Have you ever taken those quizzes or career aptitude tests that assessed your interests and skills in order to determine what would be the right career for you? Did you receive the test results and scoff at the careers listed? Thinking that nothing could be further away from who you were and what your desired careers choices would be?
As a pre-teen I had a huge interest and obsession with the medical field. I wanted to be a doctor. I even made my own medical dictionary, hand written on binder paper with over 200 medical terminologies and descriptions. I was ten years old and completely unaware that there were dozens of medical dictionaries containing thousands of medical terminologies already published. At age twelve, I took a ten week First Aid course with the American Red Cross. At age fourteen, I spent a summer taking courses with the Mental Health Association in order to be a volunteer aide in a school for hyperactive kids. At age fifteen, I became a Candy Striper, volunteering two days a week at a local hospital for a year.
So, imagine what my response was when as a senior in high school it was mandatory for our class to take the career aptitude test and my results came back with only one career listed: FARMER. My jaw dropped in disbelief and immediately only one conclusion came to mind, that these tests are bunch of crap! A farmer! Are they nuts?
Ultimately I became a Registered Nurse for many reasons, mainly financial. Although I was very proud of my profession, took my career seriously and worked very hard as an RN, the reality was that my heart just wasn’t in it. A nurse wasn’t what I wanted to do or be, it was simply what I had chose to become.
So for 25 years, each day was spent getting up and “putting on my nurse’s hat” dragging myself to work, playing the role of a nurse for 12 hours, then dragging my tired bones home, only to repeat that scenario three more times each week, month after month, year after year.
Pure drudgery, but what else could I do? It paid a decent wage, after all I have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay, besides it’s really all I know and I’m good at it. But deep in my heart I knew that there had to be a better way to make a living.
I get on the internet and start searching for alternative jobs. Several ads with headings such as, “Fire Your Boss,” “Earn a Multiple Six Figure Income,” catch my eye. Curiously I click on a few and read testimony after testimony from “common everyday” people who have achieved the lifestyle and financial freedom one only dreams about by starting a home based business. Could I do that? Maybe, but the thought of being self-employed, starting my own business involved too much unknown scary, risky territory. Besides, I’m a nurse not a business owner.
But yet I would dream of being able to take vacations when ever I wanted, to be financially independent enough to have the time and luxury to spend hours working in my garden growing vegetables and lush green plants, working with my hands … Whoa! Flash back to high school and that aptitude test. Was it really that far off? It said “farmer” but could it be that it didn’t mean farmer literally, but meant that my career should be based somewhere around that type of industry?
What would have happened if I did take those test results seriously and did start a career in something farming related? Would I have been happier, would I have been content to continue in that field for my entire working life? It’s something I’ll never know because it’s something that never happened. It’s the past. Why continue pondering “what if”?
What I should really be asking myself is why am I staying in a career that is unfulfilling and makes me unhappy? What am I so afraid of? Why do I feel that I don’t deserve more in life? How can I ever improve my life or fulfill my dreams if I’m not willing to take risks?
We stay stuck for so many reasons. Financial pressures, family pressures, social norms, fear of disapproval, fear of failure, fear of changes. All these things keep the majority of us trapped in a box, afraid to truly follow our hearts and take risks. We do what is expected of us because it is “the right thing to do”. It’s safe, it’s secure, it’s all we know. We’re too old to start over in a new career. Plus who will hire and train us at this age anyway? So, we wear blinders to keep us content in the day-to-day drudgery of our jobs. We convince ourselves that we have no other choices. We make excuses instead of making changes.
The reality is that there are no tests out there that can tell us what to do or who to be or what will make us happy. We live in a great big world with endless possibilities. There’s so much to do, so much to see. Yet we choose to stay and live within just a small portion of it.
It’s time to take the blinders off and take a hard look within. It’s time to start taking those steps towards achieving our dreams for financial freedom and improving the quality of our lives. It’s time to stop making excuses. It’s time to take control and responsibility of ourselves. It’s time to accept that whatever bad choices or poor decisions we have made in the past, it’s those mistakes that have lead us to where we are today. Only we have the power to change our lives. The time is here. The time is now. Take action. Push fear aside. Go for the gold.
I’m not a farmer and never will be one, but I do have plenty of time to garden now. I gave up nursing. I gave up my safe, secure, unsatisfying job and took a huge leap and risk towards reaching my dreams and happiness. I’m a home based business owner. I’m going for the gold and I’m winning.
Financial Freedom - Pushing Fear Aside to Improve the Quality of Your Life
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