According to the dictionary, to be resourceful means able to act effectively or imaginatively, especially in difficult situations. Of all the skills and qualities that enhance the joyfully jobless journey, none is more valuable than resourcefulness.<\/p>\n
The poster child for resourcefulness was Angus MacGyver, hero of the television series that captivated audiences in the late eighties and early nineties. MacGyver dazzled audiences with his inventive use of common objects\u2014including his trusty Swiss Army Knife\u2014to foil the bad guys and get himself out of desperate situations. MacGyver was the master of improvising solutions in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n
While MacGyver was fascinating he was also fictional. Less dramatic, but equally effective, resourcefulness goes on everywhere, every day. Consider Walter Swan, a retired plasterer and eighth grade flunkout who harbored a dream of his own. <\/p>\n
For years, Swan had entertained his wife and their eight children with stories about growing up in the deserts of Arizona. Although he could barely read or write, Swan had a dream of turning his memories into a book. He taught himself to type with two fingers and began writing down his stories. His wife corrected and retyped the book and Swan optimistically sent his manuscript to several publishers. They all turned him down.<\/p>\n
Discouraged by the rejection, Swan packed the manuscript away for ten years. But the dream of publishing success wouldn\u2019t go away. Then Swan got the idea to publish it himself. He mortgaged his house, bought a computer which his wife learned to use, and bravely ordered 1,000 copies of Me \u2019n Henry<\/em><\/strong>. His exhilaration dimmed somewhat as he tried to interest bookshops in carrying his beloved journal. He found few takers.<\/p>\n He managed, however, to sell his first 1,000 copies and that was all the encouragement he needed. There\u2019s got to be a way to sell even more copies he reckoned. What if he opened his own bookstore? He scouted around the near ghost-town of Bisbee, Arizona and found an empty space next door to the town\u2019s only bookstore. It was just what he was looking for.<\/p>\n This bold move turned him into a bit of a celebrity. His One Book Bookstore brought him loads of national publicity. His days became filled with chatting with the numerous tourists who stopped by to purchase his book and have their picture taken with the author. Forty years after he first began working on his dream, Swan\u2019s personal resourcefulness made it come true.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were to wish for anything,\u201d mused Soren Kierkegaard, \u201cI should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.\u201d That\u2019s the essence of resourceful thinking. The eye which sees the possible becomes the means to start things moving.<\/p>\n A simple way to expand your own resourcefulness is to give up any thoughts that begin with \u201cIf only,\u201d and replace them with thoughts that begin with \u201cWhat if?\u201d \u201cWhat if\u201d questions open the door to new possibilities, while \u201cif onlys\u201d keep us stuck and helpless. It\u2019s astonishing, really, what a difference two little words can make. \u201cIf only I had more customers,\u201d can become, \u201cWhat if I tried one new marketing idea every week?\u201d \u201cIf only I could spend a month in Spain,\u201d becomes \u201cWhat if I found someone in Spain to exchange houses with in September?\u201d You get the idea.<\/p>\n The resourceful person approaches problem-solving with the belief that there\u2019s never just one way to accomplish anything. There\u2019s an amazing spectrum of ways to do even the simplest things. The same is true for the complex. Be focused on what you want and flexible about how you achieve it. Like Walter Swan, the resourceful person knows that the possibilities are endless and like MacGyver, proves it. <\/p>\n \u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0\u00b0<\/p>\n Although the description for Follow Through Camp<\/a><\/strong> doesn\u2019t mention resourcefulness, that\u2019s really the focus of that event. You\u2019ll discover that you\u2019re even more resourceful than you may have thought and leave with more options than you had when you arrived. There are still five spots available in the upcoming Follow Through Camp<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>which happens on September 11 & 12 in Chaska, MN. <\/p>\n Demonstrate your own resourcefulness by taking advantage of the Early Bird enrollment which expires on August 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to the dictionary, to be resourceful means able to act effectively or imaginatively, especially in difficult situations. Of all the skills and qualities that enhance the joyfully jobless journey, none is more valuable than resourcefulness. The poster child for resourcefulness was Angus MacGyver, hero of the television series that captivated audiences in the late…<\/p>\n