Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
Since you follow my blog, I’m going to assume you’re a creative type, or have a passion that’s as necessary to you as breathing, whether or not circumstances allow you to do it.
Have you ever wished you could just quit your job and do it? As the question goes – if money were no object…
Maybe it’s because I just seem to be attracted to other dreamers, doers, and risk-takers, but it seems most people I talk to have an ultimate dream of quitting their job and starting a business doing their whatever-it-is-that-lights-them-up. And they always seem to work in an office. (Why is that, anyway?)
I’ve got nothing against office jobs. I do have something against when people I care about have talents and desires to make the world a better place, and are understandably unable to do anything with it because of the need to work in a job where they feel miserable every day. Oh, I feel it! I’ve sat in your office chair too, at your very desk – for 17 years. We probably commiserated and fantasized together about the better way we knew must be out there, and laughed that we were even talking such nonsense.
A bit of backstory ~ I worked in a corporate – type office from 1980 to 1996. I learned so many different jobs there, most I disliked, and one I loved. It was friendships I made there that kept me from losing my mind. It was clear to me I just wasn’t cut out for office work. I did well having a business in direct sales on the side for several years, which would be a valuable experience in many ways; it gave me an opportunity to work at something meaningful to me personally, instead of helping someone above me to reach their goals while I made peanuts. Then the office politics! I have no time or patience for them, yet the more I tried avoiding the fray, the more I was dragged into it. Being an intuitive type, I spent way too much brain power contemplating the dynamics between coworkers in order to avoid getting involved.
I was saved but didn’t realize it, when our company downsized and I was one of those who got the axe.
I believe that when something calls to you – and it feels irrational and crazy to even listen to it, because…..well, money – when a thought becomes a desire, becomes an obsession, we should listen. Ever try shutting down that nagging voice? I started collecting books about starting my own business! It always seems that life will help you get here, wherever your “there” is.
Suppose you start out slow and small? Do whatever it is you love for a couple of hours a week. Once you open the door, who knows what’s next? Just start somewhere. Find ways to steal time, meet people who are doing what you do. Share experiences, look forward to it. Be open to where it takes you! If it brings you joy, it certainly will do the same for everybody you share it with.
After leaving my job, I resumed playing violin after a 20-year hiatus. My violin has led me to countless wonderful people, friends, places, experiences, and income.
I’m very sure your experience will be similar.
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