The Career Clinic Blog

A few summers ago I got down to a hundred-eight pounds. It wasn’t that difficult--except for the constant, nagging hunger. I just kept track of my calories the way I kept track of my workouts, made the appropriate adjustments, and didn’t celebrate my progress with chips and salsa and seafood tacos..

At five-six, a hundred-eight pounds was a little creepy. That’s what Darrell and Katie kept telling me. So I agreed to let up on vacation. One morning we found ourselves at an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast straight out of what Kate calls artery-clogging heaven. For someone who likes a little salty with her sweet, the invitation to eat as much bacon as I wanted and chase it down with unlimited Krispy Kremes was heaven.

Heaven--but not, apparently, enough. I put butter on those Krispy Kremes! As if it was possible to make them more decadent. But have you ever tried them this way? The creamy and oh-so-faintly salty of the butter is the perfect icing for the flaky-crisp icing on the donuts. You know your mouth is watering just thinking about it.

So is mine.

I don’t remember a single thing about the rest of the day, which is kind of a shame given the awe-inspiring resort. Maybe that’s one reason I’m such a fanatic when it comes to healthy food. Then again, the memory of this particular trip off the wagon was almost enough to set me for life. Is that why they call it sowing your wild…oats?

My perfect weight is in the neighborhood of one-eighteen--where I’ve been holding steady, since. I gained most of the difference back on this vacation. I probably gained five pounds at that breakfast.

What I learned? If I was an actress and had to gain weight for a role, I could do it!

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“People keep asking me, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’” That opening line of my favorite radio commercial pretty much nails it, don’t you think? How from the time we’re very young, grownups ask us to set the course of our lives--as if we could. As if they have theirs figured out. As if all this grilling helps anything.

Making a Living Without a Job author Barbara Winter thinks it’s a shame. She says we put so much pressure on kids to make the so-called right choice that by the time they realize it isn’t, they’re loathe to admit it--let alone doing anything about it.

Education doesn’t stop when you graduate from high school or even college. If you can think of every job as still another classroom, you’ll know when it’s time to move on--when you’ve learned everything you can learn, and you’re ready for a new challenge.

It’ll help you stay loose.

I hope you’ll share what you’re learning. So does the comedian Paula Poundstone. “Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up,” she says, “because we’re looking for ideas.”

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If all your kid wants to do is watch television, maybe you have a problem.

If all your kid wants to do is play television, maybe not.

I’m glad Kevin Clash loved watching Sesame Street so much he devoted his life to Being Elmo.

People like Beyoncé are glad Vinnie Potestivo spent his childhood playing TV. Vinnie, who auditioned Beyoncé for her first acting role, used to work at MTV and now has his own entertainment company. “I’m the oldest of six,” Vinnie says, “and I have a lot of cousins. So I always had an audience. I always had willing participants. And since I was the oldest the other kids did pretty much what I wanted them to do. We’d put on plays and make videos, and I just always dreamed of doing it for real.”

Now that he is? “It’s every bit as much fun as you’d imagine.”

What if you imagine getting into the business yourself? Vinnie suggests you submit an application. He promises to look at it.

And tell him The Career Clinic sent you. It would be a nice way to thank Vinnie for being such a treat on the show.

Thanks!

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Once upon a time you didn’t take it for granted you could fly from Seattle to Kansas City. The airplane hadn’t been invented.

Once upon a time if you even imagined making that trip in a motorized vehicle--and said it out loud--people thought you were crazy. The motor hadn’t been invented.

But things change. Someone sees the world differently, shares that vision, and suddenly--well, not suddenly--we’re complaining about airport parking or having to turn off our cell phones during takeoffs and landings.

Alexander Kjerulf evangelizes about happiness at work from his home base in Copenhagen, Denmark. Thanks to his willingness to speak out about a topic some people consider frivolous, I read a great story about the culture at Southwest Airlines.

You might really enjoy it. It might even change your mind about a few things.

Which would be…a good thing. Right?

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Two brothers fighting at the top of their lungs. So loudly, so passionately, at such length--and so often--the people who work in neighboring businesses stop thinking much of it.

What a waste of a couple of lives, huh?

Not exactly.

According to my friend Mark Eppler, you owe your flight from New York City to Cincinnati this morning to these gentlemen. Yep. The Wright brothers are the scrappers in question, and the most enchanting part of this story is how frequently the brothers would switch sides in an argument. Can you imagine? To be arguing something passionately and listening intently at the same time?

Seek first to understand, as the saying goes. It’s the (W)right thing to do.

Next up, flying friendlier skies.

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“Spending Friday night the same way I have been for more than three years--on show prep. I love it more every week! Is that okay to admit?”

The last line didn’t make it to Twitter. Not because I would’ve exceeded 140 characters, but because one of my editors (read: Darrell) nixed it. “You don’t have to apologize for enjoying your work. Isn’t that the whole point of your work?”

He had a point.

It made me realize how often I backpedal to keep from offending people. As if they’re paying attention! But just in case. And nothing offends, judging from the comments on blogs that get more traffic than mine, like success or even happiness.

Career consultants suggest you notice what you’re sensitive about--to help steer you toward work that’s meaningful. I’m sensitive to disapproval. I can pick up on it practically before I’ve met you, and it used to bother me a lot.

It still bothers me, sometimes a lot. But with the help of blogger Chris Brogan’s pal Julien Smith--by way of Twitter, by the way--I’ve become more pragmatic. “When people don’t like you,” Julien says, “nothing actually happens.”

Now I’m happy if you don’t pick fights. Be reasonably nice to my face, we’re covered!

I’ll still tone the happiness down, just in case--the same way I won't bore you with my problems. Unless it’s a good story, I can make it quick, and…you’re interested!

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More than a hundred thousand words in this blog, and not a single one backed up. Not that I know of, anyway.

Until tonight. I didn't check on any Academy Awards until I finished, either. Too busy patting myself on the back for this!

But seriously. You want to feel like a good kid? You want to feel about a hundred pounds lighter?

Tackle the most annoying thing on your to-do list.

Magic, I tell you!

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What’s your story? Does it make you want to keep reading?

Next Generation Nepal founder Conor Grennan is constantly checking in with an older version of himself. Whatever he’s contemplating--for today, the week ahead, or the next several years--he asks, “Will this make me proud when I’m fifty?

“Do I want to be the guy who almost moved to Prague when I was a young man?” Conor wondered. “Or do I want to be the guy who actually did it?”

He moved to Prague.

Do you see why I love working at The Career Clinic? My wonderful guests never let me forget how important it is to keep reaching.

I hope they’re doing the same for you!

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You’re good in math, but you have no interest in becoming an actuary. You’re okay in science, too--but you have even less interest in becoming a researcher or a professor. You want to make really good money when you graduate, and you thought Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged was one cool chick.

Engineering it is! Or…was.

The reasons I just gave for choosing civil engineering as my major in college weren’t altogether irresponsible for a high school kid. Except there’s more to it.

I wanted to be special, and a woman in engineering was special at the time.

Pathetic, I know.

I sailed through my freshman year on what I’d learned in my advanced math classes in high school. Sophomore year was a different story. I knew within a week I was in deep, deep trouble. I was getting into more of the core engineering classes--and if I stuck with them I was in for…hell.

The problem was, I didn’t know what I’d rather be doing. The things I loved to do, the things I was really good at, were fun. And fun was something I thought you had in the evenings or on weekends or after you retired. Not at work.

Now what?

I took the advice of a favorite professor, who knew that many of us wanted to bail. “Make sure you’re running to something,” he suggested, “and not away from it.”

It made sense. When you don’t know where you’re going, as I’ve come to believe, you may as well hang out where you are.

Not only that, but it would’ve really bothered me to quit. You don’t quit something just because it’s difficult. I knew I’d prove something--if only to myself--if I got that degree.

I graduated with a 3.0 average, I passed the Engineer-in-Training exam, and I never went near a real engineering job after I graduated. Smart moves. Every one!

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The author of Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal didn’t set out to change the world. Conor Grennan, who’s also the founder of Next Generation Nepal, was just trying to get a date.

It would’ve worked on me!

“I moved to Prague after graduating from college,” Conor says, “not because I was adventurous or super cool, but because I wanted to appear adventurous and super cool. I wanted to distract attention from the fact that I couldn’t get a job.” What about his work in an orphanage in Nepal? “It helped me justify a trip around the world,” he says.

What can you do when confronted by such honesty besides dabble in that yourself? So while were still on the air I told Conor and Darrell the real reason I majored in engineering.

I’ll tell you tomorrow.

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