July 2010

Alvah Parker is a practice advisor and coach for successful attorneys who want to build a more profitable and fulfilling practice and still have time for other parts of their lives. If you are searching for a way to have more fulfilment from your practice Alvah's Value Program will enable you to identify your strengths, values and behavioral and motivational style so that you can create a practice where you are doing work that is meaningful to you.  By being your natural self it will be easier for you to make more money in less time thus leaving more time for other parts of your life. With her background in sales and marketing Alvah is able to guide you to a way of doing business that suits your particular style and definition of meaningful work. You will learn to authentically develop business, manage time, hire and direct staff, and control cash flow. For further information, visit Alvah's website

* Title of a song from Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Using song titles is just my way of expressing my love of music and musical theater. Each time I come up with a title I rediscover a song I love.

Be sure to look at all my offers for attorneys. 

1. Welcome

2.  "Money Isn't Everything" - Detecting or Inventing Your Mission

"Road to Success" is an email newsletter written for those who want to find new ways to approach their work and personal life so that their whole life is more fulfilling and productive. I write this newsletter on topics that I find challenging in my own work-life. As Lily Tomlin says, "The road to success is always under construction." I welcome your ideas and hints too. My vision for this newsletter is that it will be a means for us to learn from each other.

Sound an Alarm*

I have just returned from my vacation.  I spent a week in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts at the Berkshire Choral Festival.  This year I sang Judas Maccabaeus with 170 other choristers.  It was magnificent!  This was my third year at BCF and it was as wonderful as my first two years.  Many participants have been going there each summer for 10 or 20 years!   When I announced in the March Road to Success that I was singing Judas Maccabaeus this year, one reader wrote "Perhaps "Sound an Alarm" could be a song title that finds its way into your ezine." It didn't fit this month's article so I have used it above.  "Sound an Alarm" is an air sung by Judas Maccabaeus and the chorus.  

We've had quite a hot summer so far and the humidity has been uncomfortable.  In past years at the choral festival we rehearsed and sang in facilities that were open to the outside and unairconditioned.  At performance time you really sweated under the hot lights and often had mosquitoes and other insects biting you as you sang.  I loved the music so much I hardly noticed!!  This year the school that the festival is at had a brand new airconditioned hockey rink that we used for the performance and rehearsals.  What a pleasure to be able to sing in comfort!  

Hope your July is going well.  Look for Parker's Points on August 9th!  

My Best,
Alvah Parker  

* A song from the Oratorio Judas Maccabaeus with words by Thomas Morell and music by George Frideric Handel

"Everyone has his own specific vocation in life. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus everyone's task is as unique as his specific opportunity to implement it. We detect rather than invent our mission in life."  Victor Frankl Man's Search for Meaning

Recently a client inquired about this quote which is at the bottom of my email messages.  He asked, "But do you think we are unable to invent our mission?  That all we can do is detect?" 

I do think it is possible to invent a mission for our lives but finding our special mission that takes detection. 

My doctor once told me that ever since he was a child he wanted to be a physician.  He just knew that that is what he was meant to do and he did it.  We often say that that sort of person has a calling.

I had a similar experience. Teaching was something I always knew I wanted to do.  The only teaching I knew about then was in a school setting and yet as time went on I realized that wasn't the right place for me.  Teaching, my calling, was right but not chemistry or math as I had been doing and not in a school.

So although I thought I found my calling (life purpose) I did not find my mission.  It took me many years to detect that my mission was teaching others to find and do meaningful work.

What is the difference between "detect" and "invent"?  If I "detect" my mission I have a feeling, an emotion.  If I "invent" my mission it comes from thinking about it.  The difference has to do with the heart (emotion) versus the head (thinking). 

Can you invent your mission in life?  You might get lucky and invent the right one but it is only through feeling that you detect it is right for you. 

There are probably a few people who hit upon their mission by inventing but most of us try at least a few different types of work before we detect our true mission.

Detecting your mission means you find exactly what you were meant to do in life, you are engaged by the work and it fulfills you in a really special way.  Many people search and invent potential missions until they strike on the right one. They know it is right when they feel the work they are doing is meaningful, satisfying and serves a purpose beyond themselves.

Having a mission in life is not for everyone. For some people "detecting" their mission is not important. Work is just a means to  make a living and have a comfortable life.  Their enjoyment comes outside of work.

My father always told me work was not meant to be enjoyable even though he appeared to be absorbed by his work.  He was a great example of someone really fulfilled by the work he did.  I have spent a good part of my life searching for that type of work myself.  The journey has been interesting and looking back I can see a stepwise process that got me here.

Work that is your mission in life can be done anywhere; in an office, at home, in a business, through a hobby, or through a volunteer organization.    It doesn't matter what your mission is or where you do it, what does matter is the feeling of satisfaction you feel as you do it.

Take action:

1. If "detecting" your mission is important to you start by noticing what kind of work makes you feel satisfied.  Notice the feeling in your body. Consider your whole life.  Sometimes satisfying events happen early in life.  (I get great satisfaction in knowing that I taught a younger cousin to read when I was six years old.)
2. Find ways to do more of that satisfying work at your current work position or in a volunteer position.
3. My clients write a biography as part of their search for their life purpose.  The biography is done in bullet points.  Try writing yours.  What themes and events do you see that might give you some clues?
4. Want to work with a coach to find your life purpose and your mission?  Call me at 781-598-0388 or email me at asparker@asparker.com.  If you struggle to psych up for work every day, this could be the answer.  It doesn't have to mean changing jobs or changing careers.  It may mean doing the work you do today in a different way or seeing it from a different perspective.

* Song from the Broadway musical Allegro with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and music by Richard Rogers

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Alvah Parker is a Practice Advisor and Career Coach. An award winning Account Executive and Sales Manager for AT&T, Alvah has successfully coached clients to define and achieve their goals. At AT&T, as a SCORE counselor and as a Practice Advisor and coach, Alvah uses her business knowledge to help her clients develop a business and/or career plan. Alvah specializes in working with attorneys who want to build a profitable and fulfilling practice as well as people in transition who are interested in exploring new career options. Her coaching helps her clients to get clear about their personal vision. From that they design a plan and strategy for the future based on that vision. Alvah coaches her clients over the telephone. This means she can be reached from anywhere in the world. You can reach Alvah at 781-598-0388 or asparker@asparker.com.

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