YOUR HOUSE OF KNOWLEDGE: (An adapted and extended version of Richard Bolles' excellent Memory Net exercise, as featured in various editions of What Color Is Your Parachute?) This exercise helps you to:

	Tap your hidden knowledge.
	Understand how your preferred interests provide huge clues about career satisfaction.
	Make new connections between what you know, and what you can do.
	Identify, record, value and communicate the things You know about.
	Use the House of Knowledge to discover things from your past that once; filled you with energy. Where is that energy today?
	Sit with someone else while they explore their own House of Knowledge, and your partner's ideas will probably jog your memory. If you've caught yourself saying 'Ah, I really used to enjoy ...', then look at why you dropped the activity or interest. Is there a YES, BUT in there somewhere?

It is also a vital step to help you to identify your areas of interests that may provide strong links into fields of work. What we choose to learn about is a vital part of who we are.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW? Just as we all have hidden skills, we have concealed but vital areas of knowledge. What's powerful about your hidden knowledge is not just what you know, but why you know it. A certain amount of knowledge is inflicted upon us in school, but from the age of 14 or so we begin to make choices even about our academic subjects. All the subjects we read, learn and think about in our own time tell us a huge amount about personality, aspirations and interests.

However, one point to beware: don't ignore the possibilities of new areas of knowledge you have yet to discover. One of the benefits of a demanding and eclectic education system is that it forces students to be exposed to subjects, materials and ideas that, at first sight, don't seem to be interesting at all. It's one of the reasons why exercises focusing on skills and knowledge don't tend to work with young people - they just haven't explored enough yet.

What do you know about? Think of a three -storey house with a ground floor, first floor and second floor. It also has an attic and a basement, and a garage at the side.

Each level of that house represents something of what you know. The exercise runs as follows. Like many exercises, works better if you have one or two people to ask you questions as you go along.

1. Begin with the basement of your house, the firm foundations provided by your home and school. What did your learn from your parents? This might be described in skills or values as well as just knowledge - that's fine, but try to concentrate on what you know (e.g. carpentry, gardening, looking after a pet, being a champion swimmer).

2. Complete the list for the ground, first and second floors. If it helps, write the obvious ones first, just to get them out of the way. These are the ones you have no trouble recording. They may already be on your CV. Now try to remember the things you forgot you know about. Here are some prompts that have worked for others when looking at education, work, and training:

	What did you enjoy best at school (never mind the subject titles on your certificates)?
	Which teacher did you like best at school? What was the subject?
	What was the first thing you wanted to read/learn about when you put aside your textbooks? What was that about?
	What interests do you have that your work colleagues know nothing
	Think about the training courses you attended that you got most out of. What were they about? What did you learn?
	What subjects have you ever enjoyed training others in?

3. Move on now to your leisure pursuits, areas of personal interest and things you have taught yourself. This is your attic - the part of your brain where you store that old junk you've forgotten you have, stuff you never thought you would find a use for. What areas of knowledge are hidden in those dusty boxes and bags? Some prompts again:

	Given a free choice, what would you choose to talk about over a relaxed meal?
	If you could teach a workshop on any subject in the world, given unlimited preparation time, what would that subject be?
	If you could learn about any subject in the world, from any teacher, what would that subject be?
	In the Sunday newspaper, fat with different sections, which part do/would you turn to first? Which part second?
	When do you find yourself reading, talking or thinking about a subject and others have to shut you up? When do you find yourself so engrossed in an article or book that the time passes unnoticed?
	What do your friends talk about? Think of a time when you have enjoyed learning about someone else's field of interest. Who could tell you more?
	Look at your old photograph albums. We usually arrange for our picture to be taken at times when we're happy. What were you doing when the pictures were taken?
	If you are an Internet user at home, which pages do you have book­marked?
	If you were accidentally locked into a large bookshop for the weekend, in which section would you camp out? Once you got bored, where would you go next? And next? Write down the headings which would appear on the bookshelves.
	Think of the junk mail you receive. Which items do you not put straight in the bin? What fields do they refer to?
	If you were offered an unlimited travel budget to visit trade fairs and conferences across the world, which ones would you pick? Do not confine yourself to the real - imaginary fairs will be even more productive.

4 Last but not least, the garage. It's on an annex at the side because it's about vicarious interests - living life through the eyes and minds of other people. Think about close friends whose interests you share. One of our friends has a long-held interest in the First World War. We've joined him on battlefield trips to both Verdun and the Somme, and realized through this experience how important the knowledge of others can be in shaping our own.

5. Look at your complete house. What have you missed out? It'll probably be things you consider 'trivial' like cooking, homemaking, family history. If you enjoy it, include it. One of our colleagues wants to extend the house picture so there's a garden as well - a place where interests may be, dormant, like dry seeds, waiting for the day when you water them. You can add rooms, too, for other areas of your life. When the well of ideas runs dry, use one of the prompts below to extract more from your hidden resource bank.

	Subjects you had nearly forgotten about (remember how you were a relaxed French speaker at one time?).
	Subjects that led you to turning points in your life (that pottery class at night school that made me change degree course ...).
	Areas of knowledge that once made your pulse beat faster, and made time zoom by.

This isn't idea generation but recovering parts of your past which you undervalue, and interests that will give you energy and enthusiasm in the future. 

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