Choose Courage: Step Into the Life You Want (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781490343303)

Though I may not seem a neatly-defined expert to some, my focus has consistently been helping people realize their true capacities to benefit themselves and others. As a result, I integrate specialist and generalist knowledge, interests, experience, and education. Since 1983, I have consulted with over 1000 career and life management clients of all ages and backgrounds. Building beyond conventional approaches, I provide original materials, inspiration, and tailored guidance to promote their self-sufficiency and progress. www.ruthschimel.com I speak and write, train and facilitate groups. In 1998, I conceived and now manage The Schimel Lode, a nontraditional foundation to promote collaboration and innovation for the public good in the Washington, D.C. area. www.TheSchimelLode.net Previously, I was a management consultant and taught a variety of human resource subjects at Georgetown, American, George Washington, and Marymount Universities. In a prior incarnation, I served as a diplomat in the Department of State, Ecuador, Guatemala, and India. I did a range of work including human resources, intelligence analysis, and management of the consular section in Calcutta. I continue to speak Spanish. Honoring the complexity of human beings, my interests continue to bridge a range of disciplines as you'll see expressed in Choose Courage. They include the arts, sciences, and social sciences. My degrees are: -Ph.D. in public management, workforce development, and gerontology from George Washington University (GWU) -M.A. in behavioral science, government, and personnel, GWU -B.S. in industrial and labor relations comes from Cornell University The theme of courage for my doctoral dissertation actually came through a vision. It unites my passions, interests, education, skills, and experience, just as I encourage my clients to do with their lives. From the research, I know that dealing with a mob in Calcutta or confronting a street thief was not courageous - maybe foolhardy, in fact. But meaning what I say and doing what I mean, as Horton the Elephant said, comes much closer to my new, 21st-century definition of courage. A process of becoming, it is the willingness to realize your true capacities by going through discomfort, fear, anxiety, and suffering and taking wholehearted, responsible action.