(COPY/PASTE and personalize this post in your personal/community blog)

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Richard Bolles updates his "What Color Is Your Parachute" (WCIYP) each year. All page references are from his 2008 annual.

His "The Flower" (p. 246-7) is a one page snapshot of who are at this instant and is a subset of what we think should be the most important post in your personal blog - your "My LifeWork Portal". Mine is the "46 links" in the right sidebar. Below will be my version of "The Flower" (without the artwork) and uses appropriate links from "My LifeWork Portal".

The Flower has six (6) sections surrounding a seventh (7th) section. (My

1. My Favorite Interests  
2. Geography
3. My Favorite People Environments
4. My Favorite Values and Goals
5. My Favorite Working Conditions
6. Salary and Level of Responsibility
7. My Favorite Transferable Skills

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Click your browser's BACK/Return arrow to return to the post that brought you here, or return to

• My Job Search Strategies <-- My Job Search Plan <-- My LifeWork Plans <-- My LifeWork Portal

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Keep this link to this template to periodically click on it to see if it has changed.

If you have an improvement for this template, please add a comment.

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It is very easy to create your "My LifeWork Portal " (LWP) post in your personal blog.

1. In the right sidebar are two "templates" listed under "2. Examples of LWPs". (If you don't see them, click on either the title of this post, or "Comments" to go to the "LifeWork Portal" community.)
   
2. Review each and decide which one you want to COPY.
3. Follow these instructions for using the WYSIWYG editor to highlight/select the body of the post you want to COPY and PASTEing it into a new post in your blog.
4. Edit your new LWP to make it your own. Remember, that all hyperlinks need to be changed.
5. Add links to posts you have already created in your blog.

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Go to the next milepost of What is a "Brief Description" (BD) and why is it important?, or return to this milepost in the Roadmap.

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Your "My LifeWork Portal " (LWP) post is/will be your largest aggregating post (AP). It is a collection of links to all of your key posts in your blog.

Your LWP is important because ....

1. It organizes your blog by listing links to every major post in your blog.
2. It contains every major attribute about you in ONE PLACE as well as links to the posts that contain more details and information.
3. It is a snapshot of who you are right now, who you were and who you will or want to be or do.

In the next post you will see how easy it is to create your LWP.

(Private note to me.)

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Go to the next milepost of Creating and developing your "My LifeWork Portal" post., or return to this milepost in the Roadmap.

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Read this post from Helen Barrett about the integration of eJournals and ePortfolios into what is now called Electronic Documentation of Learning  (eDOL).

LWPS is a platform where you can document (eJournal) your personal learning (ePortfolio) as you do your lifework planning.

My LifeWork Portal is my eDOL. 

How do you document your learning?

When I have had rough times, I've dumped my feelings and thoughts into my journal and that has relaxed me and allowed me to gain perspective.

Writing things down - either in my paper journal, or in my personal LWPS blog - brings clarity to the issue at hand and sometimes leads to revealing what I need to do next.

Much of what I post in my blog has been copied from my journal notebook.

Journaling worksThe method you use to keep a journal is up to you. Pick the one that is most comfortable. The important thing is to have somewhere to write down your thoughts, feelings and other items when they occur. Only you will have access to it, however, you will be referring to it when you write your learning summary at the end of the class.

I like a small hardcopy journal because I can keep it with me. I can also use colored pencils or pen and can draw or diagram when appropriate.

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Journaling + Intention = Empowerment!

Most people who journal simply write down their thoughts. And this is helpful—to a degree.

But so much more is possible when we bring intention to the vast powers of our conscious and subconscious minds.

So much more is possible when we purposefully invite the wise voice of intuition to speak through our writing.

Why journal? To open the door to your own creative genius!

http://www.higherawareness.com/journal-writing/index.html 

The value of journaling.

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Your LifeWork Portal post (and the links to the other key lifework planning posts you include therein) should be the MOST important post in your personal blog. (I'll explain why shortly.)

Click on the links in the "Profile Owner" box to the right to see some examples. Links to templates are included in those examples

It is important that you review your LifeWork Portal post often, and keep it and all of the links to your posts within it up-to-date.

Remember, goto "Your Profile" (upper left) and edit the "Brief Description" section of your personal profile and insert a link there to your LifeWork Portal so you have easy access to it and the linked posts within to review, reflect and revise all as needed.

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• Check out the links in the "Profile Owner's" box to the right.
• Review, reflect and revise your "My LifeWork Portal" and all the posts linked within as often as possible so they represent who you are right now!
• Return to the
  • Transitions community
  • LifeWork planning process community
  • The four (4) most important aggregating posts in your personal LWPS blog.
• Add your comments or questions in the "Comments" section below.

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I see life values as a composite of all values (personal, work , etc.).
 
This article - Determining Your True Life Values -  gives an excellent overview.

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Go to My Values (Life; Work; Personal) or My LWP.

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As we described in the "What is LifeWork Planning" section of the "About LWPS" post, a very important part of lifework/career planning is your collection of salient information about yourself that you will use to make informed decisions about your future. Some people collect this information on paper like journals or diaries or notebooks, or in portfolios. Others collect it on their stand alone computer. Others do both. Sadly, most do nothing. A few, but growing number, collect this information in personal blogs like LWPS where they can have access - via hyperlinks - to an ever expanding set of tools and a selective network of family, friends, peers and (para) professionals to assist them in this process. There are many different kinds of blogs, but as we will demonstrate in the following table, none have all of LWPS's features, functions and focus combined into one platform.

 

Wikipedia describes a portfolio as a "... a personal collection of information describing and documenting a person’s achievements and learning. ... ranging from learning logs to extended collections of achievement evidence. ... used for many different purposes such as accreditation of prior experience, job search, continuing professional development, certification of competences."

This LifeWork Planning Services (LWPS) blogging platform is a hybrid electronic or ePortfolio digital archive and presentation platform. We encourage you to use your LWPS personal/professional weblog to store your digital artifacts and develop your ePortfolio by writing about who you are and what is important to you.

		Computer					Paper
		ePortfolio					Portfolio
		(We)blog		Non-blog
	Reasons why LWPS is best.	LWPS	Others	CIDS	email	.doc; .xls	journal; diary
Create	Posts can be easily created.	Y	Y	?3	Y	Y	Y
	Posts can be easily and quickly edited/revised.	Y	?4		n5	Y	y6
Communicate	Posts can be private, or easily and quickly shared with a few others, or everyone via "Access Restrictions".	Y	?7		Y	y8	In person
	Each post has its own unique URL link..	Y	Y		N	n9	N
	Comments to posts can be deleted.	Y	?		N	N	N
Collect	Images can be easily and quickly inserted into posts.	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y
	Audio (podcasts) and video (YouTube, Google) can be easily amd quickly inserted into posts.	Y	Y		ne10	ne	N
Collaborate	Unlimited numbers of tags (keywords) can be quickly and easily added to posts to locate other posts (via search or hyperlinked tags) or locate others who share the same tags/interests.	Y	S		N	N	N
	Links to other applications, resources, and services can be easily and quickly inserted.	Y	Y		Y	Y	N

1. CIDS = Career Information Delivery Systems
   
2. Christopher Sessums post also includes the "Weblogs" graphic below..
   
3. ?3 - I need to do research here.
   
4. ?4 - Not every blogging platform permits you to edit a post after you created it.
   
5. n5 - The instant you Send your email, you can not change it.
   
6. y6 - Yes, if you have a big eraser. It's messy.
   
7. ?7
   
8. y8 - Yes, if you attach it to an email or give it to them personally.
   
9. n9 - Only if manually uploaded to a server.
10. ne = not easily

 

 

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Diagram of four Cs Source posts: http://eduspaces.net/dianey/weblog/134820.html and http://eduspaces.net/dianey/weblog/134808.html (good definitions)

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9/24 - Eggshell with DC contours - http://art.commongate.com/post/Eggshell_Carving_Art#images

And here is something else that just blew my mind. I'm in the process of developing my logo which is based upon a Dreamcatcher (DC). Note that the blue banner above is a slice of a DC. You'll notice that it has eight points just inside the outer ring - just like your "Life Dimensions" image. Also, just like you, I'll be overlaying things onto the DC. In this one below, it is a eight element decision-making model. Click on the image to go to that post.

Transition points in your life like graduation, a new job (or getting fired), marriage (and maybe divorce), physical moves, health problems, etc. are "significant activities and events in your life and work".

Resumes, career plans, education plans, (e)portfolios, etc that you create before, during or after these transition points and the rollups of smaller documents like your biography, bibliography, certificates, assessment and test results, educational history, work history, job interests, skills, abilities, values, career preferences, job explorations, etc. (to name just a few) are "significant elements of your life and work".

Maintaining a record of these activities, events and elements in your life and work is a critically important lifework planning skill. Equally important, is your ability to easily create, edit, retrieve [1], organize, aggregate, and - perhaps - share these records. A very small number of people - like you - who understand how is to prepare for these transitions will see the need to collect all of these elements in ONE place for easy retrieval, organization, reference, and continuous enhancement through edits, reflections and refinements.

Below are a few key LWPS posts you will want to create and maintain to prepare for those transitions.

• Your resume usually contains data and information about your experience, education, qualifications, work history, key skills, accomplishments, affiliations, references, etc.. Indirectly you will also reflect upon your values, passions, lifestyle, etc..
  
  Click here (or the tag "resume posts" in "Keywords" below) to see posts I have created and tagged with "resume posts".


• Your ePortfolio usually contains some of the same data and information you used above to create your resume, but we should add a few other elements like contacts you have made, extracurricular or co-curricular activities, volunteer work, career exploration activities, lists of possible careers, special prizes, honors, offices, and recognition, transition plans, etc..
  
  Click here (or the tag "ePortfolio posts" in "Keywords" below) to see posts I have created and tagged with "ePortfolio posts".


• Your individual career plan (ICP) is usually some of the above, but may also have your interest, abilities, hobbys and recreational/leisure activities, most-liked school subjects, careers you have explored, part time work, tentative career goals, and an action plan to achieve these goals.
  
  Click here (or the tag "ICP posts" in "Keywords" below) to see posts I have created tagged with "ICP posts".


• You may create other aggregating posts like my education plan, my stories, my passions, my visions, etc. and you can add appropriate tags to organize and find them.

Summarize and link to all of your key LWPS posts with your LifeWork Portal

As you create more and more lifework planning posts in your LWPS blog, and you want to find a particular post quickly to add something to it or reflect upon and refine it, you will soon see the need to have ONE post that aggregates all of them.

I call that post "My LifeWork Portal". I have a link to My LifeWork Portal in my "brief description" profile box where I can quickly jump to it from anywhere in my personal/professional blog. My LifeWork Portal is very detailed and complex. You can click here to view it. [2] You will start out with a very simple LifeWork Portal - like this one - if you decide to use it at all.

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[1] After you create a document like a bibliography and file it somewhere, how quickly can you find it? On LWPS, it is very easy! You just add whatever tags/keywords to a post that are meaningful to YOU, then do a search for that tag to quickly and easily find all posts that use it.

[2] Keep in mind that many posts in my "My LWP" are private and you will not be able to see them. Most of those that I have made public still require a lot of work.

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Click here to view my contact information.

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• Check out the links in the "Profile Owner's" box to the right.
• Add your comments or questions in the "Comments" section below.
• Review, reflect and revise your "My LWP" and all the posts linked within as often as possible so they represent who you are right now!

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Click your browser's BACK/Return arrow to return to the post that brought you here, or return to

• The four (4) most important aggregating posts in your personal LWPS blog.

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