What Color Is Your Parachute? (49 page)

5. In
Column 4
, now, list the positive factors in
Column 3,
in the order of most important (to you), down to least important (to you). For example, if you were looking at, and trying to name a new town, city, or place where you could be happy and flourish, what is the first thing you would look for? Would it be, good weather? or lack of crime? or good schools? or access to cultural opportunities, such as music, art, museums, or whatever? or would it be inexpensive housing? etc., etc. Rank all the factors in
Column 4.
Use the Prioritzing Grid,
here
,if you need to.

6. If you are doing this by yourself, list on a
scribble sheet
the top ten factors, in order of importance to you, and show it to everyone you meet for the next ten days, with the ultimate question: “Can you think of places that have these ten factors, or at least the top five?” Jot down their suggestions on the back of the
scribble sheet.
When the ten days are up, look at the back of your sheet and circle the three places that seem the most interesting to you. If there is only a partial overlap between your dream factors and the places your friends and acquaintances suggested,
make sure the overlap is in the factors that count the most.
Now you have some names that you will want to find out more about, until you are sure which is your absolute favorite place to live, and then your second, and third, as backups.

Click
here
to view a PDF version of My Geographical Preferences.

Put the names of the three places, and/or your top five geographical factors, on the Flower Diagram, on the Where petal,
here
.

7. If you are doing this with a partner, skip
Column 5.
Instead, when you have finished your
Column 4,
look at your partner’s
Column 4,
and copy it into
Column 6.
The numbering of
your
list in
Column 4
was 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Number your partner’s list, as you copy it into
Column 6
, as a, b, c, d, etc.

8. Now, in
Column 7,
combine your
Column 4
with
Column 6
(your partner’s old
Column 4
, renumbered). Both of you can work now from just one person’s chart. Combine the two lists as illustrated on the chart. First your partner’s top favorite geographical factor (“a”), then
your
top favorite geographical factor (“1”), then your partner’s second most important favorite geographical factor (“b”), then
yours
(“2”), etc., until you have ten or fifteen favorite geographical factors
(yours and your partner’s)
listed, in order, in
Column 7.

9. List on a
scribble sheet
the top ten factors, and both of you should show it to everyone you meet, for the next ten days, with the same question as above: “Can you think of any places that have these ten factors, or at least the top five?” Jot down their suggestions on the back of the
scribble sheet.
When the ten days are up, you and your partner should look at the back of your sheet and circle the three places that look the most interesting to the two of you. If there is only a partial overlap between your dream factors and the places your friends and acquaintances suggested, make sure the overlap is in the factors that matter the most to the two of you, i.e., the ones that are at the top of your list in
Column 7
. Now you have some names of places that you will want to find out more about, until you are sure which is the absolute favorite place to live for both of you, and then your second, and third, as backups.

Put the names of the top three places, and/or your top five geographical factors, on the Flower Diagram, on the Where petal,
here
.

Well you’re done with The Flower. Now what?

Put that sheet on a wall, or on the door of your refrigerator. And there you have it: a simple picture (as it were) of You.

But, it’s not
just
a picture of You. Just as important, it’s a picture of Your Dream Job as well. It’s both of these things at once, because you’re looking for a dream job or career
that matches you.
You match it. It matches you. Bingo! Mirror images.

And now what should happen? Well, for some of you there will be a big
Aha!
as you look at your Flower Diagram. A lightbulb will go on, over your head, and you will say, “My goodness, I see
exactly
what sort of career this points me to.” This happens particularly with intuitive people. And people who hum. (Don’t ask why.)

If you are one of those intuitive people, I say, “Good for you!” Just two gentle warnings, if I may:

Don’t prematurely close out
other
possibilities.

And
don’t
say to yourself: “Well, I see what it is that I would die to be able to do, but I
know
there is no job in the world like that, that
I
would be able to get.” Dear friend, you don’t know any such thing. You haven’t done your research yet. Of course, it is always possible that when you’ve completed all that research, and conducted your search,
you still may not be able to find
all
that you want—down to the last detail. But you’d be surprised at how much of your dream you may be able to find.

Sometimes it will be found in
stages
. One retired man I know, who had been a senior executive with a publishing company, found himself bored to death in retirement, after he turned sixty-five. He contacted a business acquaintance, who said apologetically, “We just don’t have anything open that matches or requires your abilities; right now all we need is someone in our mail room.” The sixty-five-year-old executive said, “I’ll take that job!” He did, and over the ensuing years steadily advanced once again, to just the job he wanted: as a senior executive in that organization, where he utilized all his prized skills, for some time. He retired as senior executive for the second time, at the age of eighty-five. Like him, you may choose to go by stages.

What you need to keep in mind, as we saw in
chapter 2
, is how important passion is, to your dream, and to your job-hunt: