Tonight I’m thinking about how my career has progressed despite making many sub-par decisions in my personal, academic and professional life. It’s funny to me, because I’ve conditioned myself to turn my nose up to things that I think are below me, even if I really don’t deserve any better by most standards. I’m talking about going after sometimes simply because I want it.
I’ve done about every job you could imagine from cleaning toilets in state parks to selling polished up rotten vegetables to unsuspecting grocery shoppers. I’ve written dirt-paying SEO articles for content mills and done glorified data entry hour after hour, day after day, year after year… What did most of these jobs have in common that allowed me to make progress? They all really sucked and were mindless enough so that I could day dream for most of the day, do the bare minimum and think about what I wanted to be someday down the road. I also won’t do them again unless I’ve got loan sharks with baseball bats knocking against my door.
Funny enough… I think I just might be what I wanted to be down the road. At least part of what I had imagined professionally has manifested itself through me doing what needed to be done on the immediate term while I kept my head to the starts and using every bit of extra energy possible to get me there beyond what I needed to do to survive financially.
Now I find myself really having to challenge myself. I’ve been challenging people around me constantly lately by being a real pain in the ass and an over-chipper jobless bum. Have I shaken my standards and concepts about the world and myself enough? Do I need to kick this tree a few more times to see what or whom may fall out of it?
I’m actually semi-self employed as a contractor right now and have some truly exciting possibilities for full time self-employment and collaboration on the table. Or I might just get offered a job that meets all my current needs. I can say the former of those two options is going to be more difficult, less mapped out and stressful as hell. But, can I do it? Yeah, of course I can. There’s reason for me to believe otherwise.
Next week I’m taking a step in being location independent and flying out to Colorado to see my cousin and some friends. I’ve been out there once and thought it was beautiful and I’m going to try and look at it through a different set of eyes while I cook for her and her family, play with and walk her Pugs and drive around.
The flight was the right price (a.k.a. cheap as hell) and I’ve been wanting to go back and visit on a solo trip forever. For some reason I always put going back off since the last time I was there. Since I moved here, I always wanted to go visit Chicago and do stuff there or maybe even see other parts of the midwest. Now that I don’t have a desk job holding me to a single place for a set amount of time every day, I’m finally doing these things. I have to question myself… why did I wait? Can this be my life if I’d really like it to be? What do I need to do to make it happen like that? Maybe I can take off anywhere, anytime I want and have a home base wherever I choose if I manage my career correctly… and maybe I’ll continue to grow my career. What a concept!
Gotta keep shaking that tree and see what comes out of it. I think I see something up there that that I want.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
It sounds as if you’re moving in the right direction and in your field you should be able to be location independent if that’s what appeals. I have 3 kids so I have to stay put (more or less) but I did travel the globe for about 12 years before they were born and I have been on the move with the family too – most recently an 18month jaunt to Central America. Yeee haaaa:) If I can do it anyone can.
Great to connect with you via Brazen Careerist.
Good luck with all your plans! Keep persevering and you’ll definitely succeed:)
@Annabel, thanks for stopping by! I appreciate the comment. It’s good to know that people can be location independent to some degree in their life if they just choose to do so. Plus now you’ve got awesome kids I’m sure and it probably helped you get some valuable perspective before doing the family thing. I’m checking out your blog now. Glad to have connected!
location independence is the way to go
@Floreta You’ll have to let me know how it’s working for you!
I love your thinking here….but you already know that, given our conversations.
Keep shakin’ that tree. Big things are ahead for you.
@Cali, I’m trying to be like Newton here
Good luck with the location independence and I wish you best! Sounds enjoyable, though it would never be something I could do. I can’t work in an environment like that and I need an office. Otherwise the line between work and play gets blurred and…I just find that too confusing! Somehow, I love offices.
Anyway, if you are in Chicago SAY HI to me!
Also, random question: where did you find this cheap flight deal? I want to take a vacation somewhere in June….
Wonderful choice of words, especially the “shaking the tree” part. You will find your way no matter what you do, just remember to do it. I moved here to the US with nothing to my name but a couple of hundred dollars in may 2000.
rest james, you know – as they say is history.
Think about this—(my motto)
” whatever you do in the next five years of your life, will shape the next 25 yrs!!!”
Akhila, where do you go to school? I may just come visit for the hell of it when I get back. I’m all about road trips to cure boredom.
As for needing an office, it all depends with me. If the office environment is awesome, then cool.. but all office cultures are not created equal in my eyes… hence the interest in location independence.
As for the cheap tix, my cousin hooked it up because she works for the airline. However, TravelZoo.com has pretty amazing deal alerts too. You gotta monitor them and be ready to go at any moment though. That’s usually how I roll.
Robbie, those words stuck in my mind from when you first told them to me. Your story is kickass and you’ve definitely inspired me to take good, calculated risks.
As for what’s next or where I’ll be… that’s to be seen. Definitely hoping something comes through soon, but I’m keeping my eyes open on the long term regardless.
To the next five years….
Nice little reflection here. If you truly have the opportunity, I think you should go with the independent route. At least, that’s what I’d like to do. Maybe I just want to live vicariously through someone else.
Honestly Jake, I’ve advised so many people to at least ATTEMPT to do what I’m saying here, I feel I owe it to myself to try. We’ll see if I get any job offers that temp me enough to delay it again. Either way, I hope you get to do it too!