Day 20

I woke up this morning in Hurricane, Utah planning to spend the next two days exploring Zion National Park but that didn't exactly work out the way I had planned. When I woke up VERY early that morning to photograph the sunrise, I felt awful with a nasty cough and sore throat... I had planned to hike the Zion Narrows today which is an amazing hike deep in a canyon where you are actually walking in and through the Virgin River. Doing that hike while sick seemed like a really bad idea and result in me getting even sicker...

Considering there was still 10 days on this trip with several more destinations / activities on the agenda, I made a decision to sacrifice today and focus on getting better. I made a quick trip to the local grocery store to stock up on soup, vitamin C, and medication and stayed in bed all day...

Since I had sequestered myself in my motel room, I decided to use the opportunity to do some reading and reflection on what my next career looks like since I've decided to leave BenefitSpecialists.

The last year I've been part of a entrepreneurial coaching program and one of their core tenets is this idea of Unique Ability. The idea that everyone has a skill or ability that they are exceedingly good at, perhaps the best in the world at it, and they fundamentally love doing it... One of the things this program talks about is identifying that unique ability and trying to spend as much time as possible doing it.

Between doses of soup and vitamin C, I re-read sections of the book on unique ability and tried to identify things in prior experiences that I loved doing and am passionate about. One of the common threads across all of my experiences from the time I was very young to today is a passion for education. I've always been innately curious the guy who is always asking questions to dig deeper and deeper into an issue. Frankly this probably drove people nuts when I was in school or even training for a couple of jobs but I always wanted to know more about something or why is that the case...

On the flip side, one of things I've loved about all of my jobs is the opportunity to teach and educate people on complex tops. One of the things I've done successfully and really love doing is take complex topics and communicating them in a way that resonates with an audience. Whether doing it with technology, insurance contracts, or healthcare reform. Synthesizing a complex topic down to it's essence and then sharing that information is something I really love doing and people seem to think I'm good at.

One of the big questions for me going forward is how I leverage this is my career going forward; hopefully to do something I'm passionate about. Time will tell as I continue this process of self discovery and hopefully it will end somewhere exciting...

Thanks for reading my blog and as always any questions / comments please post below or email me at chris@pricelessperspectives.com