What Color is Your Bungee Cord?

Dick Bolles is very well known for his annual book: What Color is Your Parachute? This is probably the best known book on job hunting and career change.

I love the image of a parachute gently helping you land a job or a new career yet most job hunters and career changers I know don’t feel like they are floating down to earth. They often feel pushed into a new career through job loss or a parent who says to you at 33 years of age that it is time to stop living at home and there will be no failure to launch.

I  propose a new metaphor for career change: What Color is Your Bungee Cord? A bungee cord gives the feeling of rapid change, the willingness to go up and down, and the importance of slack to make the experience and cord work.

Here are 5 key principles (jump, dips, contradiction, bounce, and slack). Each principle includes a brief reflection question:

1. Jump. To have the bungee cord work you must jump into something. Are you ready to take the plunge or have you frozen with fear into the rut of your career?
2. Dips. You may need to take The Dip before you bounce back. I love Seth Godin’s line: Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. Is this the right dip or jump for you?
3. Contradiction. Success is in the details. Given the complexity of work it is more likely now that your parachute or bungee cord has multiple colors. Can you embrace complexity and contradiction and do you take time to really notice multiple key details in your jump? This principle reminds me of Walt Whitman’s line from Song of Myself, Do I contradict myself?
   Very well then I contradict myself,  (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
4. Bounce. Bungee cords are resilient. How well do you bounce back?
5. Slack. The slack of the cord being stretched is what creates the bounce back. Do you allow enough slack in your life so that you will be able to be stretched while also being able to bounce back?

Are you jumping, bouncing, or standing still?

What color is your bungee cord?

David Zinger’s bungee cord is red, white, and black. Red for strength, much like Tiger Woods wearing a red shirt on Sundays. White for beginner, like the white belt in the martial arts. Black for fear in making a jump but knowing fear can be an ally.