That’s what I wondered for years. I mean, if I was spending 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, doing something to earn that paycheck, why couldn’t it be something I loved?
Well, Reason #1 was because $30,000.00 is a lot of money. And once I had spent that on my degree, I couldn’t very well say that it was a waste. That’s the most money I’d ever borrowed in my life, and to think I did that just because I was ‘supposed to get a good degree’?
Reason #2 was because I had no idea what I would love to do. Besides going on vacation… (but that wasn’t a job back then. Now of course, an Influencer is a paid job, whose job it is to go on vacation and make other people drool.)
And obviously Reason #379: I never met a Career Coach.
Disclaimer, I did take a Career Assessment before choosing a College degree. Thing was, after I waited with bated breath to find out what hidden superpowers I had, I opened my report to find two recommendation. The first was a farmer, and the second was a Nursing Home Administrator. Huh?
My 18 year old logic told me not to take the advice of a robot I’d never met, who clearly didn’t know me that well. Besides, none of my friends were getting farming degrees. Social life is a big reason to make a lifelong decision, isn’t it?
A Masters of Education fit the bill (in the expensive sort of way), and the social requirement, and so it was.
I followed the expected route, graduated, desperately tried to get a good job, got the ‘good’ job, and shortly after realized I wasn’t loving it. Hmmm…. this is what I voluntarily went to school for? So I tried another area in my field, thinking that maybe it was the age, or the specialty, or the focus, but it wasn’t. I tried, and tried, and tried again. Maybe it was the location? The pay? Hours? It only took me a decade to come to the conclusion that it was none of those things. It was just the wrong field for me.
Whoops.
The rest of the story was a very long and winding road, which took over a decade to travel. On the way, I learned a lot about myself, about how work actually works, and how many people were in the same boat as me – bored, uninspired, knowing that there must be a better way.
I searched, and I found.
I found there is a better way. Not only better, but more lucrative, more satisfying, and waaay more fun, in every single way.
Nowadays, I commute all the way downstairs, take a seat in my office, and get to work with the most inspirational people, doing what I love best. Instead of looking at my watch, I actually have to set an alarm to remind me to stop working! That’s what I call flow, enjoying something so much that you forget being tired or hungry, your mind is fully immersed in an enjoyable activity. The best part is, that the people I work with usually leave my office with their heads help higher, their confidence restored, and their faith in themselves intact again. I’m amazed every day that I can make a living having such a grand time.
Now that’s what I call a good job.
What do you do to make a living?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and don’t exactly describe your work as ‘fun’, that’s because we haven’t yet met. Get in touch. I can’t wait to meet your superpowers and put them to work for you.
Am I having a Quarter-life Crisis?
Read more