Tryout for Life

Perspective on Money

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:59:00 +0000

In case you already know what you like doing but don't quite have a courage to focus on it because you think it won't be financially comfortable, I want to share what I had discovered after I had given up steady (well, as long as you aren't laid off one day all of a sudden) paychecks.

Money becomes less of a concern when you are doing what you really enjoy.

I know this doesn't sound like a new discovery. In fact, I've heard this many times from many sources before. I'm sure you have, too. But I did not completely understand this until I actually started to do what I liked. And when I understood it, it was like realizing there there was another dimension of world. I could not believe that it had always existed and I never noticed it.

I don't much care for owning things. I usually find shopping as a necessary chore rather than leisurely activity. So money isn't important to me in that sense. But still, it was something that I needed to buy convenience and security, build retirement fund, and pay bills. I was busy and I needed to buy “time” by paying for services or convenient goods. So much was at risk (or so I felt) that I needed additional insurance and emergency funds. And since I couldn't stand continue working, I needed to build my retirement fund--ASAP. I felt that I couldn't afford getting less than what I was making.

I had my reasons for wanting to get more, too. Often, it was difficult to assess real value of my work –projects getting killed by executives with no apparent reasons, being told to do something without explanations, not getting any feedback on my work, etc. In that environment, salary was something that I used to measured my value in a corporate world while bonus quantified my performance. I wanted a higher score and assurance that I was doing something that was meaningful, at least to the company who paid me.

It's different now. The biggest difference is that I no longer feel that I need to build my retirement fund as soon as possible. In fact, I almost feel that I don't need a retirement fund at all; I might actually want to continue working until the day I die. How about that? Who would have thought that I'd feel this way?

Another change in my perspective is that I no longer feel that everything is at risk and I have be prepared for all conceivable emergencies. My health, which was horrible and expensive to maintain when I was working my corporate job, has been improving and I'm gaining back enough confidence to consider switching to a high deductible insurance and open an HSA account.

And of course, I no longer have that need to measure my value and performance by salary and bonus.

I had suspected that my medical expenses would be reduced if I stopped putting myself in such a stressful environment, but I had never imagined the total effect of choosing what I liked doing over steady paychecks to be so dramatic.

You never know until you actually experience it. You should give it a try.

Pursuing Status Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:51:00 +0000

OK, so this is a quick note to describe how my “pursuing” activities have been going.

Soon after I decided to focus on translation, the agency that had contacted me with a medical research translation (that I declined) contacted me again, this time with translation of various Japanese business documents to English. First of all, one doesn't get a paid translation assignment without having a much experience or going through some screening and trials. Secondly, what are the chances of getting an assignment that you feel you can do although you technically don't have a comparable experience?

So I got lucky. And for the first time after being laid off, I was thankful that I had actually spent 10 years working in a corporate world, producing business documents after business documents. I mean, I wouldn't have had the guts to accept such a large job if I hadn't already written million various business documents. Life is weird, isn't it? You never know what comes handy. Every little experience counts.

Anyway, this project went on for about a month and half. During that period, I literally worked day and night, almost everyday, in order to keep up with the workload (which would have been normal for experienced translators...but it was, of course, not normal for me..). Whew! It was a boot camp, let me tell you! But I learned a lot. It was great.

And I guess my performance was decent, because this agency is still sending me a small job here and there after the large project was completed.

So I got my feet wet, got some “experience” to put on my resume. Now that the large project is over and I have more time, I’m working to get signed up with other agents so that I'll eventually have multiple agents from whom I can get assignments continuously.

The regular way (as opposed to just being contacted with a project for you to take...) to get an assignment from a translation agency isn't as straight forward. After finding an agency that handles type of translation work that you are capable of doing, you'd need to apply for trial and pass the trial and whatever the subsequent processes that they have, like interviews, to get on their roaster. And then once you are on the roaster (at the bottom of the list), you wait for an emergency situation where no high-on-the-list translators are available that the agency has to call you.

It’s hard. I had this big package of trial that contained two J to E documents and one E to J document which I spend several days researching and translating. I was crushed when I didn’t pass this trial. But I have passed two other trials so far, so I guess I’m making a progress even though it’s slow.

And I still have so much to learn that sometimes it feels overwhelming. But what’s interesting is that this overwhelming feeling is more like an excitement before a big trip or unknown challenge, not like a stress that you get when you don’t know how you’ll complete what you are supposed to complete in a given time. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t feel this whole situation as some temporary hell that I go through but need to get out of as soon as possible—the feeling that I had with a corporate job. This time I feel that I don’t mind doing this for the rest of my life that I don’t need to hurry at all. In fact, it’s nice to think that I won’t run out of challenges and stimulation for a very long time.

Speaking of learning, I'm still doing volunteer translation work at JFS that I had started back in February. I translate several articles and proofread about a dozen articles per month.

Well, it wasn’t such a quick not after all, but this is where I am at this point.

Shifting from "Searching" to "Pursuing"

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Hello, world. It's been a while. In case you were wondering, I'm still here.

I originally started this blog right after I got laid off to rethink my life. Writing is a way for me to organize my thoughts, and putting them into a blog format seemed a great idea to track progress and keep myself encouraged and motivated. It was purely for myself. I did nothing to promote this blog. I expected no feedback from anybody.

Even after I started to get visits from few people, it didn't impact me as to what I was doing (or what I was writing about). I didn't know who they were and I wasn't going to change what I was doing. But along the way, somehow WSJ found me and it sort of put faces on my visitors--possibly in a same situation as me; laid off and asking themselves, "what do I do now?"

So after that, I started to think (believe it or not) whether I was writing stuff that was useful to my fellow laid-off people. It wasn't a huge difference, I guess, because I was going to write about how I was trying out different things in search of what I want with my life anyway. Nonetheless, it wasn't purely for me anymore.

I'm not saying that was bad and I didn't enjoy. In fact, it made my struggle easier--I could write about it to possibly make someone in the same situation feel that he/she wasn't alone.

But now that I've moved on from the "searching" period to "pursuing" period, I'm no longer sure if anything that I write can be helpful to people who have been stopping by here. (Well, maybe not many come here anymore since I haven't been writing much, but anyway..)
And "pursuing" has more to do with "doing" as opposed to "searching" that involves a lot of "thinking" that I don't always feel that need to write to organize my thought anymore.

So that's why I haven't been writing as much as I used to lately.

I had promised to write one more post to let you know what I'll do with this blog, but I'm still not sure what to do with this blog. I've been busy "pursuing" I guess. And I will still write another post once I know. In fact, I'll probably write about my "pursuing" status just as an update before that.

I hope everyone who was visiting me here before is making a progress in finding what he/she wants in life. I really do. Please remember that.

Do Something Because That's What You Want

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Looking back, I think there was only one time when I made a life decision because that was what I wanted. I was maybe 15 years old, and that decision was to live abroad while I was still a teenager.

I was scared to just grow up and being molded into something that the adults considered a "decent member of society." I wasn't sure if I was crazy or the island country that I lived in was crazy. I needed to see if this was the way it worked in other countries. Plus, I needed to get a hell out of there. There was no "it will be a great experience" or "it'll look great on my resume"-type of agenda. And it wasn't like anyone suggested that I go live abroad, or I happened to encounter an opportunity to go abroad. There was absolutely nobody who'd support me with that idea. But I made it happen -- just because that's what I wanted. I just wanted it for myself.

So I came to the States when I was 17. But since then, I hadn't made any life decision just because I wanted it. They were made based on whether 1) it was something I needed to do in order to achieve certain goal, whether it was a degree or a career, 2) someone suggested and it seemed a good idea, 3) an opportunity presented itself and there was no reason not to take it, or 4) I knew it was going to make someone happy.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the way I made most of my life decisions. In fact, I firmly believe that by being open to what happens to you (even though you never asked for it) you get to experience something unique and awesome that you wouldn't have thought of yourself in a million years.

But what I recently realized is that you have to do something every once in a while just because that's what you want. Something that you just want to "do" regardless of consequences. Why? Because it gives you a completely different perspective of life. It makes you happy in a way that you were happy when you were a child and played all day.

I'm now pursuing translation as a way to make my living, because I just want to "do" it (and I can't hold other jobs if I wanted to do it in a way I want to, so I'll try to make money while doing what I want in order to avoid needing another job). I'm happy. It reminded me of the time I was trying to go outside of Japan to see what it was like out there. Maybe I'll fail, maybe I'll change my mind, maybe this is ridiculous. But you know what? I don't care.

I used to envy people who knew what they wanted to do with their lives. I used to think I didn't have anything that I felt so strongly about. But I now know that you should never ever give up on finding something, because it makes HUGE difference when you find it.

Well, so I guess this is the end of my "rethinking life after being laid off" period.

Thank you for those who visited here or left a message for me. It was great.

I'm not sure what I want to do with this blog. I'll give some thoughts and write one more post to let you know. If you have any suggestion, let me know.

If you are still unemployed and searching what you want to do, don't ever, ever, give up.
Do what you love.

Experience to Know What You Already Understand

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:52:00 +0000

It's been a while since I wrote my last post. It's not that I had forgotten about this blog. It's just I couldn't organize my thoughts well enough to write a post. I mentioned in a previous post that I got an interview and said I'd either get it or I'd learn something about myself. That was the reason why I didn't know what to write for a long time.

No, I did not get the job. But oh-my-god, did I learn and realize about myself. Seriously, I see the "after-the-event" me different from the "before-the-event" me. It's hard to explain this to others. If someone tells you his near-death experience or her experience in become a mom, you'd understand it as an event described, but you'd never actually "know" how it is, right? You can read books and books about trust or love, but you'd never "know" what they are until you experience them yourself.

So I'm not sure if there's any point trying to explain it as it really felt to me (besides, I'm not sure if I can explain it well...). But here's what happened:

I get a call from a non-profit educational institution that I applied back in February. We schedule an interview. I feel neutral.
I get the TOEIC result that says I got a perfect score. I feel very hopeful about my translator career.
I get an email inquiry from a translation agency - they want to know if I can take an urgent job. This was out of blue; I did not expect it at all. I had to decline because it was a medical research paper that I wouldn't have understood in English or Japanese. But the whole incident makes me even more hopeful.
As I wait for the interview day, I start to wonder whether I should even go through it. I mull this over until I stress myself out.
I go to the interview, telling myself that it goes against my principle to turn down any opportunity without getting any details. But at the same time, I know I don't actually want the job to be offered to me because it's the kind of job that I'd like (I applied for it after all), but I couldn't have held this job AND try to work out translation career at the same time.
The interview goes really well. For a while, I forget that I didn't want the job. But after the interview, I freak out thinking they might actually offer me the job.
I agonize and stress myself out thinking what I'd do I was offered the job.
I continue pursuing translation work--learning, practicing, do that volunteer work, etc. I'm starting to feel that I'd be able to decline if I get the job and not regret it.
I finally hear back from them and it was "thank you and good luck". I didn't get the job. I feel completely relieved. I'm also completely determined to pursue a career in translation field.

This whole episode shifted something inside of me. I suffered through it, but interestingly (now that I think about it), I didn't do anything to try to take things in certain direction or to make myself do something one way or the other. I sort of stood there and watched my feeling and will to emerge from nowhere (as it seemed) and grow to take a shape by itself. Weird.

I believe that I'm in a physical format on this planet because my spirit or soul (or whatever you'd call it) needs to "experience" in order to really "know" what it already "understands." This is my personal religion. Although I cannot say that I'm doing spectacular job in this regard, this is one of the reasons why I try to be open to anything that comes to me. And this episode gave me an opportunity to "know" something inside of me that I didn't know existed.

So that's the update. Sometimes things move in a way that you don't expect them to or don't wish them to, but if you think of it as an opportunity to experience something that you wouldn't have thought of trying to experience, you might find something inside of you that you didn't know existed, too.

Positive Impact of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:15:00 +0000

Lately I somehow stopped being aware of how long I've been unemployed. But I thought about this yesterday and was rather surprised to realize that it's been over five months since I got laid off. I gave myself a break right after I got laid off, so it's really been about four months since I started working on my unemployed situation at the beginning of this year. But still! I honestly did not expect to be unemployed this long. I thought I'd have another job within a few month - at most. I mean, it only took me a little over a month to find another job last time I got laid off after the 9.11. event.

It's not that I still have the same expectations and intentions. And I definitely don't consider the past few months unproductive. In fact, a lot happened during this time and I'm surprised just how my perceptions have changed.

Which lead me to think about time. More specifically, the impact of cumulative time.

Time does a number of things. I couldn't have believed that I'd be OK without having a regular job for such a long time when I was employed. And for a while after I got laid off, I was subconsciously tracking time, fearing how long more I'd be OK. But now? I realize that the sky doesn't fall and I'm fine with my current situation. I never expected that I'd feel this way. Sure I've done a lot of thinking and stuff, but this gradual change couldn't have happened without time doing whatever it does to people.

The way I was measuring my life has also changed drastically. It used to be based on tangible outputs: How many reports and presentations did I produce this month? How many to-do's did I accomplish today? But overtime, I noticed myself looking at more intangible progress: Is my translation skill improving? Am I in better health? Am I feeling happier? This, too, I think, is time's doing. Time somehow makes me look inward, I guess.

All these gradual changes had to take time to evolve: I couldn't have reached where I am now without actually spending several months being jobless. So if I had gotten a job earlier, I'd have stopped this evolving process at that time to go off a completely different path. It almost feels as if I've escaped a parallel life that I probably didn't want.

I wonder if others are going through anything similar to my experience. The last unemployment stats that I heard said something like over 5 million or over 40% of all unemployed people in the States have been unemployed for 15 weeks or over. That's a very large number of people to be getting the "time treatment" at the same time. I wonder how our society might change because of it. I somehow feel that it'll have a positive impact.

Job Hunting Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:08:00 +0000

I know, you probably thought that I wasn't looking for a regular job anymore because I've been talking so much about translation stuff. But the reality is that I'm not going to become a professional translator earning decent living over night. It'll take a while for me to accumulate experience, mostly through volunteer work, and land on a paid assignment. Then it'll take some more time for me to establish myself enough to be able to get assignments on regular basis.

Exactly how long all that will take probably depends on how much time I can continue dedicating on this effort. I took TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication - it's a test to prove how well you understand spoken and written English) last week, just so that I have something that I can put on my resume to indicate my English ability (no, the fact that I have been living and working in the States for a very long time somehow doesn't count much in terms of proving my potential for translation job). Once I get the score, I can start applying for trials to see if anyone would care to actually test my ability.

Anyway, so I haven't completely given up looking for a regular job. There are some differences though. For one thing, I now check out part-time or contract jobs in addition to full-time jobs. I'm actually starting to think that a part-time or a short term contract job would suit me better because I get to continue working on the translation stuff. Another change is that I'm not stressed out trying to find anything and everything that I may quality. I try to look for something close to my sweet spot. I might apply for something not so close if there's nothing else to apply for, but I don't sweat it anymore either way. If I get something, great, if I don't, that's fine, too.

The funny thing is that as soon as I reached to this state of mind, a recruiter that I met through one of those green networking events called me with a contract position. It's not in green field, but something that I'm already capable of doing. I don't know how this goes - he says getting a contract position is like a bidding process; a qualified applicant with the lowest bid wins - so I'm not holding my breath. And another recruiter contacted me with a position in Munich. Munich? I had to turn this one down though - besides not having any German skill, it'll be too stressful work for me.

That wasn't it. I just got a call from an organization that I had applied back in February. I had almost forgotten about it, but guess what? They want to interview. This is a full-time job, but it's not a high-profile corporate job that comes with stress. So we'll see. If it's meant for me, it's meant for me. If not, well maybe I'm supposed to learn about myself or meet someone in the process. Who knows? Isn't life interesting? All this made me laugh.

So that's the update. One thing that I can say is this: Once you find what you want to do and make up your mind to pursue it, the rest becomes much easier to handle. So anyone who is just hunting for the sake of hunting and getting stressed out, my recommendation is to take a break and think through what you really want.

Get Encouragement from New People

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:41:00 +0000

When you want to change your career or life direction in general, it helps to expand your network and meet new people. I never really liked "networking" until I realized it depends on the context and purpose. I found that if it's something that I'm sincerely interested in (as opposed to being interested in because I have to do this at work), meeting people with expertise in that area and begging for their insights isn't awkward at all - it can be exciting, in fact.

But there's something else that I noticed recently: Meeting new people in the field that you are interested in when you are trying to change your direction can mean gaining supports that you wouldn't get from your existing network of people.

Sometimes it's not easy to get the kind of support that you need from someone you've known for a long time, especially when you have shifted your perception and reality to do things differently than before. For example, I don't think my co-workers from my previous employer can identify themselves to what I'm doing now. They may say that they support me, but I know that their value no longer match with mine, and the chances are that whatever the advise that they give me will be off the target, or worse, discouraging.

This is not to say that people I have known for a long time don't care about me. It's probably the opposite: They may discourage what I want to do, thinking that's too risky for my own good. My parents used to think that I should have a "steady corporate job (yeah, right)" because they thought that was the best option to make a living (thank god that they are starting to change their perspective). But anyway, it's possible for someone close to you to worry more because he/she knows your capability and experience to reasonably guess how hard it would be for you to change your direction. But what if you didn't care how hard it was going to be? It can really hinder your ability to pursue what you want.

Brand new people, on the hand, don't have any preconceived perception about you to give you biased feedback. And they probably don't care too deeply about you to worry whether it'll be a hard work for you to change your career or life direction, giving all the encouragements that you need to keep going.

It doesn't make sense to listen to new people, who don't know you or care about you enough, over old timers who know you and care about you. But that's not what I mean. What I mean is that when you know what you've got to do and need some encouragement, new people can give you just that - in addition to new knowledge and leads.

And who knows? These new people may end up becoming your long-time friend.

Change the Way You Perceive Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:43:00 +0000

It was my birthday yesterday. For the past several years, I was always busy on my birthdays and never even thought of taking time to reflect on anything. But this time, I sort of had a profound emotion about getting older.

I mean, I'm in this "in-between" place, contemplating to change my career direction which could possibly take a year or two, and it's not like I'm fresh out of college. I'm not that young, and shoot, I just became one year older!

But then I thought about the concept of the 100 Year Lifestyle. The chances are that I'm going to live to be 100 year old. If that's the case, well, I guess it makes perfect sense to spend next year or two in an attempt to ensure the remaining decades to be happier years. In fact, going back to the same kind of life, though it's probably easier to attain, would be a waste of my time, wouldn't it? I'd have a decent steady salary for maybe several years - until I go down by exhaustion or be laid off again, whichever comes first - with not much else to gain.

And I was thinking "If I shared this thought to my previous co-workers, most of them probably wouldn't understand," when I realized something.

When I was working, I was often told "Perception is reality." (Yes, I was in marketing.) While I didn't particularly embrace the notion that what you do isn't as important as how that's perceived, I do agree that perception is reality in a way everyone has own reality that's edited by his or her perception. And what I realized was that I just edited my own perception, taking my reality very far from that of my old co-workers.

I'm not sure if I'm making a clear sense with this post, but what I'm getting at is this: We edit our own perception to create own reality - which means that we are in fact in control of our own reality. When we feel discouraged or need motivation, maybe changing how we edit our own perception is the key to overcome those.

So that was my birthday "a-ha" moment. Getting older isn't too bad after all.

Sweet Spot Update: Translation

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:57:00 +0000

It's been over two months now since I started to translate articles about green initiatives in Japan as a volunteer. And it's been almost two weeks since I started to recognize that this may be one of my sweet spots. So I thought I'd give an update.

I've been doing a lot of research on translation jobs: what kind of translation jobs are out there, what skills and experiences are required, how one without proper training or experience get a job, what options are available for training or getting experience, what certifications or designations are available, etc. Who knew there are so much more to translation? I found out that there are many different translation fields: business, medical, trade mark/patent, legal, fiction, non-fiction, movie/media subtitle, etc. Most of translators are freelancers working from home, while some are formally employed by translation agency. In-house translators employed by a non-translation agency company are minorities. Those freelancers typically go through trials, a tryout to prove your ability, to be registered at translation agencies who refer jobs to them. They get paid by number of words they translate so it's critical that you can process certain volume of work in a given timeframe. And because agencies favor well-established and proven translators to work with, it could take years before you establish yourself to receive jobs on regular basis and start earning like a full-time worker.

Whew! But even after learning these rather harsh realities, I still felt that I wanted to pursue this. It's interesting because I probably wouldn't have felt this way when I was making a decent amount of salary: Paid by number of words you translate? No benefit? And you have to keep looking for your next assignment? No, I don't think I want to do that.

I'm OK with all that now. So lately, I'm studying. I'm reviewing English grammar and Japanese vocabulary. I'm learning rules and mechanism of translation. I'm practicing by doing more volunteer work and participating online communities. (Thank you, Internet.) I'm researching about translation agencies and how they do their trials. I'm planning to study for and take some exams to earn certificates.

I don't know how long it will take for me to be "established." But it's not like I have something else that I want to do or I have to do at the moment. Not having a job and not having a good prospect for getting a job is really helping me focus on this seemingly long-term project.

We'll see how far I can go.

Tracking Your Life Over Time

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

My mother has a 5-year journal that she's been writing for quite some time (I think she's finishing the journal this year). She says she's just listing things that she did on each day, more of a record keeping than journal writing. But I used to get jealous. She'd say something like, "Oh, guess what I did exactly 2 years ago on this day??" or "The first snow fell earlier last year than this year." And I'd be thinking: "My days, weeks, even years are going by so fast that they all look the same. I can't even remember what I was doing last week!"

So a little over two years ago, I got my own multi-year journal. I didn't know if I was capable of writing everyday, so I went for a 3-year version instead of 5. I've missed a day or two here and there, but so far I'm keeping up with it: it's been two years and three months now. And you know what? It has been great. I highly recommend this to anyone.

I have nine lines in a 2"x2" square per day to write. It's not hard to fill this small space, and I write whatever that I feel like writing, with no rule whatsoever, usually at the end of the day or the following morning. When I do, I get to sort of look at what I had written around the same time last year and the year before, which is pretty interesting and insightful.

My journal also have a slightly larger space at the beginning of each month. At the end of each month, I write about what I want to focus next month. I also go back and read what I had written the prior month to see whether I ended up doing what I was thinking that I'd do. If I didn't do what I thought I'd do, that's just fine with me because things change. The point is to pick up what I was thinking a month ago and reflect on, so that I can put everything into perspective. Is it still important? Still a priority? It helps me to set my priorities right.

It's funny -what I write aren't interesting when I write it, but it becomes interesting a year later. It tells me about the progress I've made or how my perception changed over time - things that I couldn't have noticed by looking at today compared to yesterday. It proves that even if my days look blurry, they aren't. It shows me that I am doing an OK job of growing up, giving me confidence. And it teaches me that a little step that I take each day takes me far in a long run. It's easier now to trust myself. It has also helped me not to worry or get upset about small stuff. Yes, I knew in theory that you shouldn't worry about small stuff, but it wasn't until that I started to read about what small stuff that I was worrying about a year or two later that I truly understood that it makes no difference in a long run.

And after doing this over two years, I noticed that it's becoming my habit to think about what good happened today (or yesterday if I'm writing in the morning), rather than thinking what happened in general. And that, I think, makes difference.

I'm already browsing the selection of multi-year journals to see which one I want once I'm complete my 3-year version. (The 10-year version looks a bit scary, but also very intriguing...)

Take a Full Advantage of the Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I'm not about to claim that this is in any way scientific since I only got 17 responses. But the time is up and the poll is closed. It looks like what we most appreciate about being unemployed is the opportunity to consider switching career.

Personally, what I initially appreciated most was being able to take some time off, so that I can think straight for the first time since college and also rest a little bit to become healthy again. But now that I've done some thinking and realized that I need to change something, the opportunity to consider switching career is something I'm starting to appreciate more. It's encouraging to know that many of you also view the opportunity to consider switching career the most significant benefit of being unemployed.

Switching career is tough. It's not easy even when the economy is great - you'd probably need to get new skills and get some experience somewhere or start from the bottom - but when the economy is as bad as it is now? It's just really hard. And as your unemployed days go by, you cannot help but wonder whether you should just give up and go back to what you were doing before just so that you can show you already have the skill and experience.

But what I've been learning so far is that if you stay persistent and keep looking what you are interested, "it" eventually opens up to you and starts showing you a possibility. Now, the possibility presented to you might not be what you had in mind or even look feasible. But dig a little further and you find something else. You just have to look at it from every possible angle, through all channels that you can think of. It's amazing just how much you can learn. Take detour if you see something else interesting along the way, too. Who says that you have to stick with the first area that you investigate?

It's possible that I end up taking a job that has nothing to do with the field that I'm looking in. I might just have to compromise somewhere along the line. But that's something that I can think about when the time comes, right? And even if I couldn't make the switch this time, I know that the ground work that I'm doing now would give me a jump start when I get my next chance. None of this will be wasted. I'm going to not just appreciate but also take a full advantage of the opportunity.

Re-evaluate Your Network of People

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:23:00 +0000

This is the second time for me to be laid off, so it's based on two separate experiences when I say this: Being laid off helps to shake your network of people, both personal and professional, allowing you to reconnect with the ones that really matter and fade out the ones that don't. You almost don't need to do anything except telling everyone that you are laid off: you then just sit and wait to see who shows up at your door and who stops showing up.

We all tend to accumulate things--books, DVDs, pens, online IDs, or even relationships. And even if they were all good and relevant when added to the collection, they may not be still good and relevant today. Some of them might have been useless and unnecessary from the beginning. (I already have a lifetime supply of pens, but somehow I can't seem to stop getting more.)

So it's not a bad idea to clean up every once in a while. But while it's not so complicated to sort and discard unnecessary books and CDs, it's usually not that easy to clean up your relationships --unless you are laid off and people around you do the clean up for you.

I was fascinated by this process the first time it happened. It was very insightful because my guess wasn't always correct. Not everyone that I considered close to me stayed on; while some that I didn't stepped up. And after the shake, I felt happier and more secure, knowing that the ones left in my circle really cared about me. It also became easier because my time and attention didn't need to be spread out so thin anymore. It became manageable and actually worth managing.

As I go through yet another shake up, I'm finding another element, too. It's adding new ones to my circle. I don't know how many of them would actually stay on for a long haul, but one thing that I can say is that these are the ones who opened up to me when I'm jobless and nameless. It's kind of like making friends while in college: no agenda, no taking advantages, just because. Maybe not quite that good, but it definitely beats being friendly with coworkers that you can't personally respect.

I have to add this to my list of advantages being laid off. Most definitely.

Possible Sweet Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:29:00 +0000

I'm spending more and more time doing that translation volunteer work. I'm having such a fun that I can't help it. I forget time reading about a wide variety of green initiatives in Japan, get really into learning about each topic (which is necessary to actually translate the content), and become completely engrossed in finding a perfect matching word to translate to and composing a sentence that mirrors the original one.

It got to the point where I finally developed an inflammation of tendon sheath (De Quervan's Syndrome). It was so bad that I couldn't make my left arm to type at all yesterday. It probably has to do with working at my dining table rather than at proper work desk, going back and forth between English and Japanese, and just doing too much typing. They say I need to rest my arm to let it heal for now - which I'm kind of doing reluctantly (I'm try to make this post short, if I can help it).

But anyway, as I tried to "rest", all this is starting to make me wonder if this can possibly be my sweet spot. I mean, I've been getting up in the morning looking forward to work and forget time while doing it. I'm using my skills and talent, and I'm fulfilling my purpose by help promoting green awareness. Ability to make a living is the only factor missing here.

So I'm contemplating and researching whether it's possible to do the same kind of stuff in a paid environment. Not sure if there's a market for it, but it's worth exploring, right? Somebody once told me that you should never say 'there's nothing that I really want to do with my life.' She said you should instead say 'there's got to be something that I really want to do with my life' because the act of making that statement actually helps you find what you want to do with your life.

Right now, I'm feeling pretty lucky just for finding this possibility.

Purpose, Passion, and Gift to Consider to Find the Sweet Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Right after I got laid off, I took a self-assessment test to understand myself in order to help figure out my direction. It was a behavioral test that analyzed my work style and interest to suggest types of works that I'd be successful doing. It was interesting because it made me aware what work environment suited me. It was also rather insightful to be told what I really liked doing.

But the assessment didn't take "purpose" - the cause(s) that you cared about - into consideration. It only looked at "passion" - what you love doing - and "gift" - your talent and skills. And even those are assessed in a limited context: what's typical at work place and what you currently exhibit.

So learning a framework for thinking all three elements together was intriguing and encouraging. Dave Pollard says that everyone asks the question "What am I going to do?" at various times in their lives and careers, though it often goes unanswered. And he further points out that those who found the answers to this question are the people who love getting up in the morning to go to work, work hard and long hours, and still don't think that they are actually "working".

In fact, all the explanations written to describe how using your gift without having a passion for it or seeing a purpose in it can leave you frustrated or how using your gift where you have your passion but not seeing any purpose can makes you feel unappreciated really clarified why I wasn't so happy with my previous work. Or why you can get "addicted" to these unhappy work environment. And I'm starting to really see that I was mistaken to think that doing what you love or cared really made a difference.

Another "a-ha"moment that I had by reading this book was that I may not know all my gifts or passions. Like the translation work that I'm finding to be enjoyable, you never know until you do something new. As Pollard mentions, this finding-the-sweet-spot exercise, therefore, isn't something that you do once; it's an iterative process tweaking based on your personal change as well as market change.

Something to think about.

===============================================================
A note about the book:

This book is about finding the sweet spot, finding like-minded partners, and finding business that can fulfil your sweet spot. I found the first part of this book very insightful and helpful, but I didn't find the other two too useful. They all sounded wonderful in theory, but not much of them sounded practical to me (although you might find them practical). He has a website that supposedly facilitate meeting your ideal partners and sharing business ideas, but it's not completely up and running as of 3/23/09. I wasn't impressed with that. So if you are curious about this book, don't just go to Amazon and buy it - I'd suggest you go to a book store to actually scan the content before buying it.

Switching off for Earth Hour

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:40:00 +0000

I know this isn't directly related to being unemployed and searching for new life direction, but since supporting what's good for this planet is one of my principles that guide my life, I'm going to use this space to endorse Earth Hour.

Learning about environmental issues is something that I was able to start doing a lot more in the past couple of months; so in a way, I guess I can say that my wanting to advocate something like this (as opposed to being eco-friendly only on my own) is a part of life progress that I'm making. I am still writing my other blog, too, although it's still not very organized and I haven't found a clear direction with it. But what counts is the progress, not perfection, so I guess I'll keep going to see what happens.

And by the way, thinking about a lot bigger issue like global warming and world population does put my own situation into perspective - small and temporary.

Job Hunting Still Slow: In a Meanwhile...Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Besides doing some networking and finding out that it's not too bad when you do it in the area you are really interested in, I'm also doing some volunteer work, also in the field that I'm interested in.

The organization is called Japan For Sustainability. They basically gather information about green initiatives happening in Japan and report them out to the world. There is a team of volunteers researching and reporting on what's going on to generate articles in Japanese, while another team translate them into English. There's also a team translating feedbacks coming all over the world into Japanese to publish, and several other teams doing things like maintaining the website and doing promoting. It's all done by volunteers, and given the site gets 100,000 visits per month, it's doing pretty well. I found out about them at the Eco-Products Expo in Tokyo, and they recruited me to do translation work.

Anyway, so I've been spending a lot of time translating since beginning of February. And, like a lot of other things that I've been doing, it has proved to be quite interesting experience.

First of all, it's giving me an opportunity to work people in Japan. I've been living in the States for such a long time (with very little opportunity to interact with other Japanese folks), and I have never worked in this kind of Japanese setting. I knew, of course, how different it was going to be compared to working in an American setting, but even so find this experience interesting. I feel like I'm getting some kind of rehabilitation to be introduced back to Japanese society. I don't know if going back to Japan to settle is something that I'd do anytime soon, but hey, I should stay open for any possibility, right?

Second, I'm finding out that I enjoy translation work. I had never done any formal translation work before, and I wasn't particularly considering start doing it, either. I agreed to do some volunteer work to help promote green initiatives, and the work involved just happened to be translation. I had no idea that I was going to enjoy it so much. I always loved reading and writing, but selecting words or phrases that perfectly match to the original writing is really fascinating me. Sometimes it seems like a great puzzle, sometimes like an art. You might think that you already know what you enjoy and what you don't, but you really never know what else you like until you try out something new.

And finally, it's interesting because I'm reading about something that I'm already interested in: green initiatives. I think it has to do with the fact that Japan is much more homogeneous, but often initiatives get implemented and be adopted fairly quickly in Japan. So green initiatives in general, I'd say, is a bit more advanced than in the States. And learning about them is quite encouraging and interesting.

Yes, it's true I make no money doing this, but so far it's been definitely worth it. I highly recommend taking the opportunity and doing something new, just to see what else you might like doing.

Eat Foods to Be Healthy: Taking Advantage of Time that I Have

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0000

As I mentioned in Looking at Positives While Being Unemployed, my health has been improving since I got let go from my previous job. I knew that the one of the reasons for this improvement had to be with the change in diet that I went through. I eat more vegetables and fruits. I cook more (and I do more of them from scratch), all because I now actually have the time and energy to devote.

But what I didn't know for sure was exactly what part of this change was doing me good. I mean, I had always been conscious about what to eat. I read books like Foods That Harm Foods That Heal, and made sure that I was taking supplements. If I didn't have foods that contained, say, enough calcium, I'd take calcium supplement.

In Defense of Food demystified this for me. I guess the theory behind it - whole foods are better for you than processed foods - isn't anything new, but the details that Micheal Pollan provides in this book make it clearer why processed foods will never be competition to whole foods. He shows how following nutritionism doesn't work and how western diet (product of nutritionism) is doing some damage to us.

Nutritional science is based only on what they can measure: the nutrition has to be known and measurable. There are probably many unknown micro nutrients that simply aren't considered. In addition, nutritional science tend to focus on one nutrient at a time, rather than looking at synergy among multiple nutrients. Any food created based on this nutritionism approach would be ignoring these facts. Processed foods, with some nutrients added or subtracted, therefore, won't provide same benefits as whole foods.

There is a theory (yet proven) that a body that's starved of critical nutrients will keep eating in the hope of obtaining them, counteracting the normal feeling of satiety after sufficient calories are eaten (they suspect that this may be a factor contributing to obese). I find it very interesting because I used to feel this a lot - wanting to eat something else when I'm already full -and wondered why.

Western diet is made largely out of those processed foods. And apparently there are many studies indicating that those who are used to eating own cultural/traditional diet become unhealthy as soon as they incorporate western diet. Similarly, there are studies where going back to traditional diet reverted people back to healthier state.

I can relate to this, too, as I had always experienced a temporary improvement of my health whenever I went back to Japan and ate our traditional foods for a period of time. Nutritionally speaking (as far as ones that are known), the difference couldn't have been that big for me, but nevertheless it worked every time. I now know why.

The book gives a lot more detail, plus suggestion as to what to actually do in an attempt to leave that nutritionism approach and western diet. Why not try since we have the time?

Job Hunting Still Slow; In a Meanwhile...

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:49:00 +0000

Since I had changed my approach to look for a job mostly in the local area about a month ago, I have been diligently working on that. It seems that my resume does get a better chance being actually viewed. But the problem is that there are very limited number of jobs that fits my background regardless of whether it's in the field that I want to go in or not. It's hard to find something to apply for. So things are still slow.

Meanwhile, I've been doing other stuff lately. One of them is to learn about local green activities. I came across an ad about a local green summit hosted by the city while looking for an open position there, and I thought: I have been learning what's happening globally and what I can do personally, but never thought of learning about local community initiatives. So I signed up and went, just to see what's going on.

I'm glad that I went. It was great just to be able to chat with people with same interest and I learned a lot. But besides learning about green activities in my community, I had a little epiphany moment there. I was chatting with people and then I kind of realized: I'm networking. I know, duh, right? But for someone who had always viewed networking as a kind of professional blind date with a string attached, this was an eye-opener. When it's something that you are really interested in, networking isn't a pain: it's just talking about what you are interested in with someone whom you didn't know before.

They say do what you love. And I thought I understood the concept - If you love what you do, you are likely to do a better job and excel, therefore, be more successful. But I never really felt that it would make much difference. I mean, I did fairly well with my past career. I was always able to give my 100% to whatever needed to be done, and I think I was pretty good at what I did. In fact, I think I'm capable of doing anything if I put my mind to it. And while it would be rather challenging to put my mind to it if I hated the job, I don't think I have to love it, either.

Schools, society, and work place (especially corporate world) train you to be strategic: be flexible, know when to be assertive, negotiate, and compromise. You learn those skills to survive, maybe even become very successful.

But maybe there's something more to it. And maybe I'm given a chance to experience it.

Focusing on What's in Front of You

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:11:00 +0000

This is something that I had always felt, a life principle that first came to my mind when I asked myself what I would say if I had to write "This I Believe". It's to focus on what's in front of you and give 100%. Because, well, what else would I do? Do nothing until something worth giving 100% of me to come along in some unknown future?

They say that you have to have goals and objectives; without them you aren't going anywhere. I don't believe that. Well, not always. Yes, if you know exactly where you want to go, you should definitely have specific goals and objectives so that you can systematically work your way towards that place you want to be. But it works only when you know exactly where you want to go. What if you don't know where you want to go? You are just stuck where you are now and not going anywhere until you make up your mind?

I think it's possible, and from my personal experience more interesting path, to go somewhere without knowing exactly where you are heading. It automatically happens when you just focus on what's in front of you, giving 100% of you to it. Life is really a full of surprises (who knew WSJ would find this blog??) and the odds of good surprises get really higher when you are mindful focusing what's in front of you. And when you embrace those surprise elements and keep going, you eventually find yourself standing somewhere; somewhere you'd never expected to be or didn't even know existed in the first place, but nonetheless interesting.

I don't know how many people are fortunate enough to know what they really want to be doing or where they really want to go. I know there are some, but I have a feeling that people who intuitively know what they are supposed to do with their lives are rare. Despite of that, I think we tend to believe that defining a goal has to always come first; we are taught that's the proper way to be successful. But forcing to conjure up "goals" when you couldn't have from your bottom of heart, isn't going to work out at the end of the day. Besides, why would you want to limit your possibilities that way?

So while I'm in this in-between place, I'm just going to focus on what comes in front of me.

What You'd Find on This Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:57:00 +0000

I started to write this blog to organize my thoughts and to chronicle my progress. It helps me pay attention to things happening around me and how I feel. It helps me to think through things. It encourages me to keep going. So writing posts to be read by others hadn't really been my main focus. But I do wish that if anyone comes here to read my post, the person would find my posts useful.

So this is a little note for those who stumbled onto this blog to give some idea what kind of stuff might be found here.

Books - I love books. When I was working, most of the books that I read were novels that didn't require too much thinking. But now that I'm not always too tired, I'm reading a lot more non-fictions and learning brand new stuff. I can't get enough. And when I get wowed or inspired, I write about those books.
Inspiration - Some come from the books that I read, some come from what's happening around me. I try to write about them so that I can internalize them and think how I can apply in my life. Writing it help me not to let them slip away.
Life Direction - I think we all need to have life principles to live by. I've been thinking about my life mission and principles, and trying to make better sense of them by writing.
Self-Help - Having extra time on hand is a blessing, and I intend to take maximum advantage of it while it lasts. And I'm recording anything that can be considered useful to better myself.
Career - What to do to earn my living, whether it's going to be something that I can call career or not, is something that I'm working on daily basis without much progress. So most of my career related posts are about directions, work-life balance, etc. rather than job hunting per se.
Health - Health has been a major issue for me. Though I'm getting much better since I got freed from my work, I'm very conscious about how I can improve and maintain my health. So I write about things that I learn regarding this topic.
Update - These are just updates to my personal situation or the directions that I'm exploring.

Use the category link on the right to get to the section that's most relevant to you. If you find any of them useful, let me know. And for those in the same situation as I am, I advocate to take advantage of the extra time that you have to put your life into perspective.

The Core Principles That Guide Your Life

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:55:00 +0000

This I Believe is a National Public Radio series where individuals in all walks of life present a short essay, in a few hundred words only, describing the core principles that guide their life. I had heard more than a few of them on the radio and it always intrigued me because there are such a variety of beliefs out there guiding people's lives.

After reading eighty essays in this book, I was still awed by the wide range of personal convictions out there. While some stated more general and expected credos like "give" or "believe in god", there are some that live by very unique beliefs like "be cool to the pizza dudes" and "always go to the funeral". But the common thread among all those eighty essayists is that they all have own unique story behind what they believe in. It's not just what they were taught to live by; their beliefs are based on what they had experienced and internalized. The reason why their essays literary speak to me is that their beliefs are something that they had developed through living their lives.

It made me wonder what I would say if I had to write my own This I Believe essay. I think I'd have to give some thoughts to it. But Jay Allison, the host and curator of This I Believe, says:

Beliefs are choices. No one has authority over your personal beliefs. Your beliefs are in jeopardy only when you don't know what they are.

Do you know what yours are? What would you say if you were to write a This I Believe essay?

Difference Between Pleasure and Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:48:00 +0000

After I learned how brain needs new stimulus, I got curious. So as usual, I went looking for a book about brain. I picked Your Brain: The Missing Manual because it seemed comprehensive enough but not too technical that an ordinary person like me could enjoy reading. And it turned out to be a very interesting and entertaining book.

The book covers a wide range of topics related to brain, from the basic mechanisms to how perception or reasoning work and how brain develops. But the parts that interested me was how brain functions to reward and motivate us.

We feel pleasure when a part of brain called nucleus accumbens give electric stimulate. And the stimulate is issued when we achieve something that your brain considers as beneficial to your biological interests (i.e. being well fed, avoiding danger, procreating, etc.). But this stimulus is temporary - it dies off quickly. Moreover, the brain gets accustomed to new sources of pleasure, so you won't get the same level of pleasure effect for the second or third time. It makes sense if you think about, say, eating a piece of cake; the pleasure dies off once you finish eating it, and the second serving won't necessarily give you the same pleasure. The brain functions this way in order to keep motivating you to do what's needed for your biological needs.

So from the biological point of view, you cannot get happiness - more of a long term state of contentment and optimism - by working to stimulate your nucleus accumbens, which only give a you temporary pleasure. This is why materialistic pursuant doesn't make you happy. This isn't just an old saying; it's scientific.

So what could make you happy? What your brain wants is the state of relaxed indifference; we need to first realize that the definition of happiness is a zen-like state of mind that's homeostasis. We also need to understand that unhappiness is what makes world go around because it fuels motivation. So focusing on experience rather than end results is the key to feel happiness.

A lot of self-help books or individuals who made significant achievement say that it's the progress, not the perfection that's important, or it's how we get there that's more important. It's very interesting and also assuring that this type of notions is proven scientifically.

So we are all doing it right by treasuring the experience rather than the result. You can still pursue short-lived pleasures by putting yourself through disciplined self-deprivation (i.e. eat only a little bit of great food, engage in pleasurable activity only so often, etc.) or through continuously switching types of pleasure sources, but just don't expect that to make you happy.

Tips for Writing and Submitting Your Resume and Cover Letter

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:19:00 +0000

As a part of the outplacing service that I got with my severance package, I've had an opportunity to attend a series of webinars about job hunting strategies. I still haven't landed on my next job yet, but I still wanted to share some of the insights that I got for those who are also looking for a job.

Resume - Many employers are now scanning resumes, so formatting your resume for optimal scanning and incorporating appropriate keywords are important.

Use standard fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Garamond, or Helvetica) and 11 to 12 type size.
Put 3/4" to 1" white space around and white space between categories.
Two pages max, and don't staple or clip. Also put your name and page number on page two.
Use white or cream paper.
Spell out degrees followed by acronym. Example: Bachelor of Science (BA), Education...
If you are using Office 2007, save your Word doc as RTF.
Don't include objective statement: It tends to select you OUT or sound phony. Instead, include your career summary or profile statement.
If your job title doesn't clearly indicate what your job was, add a brief statement describing your scope of responsibility.
Frame your list of accomplishments as problems/challenges that you resolved, along with results and benefits. Quantify them if possible.
Customize your resume so that keywords from the job listing are incorporated.
Also research action words and buzzwords in your target industry and incorporate them into your career summary/profile and accomplishments.
Don't include reference or say "references available upon request": Use your limited resume space for the main purpose - highlight your credential. You can provide your reference when asked.

Cover letter - You have to have a cover letter. Cover letter isn't just a formal introduction; it should make them want to look at your resume.

Use the same letter head format as your resume to be consistent.
List job requirements and corresponding your qualification.
Never tell what your salary requirements are at this stage. Instead, say your requirements are flexible based on the nature and scope of this job - which you'd like to further discuss.

Submission - They get thousands of resumes per job posting. Try to improve your odds of being selected in the "yes" pile.

Try to identify the name of hiring manager and send your resume directly to him/her.
If direct contact information cannot be located, submit your resume from company website as opposed to job boards: They look at resumes that came through their website first. They may not even look at resumes from other sources if they don't need additional candidates.
Submit your resume a few days after the job was posted: The first wave of resumes tend to be reviewed with higher expectation - you have a better odds being put in the "yes" pile if you submit your application in the second wave.

Follow up - A follow up from you can sometimes prompt them to dig up your resume, giving another opportunity for it to be reviewed. You have nothing to lose, so follow up.

Give at least two weeks before following up.
Try to identify the hiring manager's contact information and follow up directly with him/her.

They seem not much, but they can still improve your odds of getting an interview. So why not, right?

Brush Up Writing Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Sawa) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:47:00 +0000

I know that my writing isn't quite that good. English isn't my native language. And besides a couple of very elementary classes I never had a thorough training in English writing. My grammar and punctuation can be iffy because I'm never sure of the official rules.

So I was secretly happy when my previous employer announced that everyone will be trained to improve writing skills and adhere to the AP standard. Unfortunately, however, I never got the chance to go through that training.

But it got me thinking that one day I needed to take time and learn this properly. And this feeling got stronger as I started to write blog posts, started to volunteer to do translation work, and started to see "excellent writing skills" as one of job requirements in many posting.

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation was an excellent book for a person like me. It demystified a lot of grammar and punctuation rules: writing out numerals, capitalizing words in titles, differentiating use of hyphens and dashes, and so on. In fact, I got the feeling that there are many adults who could benefit from brushing up their writing skills by going through this book. Jane Straus, the author of this book, actually has a website with the same contents.

I wouldn't say that I'm now an expert of grammar and punctuation (far from it), but this was definitely a good place to start.