One of my favorite accounts on Instagram, @pantherflows, posted a question about “something you do (or once did) as an interest, hobby, or work, that is NOT super obvious as useful to your (horse or human) work, but that YOU feel adds something to what you now do.”
I love this question. We are all people, and nothing we do is separate from anything else we do. EVERYTHING contributes. One of the fun things about my job is finding translational skills in my new clients, especially those coming from a more traditional background. You like things to be a certain way, and that makes training frustrating because it means you can’t let go of an outcome? Let’s turn that into absolute precision, but with a smaller step, so you can’t help but get the outcome you’re looking for! Then we can work on letting things be “good enough,” whatever that means to you.
I also love the idea that life experience is education, often as much or more so than formal education. Don’t get me wrong, certificates and degrees are good and sometimes necessary depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, but the breadth that comes from life experiences brings a different perspective that doesn’t come from paper.
Anyhow, some of my “non-resume:”
Anyone remember Palm Pilots? I did tech support for those in my early 20s. I learned a ton about problem solving, persistence, going from a detailed view to an overall view, researching things I didn’t know, and guiding other beings through a process when I couldn’t see everything they were doing (I was on the phone). I’m a photographer, so not only do I have to watch carefully, I have to be able to predict behavior, and have the timing to capture what I’m looking for as well as be ready for the unexpected. When I was in middle school, I was a musician, and that went a long way toward knowing how to listen for cues and match energy and style, how to put my self into what I was doing, how to break things down into smaller pieces and/or change them to make them easier to learn, and how to interpret and express another language. It also developed my kinesthetic sense of timing, rhythm, and emotional content. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 40 years, so I’ve learned a lot about the sciences of being in a body, developing my tolerance, resilience, empathy, and a sense of wonder at being an electric meatbag in the first place. And, all of those things have been bouncing off each other for decades, which has given them more depth as a whole.
What’s on your non-resume?
