Recently I read an article by whom I cannot remember but I wish I could; this person put in writing things I could not myself verbalize regarding the mere notion that one has a calling and one has a career and while our lives may intersect the two or whether they run parallel, we shouldn’t ignore what makes us happy but how do we do it?
I feel like on most days I am an average person; not exceptionally smart, not exceptionally beautiful and not really great at many things. I am really only great at one or two things. I am not the sort of person who can where white and not spill, my hair and nails are never perfect and I use profanity way past the classy-but-cool mark. Most days I feel like I have goals and I have dreams and I have a schedule that is completely unorganized. The chaos in my mind, the tornado of thoughts, never really settles. There are a lot of us out there though, right? Trying to do our best to get it right, but who really knows what that is? Well there is one thing I am really good at: I know I'm good at it, I'm passionate about it and it's literally my life. So I am going to figure out some way to make it a bigger part of my life! I also know I am not completely happy, so I am going to take some steps to really expand my happiness, it is after all, my biggest responsibility to myself, eh?
Well, this article sparked me. I have, for months, been feeling the need to spread my wings but I have had no direction specifically speaking to me. I read this little ray of sunshine, this catalyst to something greater; this glimpse of calm in my crazy and I had to do something. So I wrote it down. Tah-Dah.. That pandemonium started to come out my fingertips.
- Complete a list of goals.
- Personal Goals
- A.
- B.
- Career Goals
- A.
- B.
- C.
- Educational Goals
- A.
- B.
- Personal Goals
Okay- That felt a little better. Now what is it I am happy with? I haven’t the slightest. So let’s rephrase: What am I great at? THAT one thing! Is that what I want to do for my career? I actually don’t think so but I wouldn’t mind making some extra cash at it, or at least spreading my education of it to others who can’t afford to get it on their own!
So I wrote out my Educational Goals first because I would like to finish my degree, and it’s more black and white, i.e., easier to figure out. I also found some things I’d like to improve on so how about a writing class?! Stuck that little sucker in there.
Next I thought about my job; Do I like it? It’s okay; I like the people I work with and I do like my job, but I’d like something that wasn’t at a desk. I would love to be outside, up and about. So, I looked at courses I could take to broaden my skills set so I could really narrow down a career path that could be better. At first I had no real idea, so I started doing some research on possible career choices; I started filtering through EVERY degree program offered at a local college and I found some really cool areas of study that I think I would enjoy, that would also fall in line with a career path I could see myself on. I started a list, which at first was HUGE. I actually started to get overwhelmed looking at it and instead of falling down that rabbit hole I started to cross things off: I started crossing off the things that had no direct connection with what I love and enjoy as a hobby and what I do for work. I narrowed it down to four things and I felt so much better!
I then looked at my Personal Goals. What is it that I want out of life? I want, more than anything, to be better at what I love. So I made a list of three things I could do that would help me with that. One was a course in that area of expertise, to build my confidence and give me more of a gift to share with myself and with others and one was a financial goal.
In breaking these down into goals, I find myself more inspired to break through the haze and it gives me some sort of focus. Just this evening I saw an advertisement for an article about how people got famous. I did not read it but the quote on the ad was something like, “Stay focused.” Of course it’s easy to think that, and it’s easy to get in a rut but I think the missive I took was that it isn’t easy, and maybe none of it is, but you can get where you want to go if you take care of yourself. Stay true to your dreams and work to stay on the path and you’ll figure it out, even if you can't quite articulate it yet.
