APPENDIX D
 TEXT-ONLY VERSION OF ONLINE TOOL

Building Your Collection

"The future is not iwineihiig ie enter. The future is i,,neihinig i e create."
-Leonard I. Sweet

 CONGRATULATIONS! If you are struggling with your career decision-making,
it means you probably have the luxury of multiple choices. At this point, you are
probably bemoaning that fact and wishing that you had fewer things from which to
chose! Before you start this process, take time to revel in your options! You are
beginning the process of creating your life story and you have so many options for where
to take the plot.
 It's like walking into a library with three books one day and the next day finding a
library with thousands of volumes to chose between. Sure, the first library makes your
choice easier and faster... but you'll probably get stuck with something you may not
really want. In the second library, you'll have to narrow down your choice by figuring
out whether you want to look in mysteries, science fiction, biographies, etc., and then
you'll have to browse various books to make your selection. The process takes much
longer, but ultimately, you'll be more satisfied with your choice.
 Let's take the library analogy one step further. What if, instead of walking into a
small or large library, you were part of the planning committee. What if you could help
decide what books would line the shelves and how they would be arranged? This would
take even more effort than before, but all of your options would be distinctly yours to
create.
 In this way, you can think of the world of work as a giant library of your creation,
filled with collections of satisfying works.

 "Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. -John Barth

 So, how do you begin this overwhelming task of stocking your personal library of
options? To begin, you'll need to start thinking about your own story. It is not enough to
fill the shelves of your library with the stories of others, you'll need to begin to write your
own.
 Think about your favorite book or movie. A good story has a strong plot that
keeps it moving. These are the aspects that you can share with other people... "this
happened, then this happened, then this happened." Whether it is a book, movie, or
something you are sharing with a friend, the plot of the story is what happened.
Obviously, your story began before you were even born. What you chose to tell people
about your life experiences as a child, what high school was like, or how you chose a
college can be considered the plot of your story up to this point.