I’ve heard the “Quarter-Life Crisis” is the new “Mid-life Crisis.” When I was in my mid-20s I somehow had managed to escape this anxiety-ridden event. And then the age of 30 came…
Before I elaborate, perhaps I should give any readers out there (I wonder if I will have any) some background.
I’m 31 years old, married to my wonderful husband for almost two years (our anniversary is coming up this September). We live in an amazing city that I am proud to call home.Things in my personal life are rather good.
My professional life is another story. Perhaps my so-called-career looks decent on paper, but every day I set foot into the office I feel like a caged animal and it takes everything in me not to burst into tears before I reach the ladies’ restroom. How pathetic.
Or sad.
Both perhaps?
How did I get here?
How did I end up feeling under-appreciated, invisible, and non-existent?
One thing is for sure–something has to change and it has to change soon. This is not healthy and this is no way to live my life.
So I started this blog as I embark on my journey towards discovering what truly makes me happy and how I can use this source and translate it into a fulfilling and rewarding career. After working in my current industry for nearly 9 years, the last 7 in my current company, it is time for a change. The question is…where do I go? What do I do? And can I find something I enjoy doing that also pays the bills?
One-Third of Life 
Great questions, great that you are asking them!!! Big question is who are you to yourself and who are you to others?
How much of what you want to be or have become is about others and how much is about who you are inside?
First thing to do I think, is dig deep and look back at your loves and interests as a child.
Did you pursue them?
Are they still with you?
Did you follow your own inbuilt loves and interests or did you follow the path laid out for you to be a success in the eyes of others or society?
Once you know the answer to these questions it becomes easier to know how to structure a life that feeds you.
We all need to pay our bills and contribute our bit financially.
That tends to be what others taught us and it is really important.
It’s why many loving parents push children into law business and medicine
But there are ways of doing this that take into consideration our deepest real selves.
Until we really have a firm grip on our deepest truest sense of who we are it can be difficult to structure a fulfilling life.
Retrospective Educational qualifications and skills don’t always shed light on the deepest real self of people struggling in careers that don’t suit who they are, but often suit who their loved ones and society want them to be.
There’s a weird sort of pay off in pleasing people.
It makes everyone except you feel happy and safe.
However I don’t think these things need to be black or white.
Once you have fished about and captured your older more lost dreams they can be incorporated into your current skills.
Without you having to lose all your hard earned ground.
A good career adviser is also a bit of a soul counciller
Anita Roddick schooled in business, but harboured a deep desire to create social change and for wealthy women to be beautiful as a means to empower other less wealthy but equally valued and beautiful women.
She had a vision of business being “fair” and “good” and “uplifting”
She found her way when she started the “Body Shop”
That venture took the heart of her oldest, deepest dream and it took courage to push forward with her vision.
BUT she empowered that into success by using the skills she picked up whilst doing the do in empty business and a dull job.
People believed in her vision but ALSO in her historical business acumen and so they invested
Once you know who you really are
You can take all your hard earned skills and pump them in the direction of your authentic self.
I think it’s great that you are asking all these questions, try not to be disheartened you are confronting a true and real feeling, this is brave and the first step in getting happy with where you are heading.
Jolie x