Day: November 9, 2020

Aren’t we all wanting to “come home to who we really are?” Many movies and songs have referenced “Going Home” in one way or another.

Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz has a famous line after she clicks her ruby red slippers when she says, “There is No Place like Home.” John Denver, in his famous song, “Take Me Home Country Roads” works with the theme in this song that there is nothing like home.  This is evident as Denver constantly says, “Take me home…..To the place I belong,” as he talks about the beautiful scenery that he loves at his “Home.”

This song was a huge hit for John Denver because people can feel the emotion in the melody and lyrics.  It’s upbeat, positive, and takes us back to our own home. Through countless adaptations, the enduring success and familiarity of “Country Roads” seems to lie in its transcendent ability to evoke feelings of home and belonging.

For many of us, this time of year with the holidays just around the corner, going to our “family home” and being with relatives is something we typically do. It might be a bit different this year, but holidays and home seem to come to mind for me during November and December.  Sometimes even that experience can be a bit unnerving, filled with fear and trepidation that our critical Aunt Jane might ask us if “we ate our way through the pandemic” or say something like “you mean you haven’t found a job yet?”

The “home” I am referring to is in a more metaphorical sense. It relates to that inner peace and internal home of joy and comfort we all are seeking.  Whether its during good times or not so good times, I think we all can find comfort coming home to a place of peace and tranquility inside ourselves. There is a lot of attention these days about “mindfulness” or changing mindset practices to assist us in this process, especially in times of much upheaval and uncertainty.

I think really coming home to “who we are” is a process we go through our entire life.  By seeking out new experiences and working through change and conflict can we get there and discover our true self and is similar to getting ourselves into alignment or being true to who we are.  At different stages of our lives, and through sometimes challenging experiences, we are forced to re-evaluate and reinvent ourselves to get into that alignment of our true purpose and life goals. The famous author, Maxwell Maltz, says it like this:

“Creative striving for a goal that is important to you as a result of your own deep-felt needs, aspirations and talents, brings happiness as well as success because you will be functioning as you were meant to function. Man is by nature a goal-striving being.  And because man is “built that way” he is not happy unless he is functioning as he was made to function – as a goal-striver. Thus success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other. Creativity also leads to a longer life.  Many creative people produce their greatest works during their senior years. It may also explain why some men die soon after they retire.  They no longer have a creative/productive outlet.”

In my first book, “Revolutionary Recruiting,” I share with readers my wisdom of working with candidates over 25 years and how I assisted them to go on a journey of discovery to find their way home to who they really are.  In my soon to be released workbook, “Revolutionary Reinvention,” I talk about how you can go on your OWN personal discovery through a series of steps to find your way home.  It is designed to reinvent yourself during uncertain times and how to transfer your skills into another area if you have fear of losing your job, already have been a part of a layoff or on a furlough.  The method that is expanded in this “Revolutionary Reinvention Workbook” is The Faremouth Method, a five-step process for us to evaluate important variables to achieve goals in our life. No matter what happens around us, the core “self” is something we need to constantly focus on. Challenges in our life motivate us to improve.

During times of great uncertainty, coming to your “home” to be comforted and to get into alignment with who you really are can be a very important mission for all of us. Sometimes our journey to get back home in a metaphorical way is filled with many roadblocks.  If we let our internal determination and “compass” direct our path and not let external events dictate our journey, we can emerge stronger, happier beings through the process.

The only constant in our lives is change.  Being in alignment in our 20’s might be very different than being in alignment in our 40’s and beyond.  There is always a way to reach our destination to allow our creativity to flourish and bring us the happiness we seek.

How do we do that when our life as we have known it has suddenly taken a major turn in a not so comfortable direction? What if we have lost our job, a spouse, life as we have known it? What is the constant that can keep us going?  Can keep us from falling apart?  Can allow us to be like a huge oak tree with its deep roots in the ground?

Let’s take a look at how a recent candidate, Fred, went on his journey to find his “way back home” using The Faremouth Method.  There are never any guarantees that what worked for one person may work for you, but the process might give you some insight into how you can evaluate your options to make your own journey to get back home to who you really are a positive experience.

Step Number 1 – Do A Self Inventory – Fred had been a senior-level technical sales representative with 15 years of combined experience for a manufacturing/distribution facility and recently lost his job. While doing his Self-Inventory, he decided that his family was deeply rooted in where he currently lived and worked and it was best for the family to not relocate to another city and to instead try to find a job in his current city.  This was an opportunity to combine his skill set and his passion.

Step Number 2 – Ask Better Questions – Fred had two options. He could either look for work in the same field where no one was hiring or he could find work in a new field where he had an applied skill set. He was able to take a temporary job, talk to a career consultant, redo his résumé to put him more in line with an in-demand industry.

Step Number 3 – Step Out of Your Comfort Zone – Fred realized he was always the go-to-guy others always called about a problem with their computer, phone, etc. He had to Step Out Of His  Comfort Zone to make new contacts and expand his circle in this new field.

Step Number 4 – Take The Time To Do It Right – Fred had the opportunity to take his time by working a seasonal part-time job in his new field for experience because his wife had a secure paycheck. While they still had to make cutbacks in their expenditures, it still gave him the Time To Do It Right in landing a new full-time job that would be permanent.

Step Number 5 – Be a Hunter – He employed some of the mechanics of bird hunting by aiming at where the bird would be when he shot his gun and not where it was currently.  He hunted for classes, contacts, a part-time retail job, working afternoons and evenings, in order to advance his new career, pairing it with his knowledge base and passion.

Fred could relate to the song by John Denver, “Take Me Home Country Roads,” and maybe even to Dorothy’s remark about “There is No Place Like Home” from The Wizard of Oz.  During this holiday season, perhaps it will be a virtual get together with relatives from up north who would join in this year.  Coming home to who we really are can be an exciting journey if we decide to change our mindset and realize that our internal process always knows the way back home and will for sure get us there.  No matter what happens we know our core beliefs will always help us achieve our goals.  If we use this Five-Step Method to help us get there in this New Work World, all the better!!   When we trust that internal compass that instinctively knows who we are, there is only one path home.