What's in a hammy name?

In my year without a job, I've had to come to terms with who I am in the current context of my skills, my family needs and this economy. Sometimes it is easy to pay attention to the chatter of the world and all the things I should be doing in my job search. Sometimes it is easy to get myself crazy with thinking about all the "what ifs."

The simple truth is that you need to do what makes you happy and then the money will follow. My experience has been that while I understand this idea, I don't really know how to get from point A to point B. I was doing something that made me happy ( working in non profits) and then realized that I couldn't support my family doing this anymore. In my case, the job leads dried up.
After I started analyzing my career, I realized that in my current life with three kids, I could not support my family on my salary alone, even after two decades of work improving myself as a professional. Uh-oh.

Now what? At first, I did a lot of soul searching and reading and wallowing in self pity. That last part was really fun.

After trying to understand who I am now versus any fantasies I had about it, I had to center back on the one truth I know in my gut- do what makes you happy and the money will follow.
But I still wasn't sure how to get there from here. Given the current economy, doing anything risky seems, well, risky. I needed a job that paid and I thought I wasn't picky about what it was. I learned that I'm pickier than I knew and that I do have criterion and boundaries, even in these times. Compromises are just that- a change in what I will accept in my life and for my family.
I had to get clear about where I stood and not let all the voices out there influence my course.

I needed to get connected to my own passion.

Somewhere in all of this navel gazing I was doing, I watched Paula Deen on Oprah. She was discussing her own process as a wife and mother trying to support her family and all the barriers and fears she had to conquer. She centered on the idea that she had to do something she loved and was good at doing. She was determined and persistent and centered on who she was and what she was willing to sell of herself in order to make a living. Paula Deen got a lot of attention early on for her work selling ham for Smithfield by creating recipes, talking with people and being who she was. She found her ham- something she was comfortable selling that was a match for her.

http://www.smithfield.com/paula/

After I saw Paula on Oprah, I though, heck, I can find my own ham too. That inspiration led to the name Find Your Ham. I'm working on baking my ham and I hope you are too!