Shadow Artist.” This is someone who has not gained the courage to put their own creativity at the center of their lives and is more interested in supporting other people. It is a double-edged situation; on the one hand it was helpful, and on the other hand it was a great way of hiding out. It took me a number of years to realize that I wanted to be the one with my own voice and my own message - not just promoting the voice and the message of other people.

Avocationist: What was the first time you got to present your own voice or your own message?

Nick: I did a little bit of it for years, but after that I got involved in an organization called “Alternatives.” They are a mind/body/spirit personal development organization that provides lectures in this area. Alternatives has been around in London for about 26 years now and I have been involved for about 21 years. Because I had a passionate interest in the world of personal growth and personal development, it was a great way of immersing myself in that area. But once again, it was the realization that I wanted to be the one giving the talks with my own voice rather than promoting other people and their voices and their messages. It was probably about 12 years ago that I grasped the idea of being a Shadow Artist. There was a part of me hiding out and I needed to be the one speaking and writing and coaching. It was then that I started writing seriously for the first time - I realized that I had my own voice that I wanted to find and then give expression to it.

Avocationist: You have published a number of books; is that when you started writing your first book?

Nick: Yes. My first book came out 9 years ago, but I started to engage in writing seriously about 12 years ago now when I realized it felt wonderful to give a platform to the voices of other people. I realized that I had my own voice, which I was a bit in touch with, but not deeply in touch with. My first book was called The Work We Were Born To Do. One of the things that I talk about a lot is that when we follow our heart I believe two things happen. One, amazing things happen: doors open and connections get made. I also think that when we follow our heart a “resistance” kicks in. Resistance is all of those inner voices who are our own betrayers who say, “Well, who do you think you are to do anything like this? Get back in your box. No one will want to listen to you.”

“The resistance for me was thinking, ‘Oh yeah; I am going to write a book and people are going to read it and get something from it’”

So my personal journey of following my heart for almost 18 years has been following a sense of inspiration, but also having to learn to deal with massive resistance. The resistance for me was thinking, “Oh yeah; I am going to write a book and people are going to read it and get something from it.” It seemed like the ultimate act of arrogance. “Who would ever want to listen to me? What have I got to say that hasn’t been said better by tons of other people?” So to anybody listening to this or reading this here is my advice: I don’t recommend that you trust your own sense of resistance to your calling that seems arrogant and crazy. It is perhaps your own calling that you need to bring into existence.

“I have been utterly thrilled and probably shocked myself on just how much it has touched people and how many people have related to what I had to write about”

I did go through all my own resistance and then I started writing. I showed my work to a few publishers and then one said, “Yes; I would like to publish your book.” I am thrilled to bits to say that it is still in print 9 years later, which is pretty amazing for a personal development book that usually goes out of print in a year or two. I have been utterly thrilled and probably shocked myself on just how much it has touched people and how many people have related to what I had to write about. I am a great believer that all of us have great talents and great gifts to share, but most of them never get to see the light of day because our own resistance gets the better of us.

Avocationist: It’s interesting that it is almost directly proportional to how close you get to something real that the strength of the resistance is much stronger, isn’t it?

Nick: Yes, and many people think that they are crazy when they experience that. I find it helpful that just as you say, the closer you get to your calling, the bigger the resistance you are likely to feel, but that doesn’t mean you are off track. It actually means you are on track. I don’t know if you have heard of it, but a book that I recommend to anybody who is interested and can resonate with what we are talking about here, is a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Avocationist: It is all about creativity and what artists go through. People who are not formal artists don’t understand that your life and what you do is a work of art and you go through those same things that people struggle with.

Nick: Yes, I have 5 books out now.

Avocationist: You said you have a mix of things you do right now with coaching, speaking, and writing; which of those are your favorites or what do you think you are called to do the most?

Nick: I think the truth is that I am called to be a communicator. I am called to get messages out and to some extent, there is no one way of doing it that I prefer. People often think that they are supposed to find one thing and stick with it. I think for many of us we are what I would call renaissance souls. One of the things that I talk about when I help other people make changes is that this is not the case. I have one big passion, which is communicating, and inspiring and educating people, but I have a number of different ways that I have of doing that. None of them is something I want to do every day. What I like about my life is the variety. I like that one day I am giving a talk and then the next day I am at home writing, and the next day I am running a workshop for 100 people. I like that I am on the radio talking to other people, but I wouldn’t want to do any of them full time, but I love doing all of them some of the time.

Avocationist: Have you had any challenges on juggling that or explaining that to people?

Nick: Not so much in terms of juggling. I don’t have children. I have a long-term partner, and so in terms of time-management I probably work less than I have ever worked. What I do is a bit more strategic than it used to be. I used to run around like a headless chicken and I don’t do that quite so much now.

“I am a great believer that you can build a business around your own lifestyle”

Sometimes I travel to give workshops and I do a lot of coaching by phone so I don’t have to commute. I am a great believer that you can build a business around your own lifestyle, and I certainly have chosen to build a business around the lifestyle I want. I don’t work as hard as I used to; I probably touch more people and help more people than I ever have done, but with the internet these days, you can reach a lot of people much more easily than actually going out and meeting them one-on-one like you had to do in the past.

“One of the things that I do is talk about is other ways of being entrepreneurial and call it a heart-felt or inspired entrepreneur”

What I am doing now, and I just literally launched it in the last week or two, is that I believe it is so important that people get on-going support for their dreams. What I have realized is that when people discover the work that they were born to do, not always, but often it does lead them to starting their own business. Yet many of the role models that we have for entrepreneurial development are very competitive more in the line of the 1980’s Gordon Gekko, like Donald Trump. Many people that are doing something that they love just don’t relate to those ideas of being entrepreneurial. One of the things that I do is talk about is other ways of being entrepreneurial and call it a heart-felt or inspired entrepreneur. So now we are launching a community. We just launched a free level of it and now we are launching a premium level of it called the “Inspired Entrepreneur’s Community” or “Inspired Entrepreneur’s Club.” It creates ongoing support, encouragement, and dialog for people to discover what they really want to do and then turn that into their own little business. If you link to “Inspiredentrepreneur.com” people can join up for free and get that ongoing support from myself and other people in the process of building a business around a passion.

Avocationist: I think that is great. I also think it is a great way to have people help you with the resistance because they can see it.

Nick: Yes, because we can usually get away with resistance on our own, but we wouldn’t get away with it in the presence of peers.

“Having the corner office. Having the salary. Then saying, ‘Oh God, is this really all that there is?’”

This is the third of our five-part interview. Find out more about Angelina and Vocationing at www.themobiuscompany.com

Read the interview:

Avocationist: Tell me about your other job transitions.

Angelina: The second transition was from computer programming to accounting. Really that transition happened because when I was the computer programmer for the organization I worked with, I got very involved in the accounting function. That happened very naturally because I was already there.

Avocationist: Were there other difficult changes?

Angelina: The second hardest career transition was probably when I left corporate America and went to work for the small company before I went in to business for myself.

Avocationist: Tell me about that.

Angelina: I took a job really as a director of business development as a salesperson. That was very strange. It was like, “Oh my God, I’m not going to get a regular pay check. I’m going to have to earn my own money”.

Avocationist: How did you deal with that?

Angelina: I thought, “Okay. I’ve made all these other career transitions. Why not try this one”. As I said, I am not terribly risk averse when it comes to career transitions. Much of my life I’m risk averse. With careers I’ve always felt like, “Well, I could always do something else”.

Avocationist: How did you decide to leave corporate America?

Angelina: As I remember, I left corporate America after I had a position of Senior Vice President and Director of Infrastructure. I had all of the corporate functions reporting to me either dotted-line or direct. It was a case having been recruited to Charlotte and having the window corner office, having the salary. Then saying, “Oh God, is this really all that there is?” I hate to say it because it sounds like a terrible cliché.

Avocationist: How old were you then?

Angelina: I was in my mid-40’s and did the equivalent of, “Dear God, there has to be more than this”.

I felt really just being very confused about there really has to be more than this. That’s when I said, “Okay, let me go out and try to figure out what more there could be”. That’s when I did some of the self-assessment tools. It really was, I would say, my values catching up with me to say, “Okay, so now I’ve made a lot of money. Okay, so now I have this important title. Okay”. And then saying, “Wait a minute. Is that who I am?” Thinking, that’s not who I am, there’s got to be something different.

Avocationist: Did you go to the Highlands Program? Is that how you hooked up with those guys at that point?

Angelina: Yes. I actually went. I took the Highlands Program.

Avocationist: How did that help you?

Angelina: Their abilities battery said that one of the things that I would excel in was selling. I had never had a sales job in my life. I basically said to them "either you believe your test or you don’t".

Avocationist: That’s a good one.

Angelina: I said, if you believe your test, then you hire me as your Director of Business Development. If you don’t believe your test, you say to me, “well you don’t have any sales experience Angelina”. By the time I left Highlands the franchise that I worked for was one of the highest revenue generators in the country. That test was right, I’m very good at sales.

Avocationist: Yes. They should have known that by how you asked for that job.

Angelina: Yeah, I basically showed them my test scores and said, “Look it says the top five things I do best is sell”.

Another point about me is that I have a tendency to leave careers before I hate them. It's almost like a fear. If I do this a little bit longer, I’m not going to like it anymore.

Avocationist: That's interesting because I don't think most people do that.

Angelina: I leave it just a little sooner, rather than later. I work with a lot of people in the coaching work who are in career transition.

I think people’s biggest complaint is they waited too long. They knew they should get out, a year ago, and they hate it now. It’s interesting, because I’ve always erred on the other way. I usually get out a year too soon because I’m afraid I’m going to hate it. And I don't want to hate it.

Avocationist: How did you pick computer programming?

Angelina: Well, again, it was intellectually - it looked very challenging to me. It was in the mid-70’s. Most of my life, I’ve been very left-brain. I’ve been very logical and very analytical. It was in the 70’s, and the whole computer industry was really starting to explode. I just took an introductory class in it and really just loved it. It very much appealed to that very logical, analytical side. I have an undergraduate minor in mathematics and it just really appealed to the logical stuff in me. I said, “Oh, this could be interesting”, because it’s this up and coming field. I have a tendency like nascent industries. I like to show up in an industry when it’s first starting and so there aren’t a whole lot of rules. There’s a whole lot of opportunities. It’s the area of my life that I am very much a risk taker. I think that’s the other really interesting thing about career transition. I think people are afraid that if they find a job and they don’t like it, “Oh my God, it’s the end of the world”. It’s like, “Well, no. If you take a job and you don’t like it, go find another one”. It may not happen easily, and in today’s economy it’s especially hard. But, you can go about finding the other one.

Avocationist: How did your transition to computer programming happen?

Angelina: That career transition I made by going back to school. I’ve made other career transitions where I have not gone back to school, but I’ve actually done pro bono work for organizations. Most people will say, “How do you get from one career to the next?”

Avocationist: Yes - that's a big challenge for many people.

Angelina: If you want to radically change, number one I’ve gone back to school. The other way I’ve done it is to provide pro bono services in the industry where I’m interested in going. Or in a field where I’m interested in going. When I wanted to get into school reform, I had been working on Wall Street. I found an organization that needed some consulting services and I offered them pro bono consulting services, but they were in the school reform business.

They were in school reform. They wanted some computer consulting services. And, I was willing to give them computer consulting services, free, because it gave me an opportunity to network in this area of school reform. I wound up giving pro bono services to three different organizations and wound up with three job offers to make the career transition. The pro bono work gave me the opportunity to meeting with people in the industry and learn the language of the industry.

The other thing I have found very useful in making career transitions is attending a whole bunch of seminars and conferences. It wasn’t really school. I didn’t get a new degree. I found, and this is when I got in to coaching, I went to the International Coach Federation Conference. Then I took a couple of classes. I did a couple of networking events. Again, I’m usually somebody who goes and does something as a way to make a career transition.

Avocationist: Yeah. You said you’ve mostly gotten in to these new fields. How do you find out about them? Is it something that you go look for? Or do you usually find it just occurring to you, or do you run across it?

Angelina: I’m somebody who pays attention to trends. One of the careers I think I should have someday is to figure out how to get paid money for the fact that I can spot trends. I don’t know if anybody would pay me for that.

When I first got in to coaching and I went to the International Coaching Federation Conference. I think there were maybe 200 people at the conference. Now everybody and his brother has a coach.

Avocationist: Yeah. Exactly.

Angelina: Its like, when I first started doing it, people would say to me, “What’s a coach? How did you find out about that?” It’s like, “Okay, this sounds like brand new”.

In the next segment, Angelina talks about how even the "stuff that felt lousy" had a purpose.

"I think part of the challenge when people make career transitions is they are convinced there is one job that does everything."

Avocationist talked to her in January, 2008 about her careers, how she’s pursued finding a fit in multiple roles and how she’s learned to be more present.

This is the first of our five-part interview. Find out more about Angelina and Vocationing at www.themobiuscompany.com

Read the interview:

Avocationist: Let me start out. If I can get you to tell me what you do for a living now.

Angelina: I am currently a facilitator, coach, teacher and story teller. I provide those services to companies and individuals or groups who wish to live intentional lives.

Avocationist: What do you mean by intentional lives?

Angelina: I like to work with organizations where individuals are making very intentional, conscious choices about what they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, what they’re doing, how they’re responding. I prefer working with individuals in groups who are conscious and intentional about the things that they are about and about the things around them.

Avocationist: Okay. You said you have four jobs right now.

Angelina: Yes.

Avocationist: Tell me about that. How did you get to that point?

Angelina: It’s very interesting. I think I had mentioned to you I had written an article a number of years ago called “Vocationing”.

Avocationist: Which you sent to me, thank you for that by the way.

Angelina: The thought is that, society and especially the American culture, would have us do a JOB. What happens is we try to find the thing that we think best suits us. Sometimes it is the case is that we are multi-talented. We’re in a job that may use a certain percentage of our talents, but it doesn’t use all of our talents. We can express those talents in other ways; either through hobbies, or volunteer work, or things like that. I thought of this when crafting my last career, which was probably about ten years ago. I’m in this career the longest of any career I’ve been in.

Avocationist: What do you mean by "crafting" your career?

Angelina: I crafted it in such a way that it would utilize a lot of the different talents I have. The coaching gives me the opportunity to be one on one and very personal and very intimate. It uses those talents of making connections with people, really working on the feeling level. The facilitation really plays to the fact that I enjoy working in a group, in larger settings, in the corporate setting and in the business world. The story telling is a little bit about the fact that as I’ve gotten older I enjoy writing more, which is a very solitary function. Each of the roles play a little bit to the personality differences, the mood differences and different talents that I have. As a facilitator I don’t deal with content at all, I deal with the process of the group. Whereas when I’m training, I deal with content. As a writer I deal with both. The different jobs really give me a chance to draw on different talents without having to limit myself to just one.

Avocationist: What were you going through when you made that last job transition? That seems to have worked out well because it’s the longest job you’ve have.

Angelina: A number of things. I did specifically take a number of personality or style tests. I did take tests to tell me what my interests were. I did take tests to tell me my personal style, my Myers-Brigg type. I did take a test that measured my abilities. I took those tests to really help me see areas where I was tending to be naturally good. For example, what are the things that I might have known intuitively but I didn’t know concretely that would be good areas for me to pursue. As those things unfolded and I learned from those tests, I said, “Okay, it’s not so far fetched that I could be a teacher and a coach and meld those things together”.

Avocationist: What was it about the tests that helped you figure that you could meld things? Or what was your experience?

Angelina: I think it was the process of looking at all of the different skills and abilities along with my personal style. I went through an exercise using the Highlands Program that really had me do almost a mind map of my abilities. Having all of these skills and abilities, how do I put them together in such a way that can come up with something that suits all of the things that I figured out.

Avocationist: It was the intentional process that you used that helped you look at all the pieces at one time?

Angelina: Very, very intentional. It was interesting because it was the first time that I had done that. I’ve made any number of career changes over the years, but in some ways when I would make the career changes it was usually because one particular talent was pulling me and I had ignored it. The example I’ll use is as a teacher, I really played to that ability to work with groups and to interact and to work on content and be in large groups. I was very happy being a teacher. I left that career and got in to a job as a computer programmer, which feels like the exact opposite.

Avocationist: It does.

Angelina: At it turns out, as a programmer, what I was really getting was very logical problem solving which wasn’t necessarily something that I got a lot in teaching, which is not very logical. You have to be on your feet and answering questions and you never know what kids are going to say next. I guess at the end of teaching, I didn’t realize it, but I was pursuing a career that felt much more in my control and much more logical. Then I left that and went to the next field and it was, again, something that was very different. Each time I made the change it really was whatever ability was screaming at me the loudest. Rather than stepping back and looking at it, and say, “Okay, what are all of these things I’ve got to take in to account and how do I meld them in to what feels like something that can satisfy more of the things that I needed satisfied”.

Avocationist: Can you walk me through all of your careers? I love that list.

Angelina: Okay. I started as a teacher of mathematics. I left that, went back to school and became a computer programmer. I left that and became a controller. I left that and became a consultant on Wall Street. I left that and got involved in a university in school reform. I left that and became the head of human resources for an IT company. I left that and became a business development person for a company, the Highlands Ability. I became business and development sales marketing person. I left that and went in to business for myself. I think that’s all of them. I am not sure if I missed any.

Angelina: I feel very lucky and blessed that I’ve had this career now for ten years that satisfies so many of the needs and plays on so many of my talents and uses so many of my skills. I’ve also come to realize that I really do need hobbies and volunteer work for some of them. The example I’ll use is, I just really love this whole world of decorating and cooking.

Things that have to do very tactilely, with colors and tastes. There was a time when I was convinced that my next career was going to be as a chef. It really was because that was the piece that wasn’t being satisfied.

Avocationist: Is that next?

Angelina: Today I realize that that’s probably not the right next career for me. But that is a piece of who I am and it has got to find a way in to either a hobby or my volunteer work or something I do. So I think part of the challenge when people make career transitions is they are very often convinced there is one job that does everything. And, they ignore the fact that there might be a job that does most of it, or a career that does most of it, but you’ve got to pay attention to the hobbies and the volunteer work and the avocations. Otherwise, you may not get it all from one career.

Avocationist: Right. And if you’re multi-talented then it’s even harder.

Monday: How can one person enjoy teaching, sales and facilitation? Finding the common thread in childhood interests…