My youngest daughter asked me last evening, “Mom, what did you want to do before you did this.” Clarification was needed, so I asked, “what this?”, to which she replied, with a wave of her hand in the air, “all this?” Now, that translated, lead me to believe she was including my stint as mom, dog, cat and bird caregiver, taxi and courier service provider, chief cook and bottle washer, maid – oh and in there somewhere is actually writing, designing, artwork and well – the other things that make me who I am today.
Open up a whole new world for yourself
I didn’t have to think very hard, “A facial reconstruction artist” I replied.
“Ewww, you wanted to reconstruct people’s faces?”, in a sense yes. A long time ago, I wanted to be a Forensic Artist working with Police forces and doing those renditions that would capture the bad guys, but also working with clay and reconstructing facial likenesses for “unsolved” cases where a skull was the only foundation to go on. Gruesome work I guess but it intrigued me. The problem at the time was that I was ahead of my time. I wanted to work with computers for facial compositions yet there was nothing available back then to allow me to do this and well, my programming skills to develop such? Let’s just say I’d probably still be putting the program together.
Today, I immerse myself in the “crime scene” by watching shows on the subject or reading books where the key character does this type of work as my way of staying in touch. Instead of a facial re- constructionist I ended up a Financial Analyst – a far less mysterious vocation unless you considered eeking out the mysteries that some people attempted to succeed at to hide their personal expenses in with the “allowable” ones.
By the time I’d ended up burnt out in the field I was experiencing aches and pains that warned me there were problems and I was once again thinking about “what I wanted to be”. I found myself immersed in a couple hours worth of psychology testing to determine where it was I should head. After the exercise, I was provided with a “book” about myself that outlined what I’d be good at. Did it help? Well, in a way yes. I discovered that from the stand point of the psychological testing (if I can place any stock in them which regarding some professions indicated…I couldn’t put much) I was equipped to walk in to almost any job on the planet! From the standpoint of a person who had absolutely no clue in which direction to head now, no, it didn’t help very much at all.
Sometimes when we are given too many choices, told that we are good at too many things, we have to do our own analysis – with pen and paper or computer and notepad, whatever gets us through it. Mind you not everyone has the “opportunity” to reinvent themselves again – some of us know exactly what we want, where we’re headed and how we want to get there almost from the time we can crawl. I was not one of those people.
Too Many Choices or Not enough?
Make doing what you love stand out in your life!
Being faced with a change in direction sometimes, particularly during these economic down-turns that are causing people who have 20 and 30 years experience in a single vocation to suddenly find themselves seeking out new avenues, can be a very frightening time. Been there, done that. However, rather than allowing the loss of a job to throw us into a downward spiral, often we have to simply change our way of thinking a bit to look at the “loss” as an actual opportunity. Sometimes though, that’s much easier said than done. Why? Well, we have those myths that have been lying around for a dozen centuries and some of them go like this:
- You’re too old to start over: I’m sorry but I simply don’t fall for this one. You are never too old to start over – you only think you are. You are your own destiny charter, if it isn’t done by you then by whom? No one. Of course, you could find the doors closed on those hi-tech jobs that require all manner of tech related jargon and skill sets to get you in the door but this is where you improvise…are you interested in hi-tech? What niche? What really intrigues you, gets you excited about it, is something you could do all day long and never tire of doing it? You have years and years worth of experience as an employee – why not put that sense of direction to work and start something on your own? Which usually leads to another myth,
- Starting your own business is too difficult, to costly and takes too many failures to get it right: Although there is slight truth to this, unless you try will you ever really know whether or not you could make something work? Sometimes the simplest ideas end up being one of the greatest to come along in a long time. Sometimes, something that bothers you and you wish there was a solution for it is staring you in the face telling you to take the opportunity and do something with it. But, of course, that leads us into yet another mythical expedition,
- Someone, somewhere has probably already done it, failed at it and that’s why there isn’t anything like it on the market! Oye. When you get to this myth, everything usually disintegrates and gets tossed on a back burner where it just congeals and goes absolutely no where. Unfortunate really because a few months down the road what do you see? Your idea, or something quite similar, sitting out there making someone else who decided to give it a whirl…lots of cash! Yes, I’m talking from experience
- I couldn’t possibly do what I love, I have to eat!: Of course you do, but…while doing what makes you truly happy, your food would always taste sooo much better! There are just not enough hours in a day for me to spend really ranting about this particular myth. Doing what you love to do means that you don’t consider it work, you don’t drag through a day watching the clock – if anything you would want to set the clocks back every hour!
- I don’t have enough in savings to allow me to invest in myself: Sometimes this can be a little bit of a set back can’t it? That is if you really allow it to be the “myth” that propels you to stay exactly where you are. This is why there is such a thing called “easing”. Easing into a new direction can be done and done reasonably easily. You still gain the backing of your current position but you take the time, no…let me rephrase that…MAKE the time to begin to fashion out the little steps that will push you toward the bigger steps and you do so within your comfort zone if you wish. Personally though, I can’t recall too many people who have gained a lot of headway by remaining within their comfort zone. Breaking out of a comfort zone can be a little frightening (or painful if you’ve been pushed out) but sometimes it’s that move alone that really forces you to see that indeed you can do what you love and make a living at it.
As I write this I am crammed with things to do…I really shouldn’t even be writing a blog post given that I have several articles due, a course to study that I have 3 days left to do the lesson I’m on, if I want to stick to my schedule for certification. I have a podcast to finalize and one yet to be edited and uploaded for broadcasting. I have an e-book to put together for someone I’m helping to launch their own “love to do” direction, and that still doesn’t touch on the website and blog I’m developing for my podcasting and for my Hypnotherapy practice or any of the other things I’ve yet to complete!
What’s my point? Well, the main one would be I am loving it! I am swamped and I am thrilled. I’m not stressed, I’m not broke and I’m not starving! I am doing everything that I could ever possibly want to do with my life – well, not quite…my travel business still has to get into the fray of things at some point – which by the way blends in with just about everything else I do because I’ve decided to plan it that way…but I’m free to do exactly what I choose to, when I choose to do it and well…the money I generate is great to have but it’s the fact that when I get the money I can sit back and say, “boy, that was well worth the crazy schedules!”
No matter what you are doing right now, if it isn’t what you LOVE to do? Re-evaluate. Analyze where it is you want to be and then decide how you’re going to get there. You just might surprise yourself to discover that once you set out on the path you want to go on, all things just start falling into place and people, events, even websites for research or growth, start showing up. Why? Well, simply because you are actually paying attention to what it is YOU really want. The only one who can do it though – is YOU – and I’m pretty certain that you can do whatever it is you would love to do – if you really, truly want to!
Here’s to the best of what’s yet to come for each of you!
Akaiya
