Author: Christina Bruni

Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.

American Pie

In 2019 I pitched to editors a bulletproof book proposal for Working Assets.

Sadly, publishers adhere to the “standardization covenant” in deciding which books to sell.

With a Visionary archetype I could see [and peers, therapists, and others could see] the need in the marketplace for the career guide.

Alas, the editors rejected the book precisely because it didn’t fit the mold of books already published.

There was no precedent for a career guide for individuals diagnosed with mental illnesses.

And it wasn’t written by a celebrity–the age-old excuse for not publishing a writer that isn’t famous.

As I see it, Working Assets scared editors’ pants. Reading this book might just enable people who have been abandoned to rise and roar.

The guide could enable peers to compete with others in the mainstream.

Like I wrote at my Left of the Dial blog years ago everyone’s competing for slices of the American pie.

There’s a limited amount of slices to go around in this country teeming with citizens.

Those in power in the patriarchy as it exists today would like to keep the disadvantaged away from the pieces that are left over.

Everyone seems to want to grab for bigger and bigger slices.

Only to be selfish is the root of the destruction of our society and of our planet.

You can have your cake and share your wealth. No need to be greedy.

Abundance is the true measure of wealth. And it has nothing to do with money.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about earning income and having true wealth.

CURESZ Profile

Out of the blue I had the opportunity to have my recovery story featured on the CURESZ.org website.

You can read my profile there along with the stories of other individuals that have succeeded in the face of living with schizophrenia.

As a person with a Visionary archetype, I’m an innovative thinker.

Seeing my CURESZ profile alongside the others got me thinking.

It was the first time in my recovery that I wasn’t called out as “the exception to the rule” as has happened wherever else I’ve been quoted.

Seeing that there were other people like me who had achieved goals I could understand that we’re all in this together.

Having an illness could positively impact your identity when you see your disability as a strength not a liability.

This sounds ironic or impossible.

The illness is the kind of enemy that’s closer to you than your friends.

Yet when you make peace with the diagnosis it frees you to envision a life without boxes you need to check off.

You’re given the mandate to choose alternative options for a career.

You can royally go your own way against the standard operating procedure.

Read my CURESZ profile here.

In the coming blog entry I’m going to talk about what it’s like to achieve things in a world where people diagnosed with mental illnesses are told to stay in our places and not compete with others.

Dark Horses

The number-one career book I’ve read is Dark Horse: Achieving Success through the Pursuit of Fulfillment.

It got me thinking about real life as it’s played out in America for most people.

It’s a mistake going after what everyone else has because you think you should have these things too.

In society we’re inculcated from an early age that to get ahead we have to get into a good school to get the right degree to get a coveted job.

Author Todd Rose in Dark Horse calls this flawed method “the standardization covenant.”

The dilemma is that everyone else is doing the identical thing. Competing against others has become the norm.

According to this copycat way of doing things once you achieve the goal of getting that job or position in life you’ll be happy.

The divergent careerists in Dark Horse weren’t happy chasing other people’s dreams of what success looked like. This set these Dark Horses up to fail.

The individuals in the book did 360-degree turnarounds.

A woman with a failed corporate job started up a successful supper club.

A woman with a doomed office career created a better livelihood as an inventive floral designer.

They prove the premise that your individuality should not be forsaken in the quest to earn income.

In a coming blog entry I’m going to talk about how having an illness can impact your identity in a positive way.

My recent CURESZ.org recovery profile got me thinking about this very thing.

Normal Gets You Nowhere

Years ago I picked up for free a copy of the Kelly Cutrone life-and-career guide Normal Gets You Nowhere.

The author is Sicilian like I am and works in the fashion industry.

Her book title should be taken to heart as a truism.

The definition of normal is:

“Of or having ordinary or average intelligence; conforming to a standard or type; free of mental defect.”

Does being ordinary or average sound appealing?

One of my mantras is: Be innovative. Not a copycat.

My contention is that you won’t get very far in this lifetime trying to change yourself to fit into a mold of what other people think is acceptable.

Doing this you’ll make yourself ill.

It’s the foolproof route to a doomed career trajectory to have to work at job where you must act false to yourself every day.

Dare to be unusual in your method for achieving fulfillment, which will lead to your inimitable version of success.

Enjoy your quirkiness. What makes you different gives you an advantage.

Finding and succeeding at having a job you love is possible.

I have had this kind of career for over 19 years.

In the next blog entry I’ll talk about the number-one book I’ve read that got me thinking about doing what you love on a job.

Chris’s Preference for Blogging

My preference is for blogging as opposed to using Facebook.

I’ve removed the link to my Facebook author account from my Christina Bruni website.

Even though I’m technically a public figure on the internet I couldn’t keep up that Facebook page.

I don’t have it in me to make Mark Zuckerberg any richer.

Besides, I want to earn the big bucks myself because there’s always a new pair of shoes that this Fashionista could use : )

The Working Assets career forum like all my other blogs will be a judgment-free zone.

I’d love to have you join me in exploring career themes geared to those of us who are wired differently in the head.

And hey, there’s no shame in this.

The blog I’m keeping here is the new place for readers of all stripes and diagnoses and life challenges to come together united in our vision that recovery is possible.

The information here is for peers who have the desire and ability to get a job and succeed in doing that job.

Won’t you join me?

Ciao Friends

In June 2000 I obtained a Masters’ in Library and Information Science (MS) from Pratt Institute. Since then I’ve been a professional librarian in an urban public library. Ten years ago I found my niche in career services, helping library customers find jobs that use their skills and interests. In the last 10 years, upwards of 85 percent of the individuals I’ve coached have gotten job interviews that led to job offers. For five years I operated my own LLC as a career consultant.