Jullien "Purposefinder" Gordon: A Treasure Found by Chance

Several months ago I posted about a dream I had. The dream was about the stress I felt in driving a tuck that did not belong to me. It was a powerful, vivid, and emotionally charged dream that did an excellent job breaking through to my conscious life. It was so impactful to me, I developed a guided meditation centered around the symbols of my dream to lead my colleagues through as part of an end of the year reflections activity.

The idea of driving a vehicle suited, or not suited to the driver seemed like a great way to discuss gifts, talents and calling.

You can imagine how astonished I was to accidentally bump into an entire book that centered on a surprisingly similar metaphor. Jullien Gordon's, "The 8 Cylinders of Success" is my new favorite resource book to use with students that take self exploration and career classes from me. I can't even remember exactly how I managed to bump into it. I believe I was searching for class materials and ran into an online mini course Jullien was teaching about resume creation and personal branding. As a resume writer, and career coach, I'm always looking for better ways to share this sort of information with my students. I thought his course was pretty decent and started clicking around on the rest of his website  http://julliengordon.com/ to see what else I might find.

There it was. An entire book that was well thought out, contained useful activities, and used the metaphor of a vehicle to discuss purpose, principles, values, and passion. It was perfect.

As a Career Advisor at the university level I have come to understand my job in a much different way than I did when I first began 6 years ago. Given what we know about the job market today and the employment trends of this generation, it was not enough simply to guide a student to choose a major or decide on a job. Statistics are telling us that it is likely that our graduates will hold between 10- 14 jobs by the time they turn 38! Employers are telling us that it isn't necessarily the major you choose that makes you employable, it's the entire person and how they've chosen to spend their time that creates a more desirable candidate.  In other words, what do you know about yourself? What else have you done with yourself besides education?

Most importantly, I have embraced the truth that it is not the job we have that brings us joy and satisfaction in life. Joy, and satisfaction come from the building of a meaningful life. I now have a new and even more challenging call. I am called to guide students to the place where they can identify what is important to them and how to bring more of that into their lives. I want students to know themselves well enough to be able to judge personal success on their own terms.

The metaphor of driving a vehicle unique to each of us is an excellent way to help students embark on this life long journey of self exploration and evaluation. I believe we are in the middle of a huge paradigm shift where work, higher education, and definitions of success are concerned. Jullien's book has been an awesome resource in navigating this path with students. I would recommend it to anyone seeking to create a more meaningful life, and to everyone that guides young adults on this exciting path.