July 30, 2008
Today begins a new schedule at work - 12:00 noon to 9:00 pm - and a new surge to embed critical activities into my life.
I have no choice. The job is tough and beating me up, but diabetes is kicking my ass.
Actions I have to take at my age (54) include:
September 26, 2007
My Observations Re Scanners
by Charles Lamm
Scanners exhibit a number of specific traits which separate us from the masses. None of these make scanners right or wrong. Of course, it doesn’t make society right or wrong either. It’s more important to understand what is happening instead of judging.
1. When you see friends and associates who are less intelligent pass you by on the corporate ladder, you start to question your own talents and abilities.
2. When working in a “good enough job” considered beneath you or blatant underemployment, you allow others’ opinions to poison your mind against that job or company.
3. You don’t trust your own gut feelings.
4. When you are finished with a job/hobby/interest/relationship and want to move on, you see yourself as a quitter.
5. Others feel sorry for you when you are at your happiest.
6. If you learned on Friday afternoon that you had to be an expert witness in court on Monday morning, in a subject you knew nothing about, you could fool a jury with your expert testimony.
7. People suspect you have ADD when you don’t.
8. You don’t want to specialize in one particular field because it would take time away from exploring other career paths.
9. Scanners allow themselves to be tagged with labels like “selfish” or “self-indulgent”. Others tag you with these labels in order to manipulate you into following their rules.
10. Universities have changed from scanner safe liberal arts environments into vocational training schools. Many “core” courses of the past such as art, music, foreign languages, and physical education have disappeared as requirements for graduation.
11. Scanners are often afraid to update their resumes because it “looks bad” to have a wide variety of short-term jobs. Employers want drones, not free agents. A scanner resume is a red flag.
12. Instead of seizing control of our lives and taking full responsibility, we drift.
I have gone from employment highs like practicing law and serving as a U.S. diplomat to lows like tech support in a call center.
I have destroyed more good careers than most people would even dream of attempting.
I have walked away from more relationships than I can count.
And yet, I’m not broken. God doesn’t make junk.
The scanner solution is to:
1. accept yourself as the scanner you are
2. embrace and exploit your diverse talents on your own terms
3. create a new life around those talents, not a traditional career
For most scanners, your path will now start with your own YOU Inc. business. The trend with globalization is a shift away from traditional jobs and toward a free agent nation. Scanners who accept their own strengths and celebrate their differences will prosper.
—
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at http://www.virtualjoefriday.com. His websites include http://www.clixforbrix.com and http://www.your-dating-directory.com.
September 25, 2007
The Problem with Scanners
by Charles Lamm
While Barbara Sher identifies several varieties of scanners, most share these basic traits.
Scanners tend to be:
· bright
· curious
· well-read
· multi-taskers
· generalists in a specialist world
· interested in any number of diverse hobbies
· too willing to accept society’s negative view of their lives
The core conflict for scanners is that we let others confine us with the question, “What do you do for a living?”, or its cousin, “What do you want to be when you grow up/graduate/etc?”
In the U.S., we judge and label people based on their occupations. Status attaches to certain jobs like doctors and lawyers. We call them professionals, but each is really just a job in snob’s clothing.
Years ago, when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea (before they economically developed themselves out of being a PC host country), people would want to get to know you. People would ask about your family, hometown, education, hobbies, and more. What you did for a living was way down the list.
And this was in a country where a person expected to join one company and stay in one occupation for life.
I remember a story from an American who served on the Board of Directors of a television station. The station was hiring a new president, and the hiring committee was reviewing candidates.
The hiring committee considered each candidate’s education, family background, wife’s family, character, social connections, political connections, friends, and reputation. At no point did anyone ask, “Can this person run a TV station?”
As scanners, we have allowed others to define the playing field.
The rules then state:
· you have to pick one career before you graduate and stick with it
· if you have a law, medical, or other professional degree and don’t practice your profession, you have wasted your credentials
· you will never get ahead if you jump from job to job or company to company
· you need to find your one true soul mate and get married until death turns you into worm food
Not only do you not have to accept the rules others make for you, you don’t have to enter their playing field.
But it takes strength. And courage. And skills.
There is no law against multiple careers, multiple interests, and living the life you choose so long as you do not interfere in others’ rights to do the same.
—
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at www.virtualjoefriday.com or contact him by email at focus@vitaclix.com.
September 3, 2007
In her book “Refuse to Chooseâ€, Barbara Sher fleshed her concept of scanners. Scanners are hard to define, but as the Supreme Court once said about pornography, you can recognize it when you see it – especially if it’s you.
Here are a few clues to help determine if you are a scanner:
If you believe taking a tangent is the shortest distance between two points . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t stand to do anything, or anyone, twice . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If focusing on only one thing is as exciting as a nap . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If your “to do†list is longer than your phone book . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t commit to one checkout line at the grocery store . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you skim 6 books at once at the bookstore but never buy . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you think potential is a dirty word . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you goal list looks like a total work of fiction . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If the only way you can stick to one subject is with duct tape or superglue . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you don’t go to class reunions because you feel less successful than the class idiot . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe jack-of-all-trades should trump aces . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If perpetual student sounds like a perfect career . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you have every been called ditsy, Renaissance man, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, dilettante, flighty, dabbler, or generalist, and not in a good way . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you work at a series of job beneath your abilities . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you wonder why rich people seem so stupid, and why you are not one of them . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you feel you have a lot to offer but nowhere to offer it . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you can’t get to the most important goals in your life because you are just too damn busy . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If your last great passion seems so last month . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you change lovers more often than Julia Roberts before motherhood . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe that Barbara Sher should have played the Oracle in the Matrix . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If you believe in your heart you were placed on this Earth for a reason, but have no clue what that reason is . . .
~ you might be a scanner
If many of these scanner traits hit home, buy “Refuse to Choose†at your local bookstore and see for yourself. Chances are, you are in for an “aha†moment when your life finally makes sense.
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “afflictionâ€. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at www.virtualjoefriday.com or contact him by email at focus@vitaclix.com.
March 3, 2007
I just read a new book by Barbara Sher called “Refuse to Choose” which delivered a rare Zen ah-ha moment.
For people who move from topic to topic, who do not stick with a career long enough to be the institutional memory, who read and write and enjoy a number of topics at once, you have finally been celebrated instead of being chastised.
If you have ever thought of yourself or have been described as a Renaissance man or dilettante, you might be a scanner.
If you move onto a new hobby or interest as soon as you get good at your current one, you might be a scanner.
If you can’t focus on your chosen “life’s work”, you might be a scanner.
It’s not a heavy read, but if you see yourself as a scanner, you life finally makes sense.
Instead of trying to be what you are not, you can now succeed as yourself on terms that scanners understand.
Barbara Sher’s Official Website
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