I need to get at least one more part time job, to boost my income. Here are my reflections on what I've learned from the past.
I feel myself exceptionally fortunate at this stage in my life, because I'm pretty much established what I'm good at and where I generally tend to fall short. Not having an objective understanding of this in the past used to perplex me a great deal. I tried out for quite a few different jobs, some that suited me and others that were nothing short of disastrous.
The three of four jobs I've recently had or presently hold have suited me far better than those I took on when I first finished my undergraduate degree, when I simply applied for any job that had became available. Those I've succeeded in have been being a graduate student (on scholarship) and completing my PhD, working as a teacher of English as a foreign language and now teaching boxing for fitness. Before that, I produced advertising copy, wrote as a freelance journalist for a martial arts magazine, did part time cleaning jobs, designed web pages when the Internet was just starting up, taught school subjects as a tutor, edited fiction and worked as an administrative assistant and public relations assistant, all with varying degrees of competence.
What the current jobs have in common is a component of novelty. To continually engage with novel ideas, novel practices, or novel people keeps me alert and on target.
Jobs that suit me least are those that require strict attention to detail. Since I think primarily in abstractions, I find it difficult to follow procedures according to linear logic. My visual memory is also rather poor, especially when fatigued. That's why it's useful for me to take videos of my martial arts classes, so I can recall the lessons.
I find from situations where I have pushed myself beyond my normal limits, I don't recall geographical orientations or the arrangement of a number of objects in one place, on the basis of visual memory. It remains possible that visual memory can be trained, and this is what I'm trying to do through my martial arts. At the same time, this was the factor letting me down as an army recruit and a teacher trainee. In the first case, lapses of memory grew worse, the more I was pushed to my limit: "Where is your bayonet, recruit? I'll tell you where it is. You left it in your locker and now the enemy has got it and all of your platoon are dead!"
In the second case, I wasn't even tired, just too bored to focus on the children in the class. They all looked the same to me, and ultimately I used a female pronoun to refer to a male, which immediately cooked my goose.
In many ways, my mind wanders quite a lot. I retain the power needed for a concerted effort, and can continue to make one when I train my mind to obsess about one topic until I start to make breakthroughs with it. To train my mind to focus on something boring is extremely difficult. My past experience indicates that even when this is extremely important, I cannot do so. It seems as if I don't have the brain power, developed from an early age, to focus on concrete details for a prolonged duration.
I've had many successes in life -- above all, researching and completing my PhD, which finally assuaged my lifelong thirst for knowledge. I've also re-established my links with Zimbabwe and taught self defense across the country, there. My enduring relationship with Mike is a long term success that few women could dream of matching. I've established the concept of intellectual shamanism and continued to develop my ideas in relation to it. I've achieved brown-belt in my martial arts style and am moving like a snail towards my next grading.
In terms of leisure activities, I've made a thorough investigation of Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille and Dambudzo Marechera, and understood them inside and out, including from the perspective of the theoretical platform I've developed, which transcends them in some ways. I've been skydiving nine times, with one jump from a static line in Zimbabwe. I've written a memoir, and assorted other material, much of it posted on blogs or available as E-books. I've traveled via the public transportation system all over Zimbabwe, stayed in a rural township there and been on horseback safari through the north-eastern wilderness there. I've slept rough. I keep attuned to Zimbabwean and Western political situations. I publish poetry or articles. I'm a mentor for other Zimbabwean gender activists and a really reliable friend. I use the Internet for networking and jaunty explorations of territory that may still still elude me.
I feel myself exceptionally fortunate at this stage in my life, because I'm pretty much established what I'm good at and where I generally tend to fall short. Not having an objective understanding of this in the past used to perplex me a great deal. I tried out for quite a few different jobs, some that suited me and others that were nothing short of disastrous.
The three of four jobs I've recently had or presently hold have suited me far better than those I took on when I first finished my undergraduate degree, when I simply applied for any job that had became available. Those I've succeeded in have been being a graduate student (on scholarship) and completing my PhD, working as a teacher of English as a foreign language and now teaching boxing for fitness. Before that, I produced advertising copy, wrote as a freelance journalist for a martial arts magazine, did part time cleaning jobs, designed web pages when the Internet was just starting up, taught school subjects as a tutor, edited fiction and worked as an administrative assistant and public relations assistant, all with varying degrees of competence.
What the current jobs have in common is a component of novelty. To continually engage with novel ideas, novel practices, or novel people keeps me alert and on target.
Jobs that suit me least are those that require strict attention to detail. Since I think primarily in abstractions, I find it difficult to follow procedures according to linear logic. My visual memory is also rather poor, especially when fatigued. That's why it's useful for me to take videos of my martial arts classes, so I can recall the lessons.
I find from situations where I have pushed myself beyond my normal limits, I don't recall geographical orientations or the arrangement of a number of objects in one place, on the basis of visual memory. It remains possible that visual memory can be trained, and this is what I'm trying to do through my martial arts. At the same time, this was the factor letting me down as an army recruit and a teacher trainee. In the first case, lapses of memory grew worse, the more I was pushed to my limit: "Where is your bayonet, recruit? I'll tell you where it is. You left it in your locker and now the enemy has got it and all of your platoon are dead!"
In the second case, I wasn't even tired, just too bored to focus on the children in the class. They all looked the same to me, and ultimately I used a female pronoun to refer to a male, which immediately cooked my goose.
In many ways, my mind wanders quite a lot. I retain the power needed for a concerted effort, and can continue to make one when I train my mind to obsess about one topic until I start to make breakthroughs with it. To train my mind to focus on something boring is extremely difficult. My past experience indicates that even when this is extremely important, I cannot do so. It seems as if I don't have the brain power, developed from an early age, to focus on concrete details for a prolonged duration.
I've had many successes in life -- above all, researching and completing my PhD, which finally assuaged my lifelong thirst for knowledge. I've also re-established my links with Zimbabwe and taught self defense across the country, there. My enduring relationship with Mike is a long term success that few women could dream of matching. I've established the concept of intellectual shamanism and continued to develop my ideas in relation to it. I've achieved brown-belt in my martial arts style and am moving like a snail towards my next grading.
In terms of leisure activities, I've made a thorough investigation of Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille and Dambudzo Marechera, and understood them inside and out, including from the perspective of the theoretical platform I've developed, which transcends them in some ways. I've been skydiving nine times, with one jump from a static line in Zimbabwe. I've written a memoir, and assorted other material, much of it posted on blogs or available as E-books. I've traveled via the public transportation system all over Zimbabwe, stayed in a rural township there and been on horseback safari through the north-eastern wilderness there. I've slept rough. I keep attuned to Zimbabwean and Western political situations. I publish poetry or articles. I'm a mentor for other Zimbabwean gender activists and a really reliable friend. I use the Internet for networking and jaunty explorations of territory that may still still elude me.
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