A Question: What motivates you in your occupation?

January 3rd, 2009 • View Comments Miscellany

I’m currently writing this post from my Blackberry in a Collingwood Starbucks, courtesy of the wPhone plugin. Being able to easily post mobile like this should result in an increased post volume, I would think. I also upgraded my WordPress install this morning, so if you see anything screwy as a result, please let me know.

Just a couple of things on my mind this afternoon.

Firstly, my buddy Josh is embarking on an adventure of his own starting in May. His is truly without borders – a one-way ticket booked, and nothing solid planned save wandering. He put it very eloquently in his blog entry about it, which can be found at http://bootsandabackpack.blogspot.com. (Sorry for the lack of link, that seems to be the one downside of this app.)

Secondly, thanks to everyone who have reached out with advice or information for me regarding my last post! Ironically, it served to prove the networking post true, as you never really know whom in your network may have these pieces of information. I have read and considered everything that has been put forward, and will use the information in formulating my attack plan.

I want to reach out to you, though, in a time when you’re getting out of the holidays and “back to the grind” and ask you what motivates you in your current occupation? What is it about what you do that keeps you coming back for more, or that verifies you’re in the right spot for you? I suspect that given some of my readership I’ll get varied answers, which I hope to see. Please leave your answer in the comments, or send me an e-mail to dan at danhocking dot com. Thanks!

Making Change

January 2nd, 2009 • View Comments Uncategorized

I wanted to avoid the cliche of making this the post to start off 2009, but things just happened to work out this way. Don’t look at the message of this post as a resolution – I find those are broken more often than not – but as a life goal that I’ve been working on for a while now.

Recently, I’ve been taking a look at what exactly it is I want to do with my life. It’s a big question, I know, and not one easily answered. I was inspired by watching Shake Hands With the Devil, the story of Gen. Romeo Dallaire and the Rwanda genocides. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I don’t have that question answered – but I have come much closer to an answer as to what I’d like to do with the remainder of my 20s.

This decision has come from a few conversations over the last while – both in person and online. I find that the corporate lifestyle doesn’t really satisfy me at this point, and I suspect that I was pretending that was what I really wanted to do at this point. That’s not to say that I don’t want to do the corporate life eventually, but this isn’t the time for it, at least in my opinion.

Your 20s are a time for you to take chances, to do things that may not work, to screw things up. There is very little that you can do at this age, at the mere beginning of your “working” life that will cause serious long-term damage to you. (Yes, Jaime, I totally cribbed this from you – my apologies.)

With that said, and my current mindset, I’m looking to work towards the goal of making meaningful change while I’m still young and motivated to do so. The specific attack plan isn’t developed yet – and I’m in my lease until September, so I’m in my current digs for a while – but one of the things I’d like to do is head overseas to work or volunteer. Not to teach English (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but to build things, help people, and use my situation and skills to help those in need. I think that the experience provided by this would be invaluable, and humbling.

If you have any ideas or thoughts for me as to programs I could get involved in, please let me know – I’m definitely all ears. I wish Canada had a Peace Corps – that sort of program would be perfect for the sorts of stuff I’d like to do at the moment.

I’m looking to take a lot of chances, with the aim of making change and helping people. I may fail, yes, but I’ll be able to come back from it. If you’re young, and stuck doing something you don’t like to do, why don’t you look to make a positive change in your life, and perhaps consider making changes in others?