I’ve been putting a considerable amount of energy into my job search lately, and at the recommendation of my friend Griff Wigley I’ve used the book What Color Is Your Parachute 2009 by Richard N. Bolles as my guide.

After a few months of unsuccessful job searching, I took some of Bolles’ advice to heart. He says that rather than spending all their time researching the market, networking, and applying for advertised jobs, people should look inward and do some self-examination to make sure they are finding the job that will make them happiest.

Bolles has some exercises that are designed to help with this self-assessment. The goal of these exercises is to come up with a one-page visual aid that is a guide to your ideal job. This is called the “The Flower,” because the diagram he’s created for it looks like a flower.

At the core of the flower are what Bolles calls “transferable skills.” These are the skills that you both enjoy and have experience using. His recommended method for identifying these skills is to write out seven stories about times when you accomplished something, overcame obstacles, and enjoyed yourself in the process. Once the skills are identified, he recommends making them more concrete by putting them in a sentence and adding adverbs and objects.

Below are the skill sentences that I came up with for myself; all follow the phrase “I’m good at….”

I’m good at

• researching complex topics thoroughly and finding useful information and solutions.
• reading a wide variety of sources and staying informed on the issues.
• writing effectively and eloquently for many different purposes.
• promoting new ideas in a way that will open up minds and bring down barriers between people.
• promoting change that will benefit communities.
• being physically active in ways that support my own health and vitality and inspire others

This list of skills has already helped me to focus my job search and think about what I most enjoy doing. Now we’ll see where it takes me. Next task: informational interviews with people working in careers and organizations that interest me.

If you have ideas for where I can put most or all of these skills to work, please leave a comment. Or if you know me and want to recommend changes and make other comments, please feel free to do so.

Historian Joseph J. Ellis recently wrote an excellent opinion piece for the L.A. Times stating the need for government to address some of our most significant problems. In doing so, he captured thoughts I’ve had over the last several years.

Ellis traces anti-government rhetoric back to Thomas Jefferson and pro-government rhetoric to Alexander Hamilton. He eventually makes the following vital points:

For much of our history, the Jeffersonian hostility to an energetic federal government served us well. But with the end of the frontier and the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy, the expanding role of government in protecting and assuring our “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” has become utterly essential. All the major problems now befuddling us — the destructive excesses of finance capitalism, a profit-based healthcare system, an increasingly contaminated atmosphere — are only soluble if we regard government as the chosen representative of our collective interests as a people and a nation.

I recommend reading Ellis’s piece in its entirety to get a better sense of his argument.

I wrote the article below for the recent “Progress” section of the Northfield News. I can’t find the article online, so I’m posting it in its entirety here. It summarizes progress we have made on nonmotorized transportation issues here in Northfield, Minnesota:

Over four years ago several of us Northfielders started working to make our area safer and more inviting for walking, biking, and otherwise getting around under our own power. In part we were building on others’ work, but in other ways we were breaking from the recent past—a past in which sidewalks often were not considered an important part of the street system and transportation plans made scant reference to nonmotorized modes of travel.

Since then, the collective efforts of the entire community—including elected leaders, city staff, interested citizens, and various boards, commissions, task forces, and community groups—have led to many improvements. Here are some examples: Read the rest of this entry »

My friend and fellow church member Dean Sorenmann and I are organizing a job search group at Northfield United Methodist Church, 1401 South Maple Street, Northfield. It starts tonight, and anyone is welcome to attend. I know Dean is planning to share some useful information, and I will share what I have learned from sources such as the book What Color is Your Parachute?

Here is the description that Dean created:

The Re-Employment ministries is a weekly job club to support anyone look for work, preparing for a layoff, or looking to change careers. We will have our first meeting at the church on August 4th at 7:00 pm. Be prepared to introduce yourself to the group. All are welcome to attend. Future meetings this month are August 11 and 18.

I recently answered questions for Northfield News reporters working on a couple of different articles. In “Where the rules meet the road,” (July 17), reporter David Henke examined rules for cyclists on the road and included photos of me on my bike in different situations. This was featured on the front page of the paper.

In a July 29 story, reporter Jim Hammerand wrote about the conclusion of our Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, which officially ends in mid-August. We had our last meeting in late July. I should clarify something that I did not make clear to Jim in my interview with him: the task force is ending because we felt that we had accomplished our major goals.