Thank you Sunny, Davit and Vincenza for responding, since I actually was afraid someone might think I was applying for a job, instead of starting a dialogue which is critical to life as I believe Freud stated..."..to live, love and work..." is central.
Gestal guru Fritz Perls stated that once you ask the question, you'll have the answer, so I was up some of the night excited about forgetting about Nelson Bolles' book, since I'd done so much work with it. I think the cocoa in some ice cream kept me up the other part of the night.
Mr. Bolles doesn't see careers in the conventional way, but as a series of competencies, in different contexts, to oversimplify his approach. What I remember doing was listing my peak experiences, which is really motivating, as it would be for anyone. After that, one uses a template of skills to distil your strong points.
With your skill harnessed, you can then move on to look at alternative jobs, since skills are "transferable". An example would be if you have high attention to detail, then you can take that skill and move into many other areas, within your comfortable people "context".
I liked his creative approach, and even did his workshop in 1977 with his collaborator. He transcends the traditional view of "career" since skills or competencies are are the building blocks of careers, instead of the other way around, which is limiting..
I have Steven Covey's book, but I think using the Parachute approach seems more practical, and it worked before. Isn't it amazing how we have all that we need, but one has to remember!
I think the difficult part is the people context, since a collaborative, supportive environment allows our moods to be volatile without the predatory repercussions of ompetitive milieus. I'm not certain that the "survival promoting" reality shows which have been so popular have helped those of us with these struggles of mood changes, etc.
