Good morning! Even on non-work days I find it difficult to wake up late.
My hopes for this fall/winter are to stay
inside, read as many books as possible, study for the JLPT, and figure out what
I want to do with my life once I leave Japan in approximately nine or ten
months. I have the study and leisure books already prepared, but I don’t really have enough information
on job hunting.
Last night I met up with a friend in
Kofu. She is also in the process
of trying to make a career change, so I asked her to bring along the books she
has regarding employment. We
talked a lot about our interests, and what kind of markets cater to them. She has been talking to various career
coaches and had a lot of useful information to share with me. The main book that she’s been using is
called Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0. I’m also interested in learning a little about this on my
own, so I looked online only to discover that there are about 20 different
versions of this book, all geared towards different needs and occupations. For example there are some that focus
on using technology, some for using social media, for entrepreneurs, writers,
and the list goes on. There are a
few that I’m really interested in reading, but I was unable to find any
copies that were cheap enough to be worth my while. I also checked the e-libraries and couldn’t find them for
free for the kindle. I’ll either
have to suck it up and buy some of the ones I’m interested in, or find equally
useful information for free on the Internet. I’ll consider this a little longer before I make a decision. At this point, I'm trying to avoid
buying anything new because I’ll have to spend a lot of money to bring it back with me to the US.
Lately I’ve been trying to expand my writing ability,
so I’ve been doing some volunteer writing. I mentioned this in my last entry about the AJET online
magazine. For those of you who guessed
that my nom de plum is “Rosie - the advice columnist,” you’re right! I’ll be writing the advice column
monthly, as long as there is an interest from the editing staff and readers.
In addition to article writing, I found out
about this event in November called NaNoWriMo. It stands for Nation Novel Writing Month. From midnight on November first to
midnight on December first, a group of individuals from all over the world will
make a pledge to dedicate the month of November to writing a novel. Each person will attempt to write 50,000 words, or approximately 175 pages, in 30 days. The purpose is not necessarily to walk
away with something you can publish on December 1st, but to write
for the sake of writing. Many
people who want to write often let doubts get in their way of ever sitting down
to the task. “I’m not good enough,
I don’t have enough time, and I don’t know what to write.” The deadline constraints of this event
force people to write as much as possible, creating a writing flow that is
important for practice and idea generation. The point is to get people away from using excuses, and
simply WRITE.
I will be participating in next months
NaNoWriMo. Anyone can join (as
long as they have access to the Internet), and there are various communities
within the event to help motivate one another with the task at hand. Although my schedule is busy and I may not pass the 50,000 word finish
line, I figured it was still a good chance and opportunity, so I'll give it a
try. Ultimately, anyone could make
this a project for themselves at any time of the year, but having a community
going along through the same process at the same time as you is
integral to getting the job done I think.
Getting inspiration and motivation from others is often important when
trying to push yourself toward a seemingly unachievable goal. Every year people “pass the finish
line,” so perhaps I will join them either this year or next! Also, maybe the work I produce this
month will eventually be turned into a novel. You never know!
Check out the website if you’re interesting in the program, and please
let me know if you decide to join in!
I have put a “participant’s badge” at the bottom of my website. I’d love to share this experience with
you! We can share ideas, story lines, and encourage one another along the way! I will try to keep my word-count up on my blog during
November to let you all know if I’m making any progress or not.
