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I know that my blog is not a place where I talk about my job or career ambitions, but I felt the need to share this today. I hope that it can resonate with a few of you. For me, healthy living is not just about eating right and exercising, it encompasses so many things. I am a firm believer that being your healthiest self requires a sense of fulfillment. Fulfilment with your relationships, your job and especially yourself.
For the last year or so I haven’t felt fulfilled. I have an amazing life in front of me but I just wasn’t making the most of it. Most of this stems from my lack of contentment with my job (I do brain imaging research on babies born preterm and sick) but slowly these feelings started to creep into other areas of my life. I spent far too much time complaining and not enough time taking action. There are some people in life who have it all figured out. They’ve known from birth what they wanted to do with their life, got into a good college, continued on their professional path and life plays out as they expect it to. I am not one of those people.
Unless being a professional figure skater counts as a career ambition I really had no clear life aspirations growing up. Like most people, I knew I wanted to be successful, but in what domain I really had no clue. In university I switched my major 3 times before finally settling on psychology. I really did love studying psych. I find people fascinating so learning why people act like they do was really interesting to me.
To continue in the realm of psych you have one of two options, more school or research. I was looking to try something new so I opted for the latter. First in New York and then in Toronto. In my brief stint of funemployment between NYC and Toronto I knew that going onto another job in research wasn’t the right move for me, but I am a practical person and employment meant more to me than passion. I discovered quite quickly in my current job that passion is necessary to not getting burnt out. I was lacking that key element and my motivation waned.
Despite my lack of enthusiasm for research, I have been fortunate to have incredible bosses in both of my jobs. They epitomize intelligence and work ethic and the passion I see in them is something I would like for myself. I’m just in the wrong field. Coming to that realization was easy, but making the change was incredibly difficult.
Quitting has a bad reputation. It’s viewed as giving up or throwing in the towel, but I really don’t see it that way. Sometimes you have to let go of things that aren’t good for you. This year I had to quit running, and you know what? Life went on. If anything I’ve grown from the experience. And that’s how I’m choosing to view quitting my job, as an experience from which I can grow. I see it as an opportunity to try new things, step out of my comfort zone and become a better version of myself.
So what’s next? A few things. First, I will be dedicating more time to Kewaza. I could not be more thrilled with this opportunity and am excited to be a part of a growing company led by an inspiring young entrepreneur. I also will be trying my hand at some catering. Clearly I love to cook and bake and nothing makes me happier than having people share in this goodness.
I also want to expand my knowledge of nutrition and have toyed with the idea of taking classes. I’m waiting to see how much free time I have in the New Year before I commit to anything. I have a habit of overburdening myself and I’m trying to avoid this in 2014.
And then there’s the blog. I’m not going to pretend like I don’t have aspirations for it. I love this little space of mine and I love being a part of the blogging world. I do not anticipate blogging ever becoming a full-time gig, but food props can get expensive so the pocket change I make from ads helps to pay for those. I do, however see it as a platform to many different opportunities that will hopefully present themselves along my journey. I do NOT blog for the money. Blogging is my release, it’s what I look forward to at the end of the day and has connected me to unbelievably inspiring and talented friends around the world. I could not be more grateful to every single one of you who shows up here everyday.
It makes me nervous that I am giving up a formal title for an unknown one. I’m no longer a research assistant and instead am becoming a trick of many trades. I’ve made peace with the fact that I don’t need to have it all figured out. I probably never will, but I need to try out many different things to figure out what fuels my fire. Because if not now, when?
I could not relate to this post more (former psych major here!) . Quitting sometimes is the answer. Congrats on the change! You will find what you are looking for 🙂
Thank you!!!
I’m so glad you shared this.Quitting your job definitely must have been a difficult decision but I’m right there with ya! I had no choice since my husband was relocated but I was definitely ready to find something new and this provided me the opportunity to explore! Now to figure out where to start haha. Wishing you all the luck in the world!
I know you totally understand 🙂 I love watching your adventures and I KNOW one day those adventures will be shared in the same city! eeeee can’t wait!
Loved reading this Davida. It’s true – if not now, then when! Passion is so key and something I have come to realize. I am still struggling with the whole follow your passion/make money. Working in the arts and culture sector isn’t always the most profitable… but I’m going to go with the old saying that follow your passion and the money will follow… Haha!
After working a 9-5 job I would really love to pursue something a bit more flexible – like small business/entrepreneur, similar to things you mentioned above. Would love to hear how you find the switch once you are into the thick of things!
Let’s hope at least some money follows…but for now I’ll settle for happy 🙂
you already know how proud I am dear…we are all very different and we need to sometimes let go of unhappy things because thats the only way to move forward. keep me updated 🙂 🙂
Will definitely keep you updated! Thank you so much D! And great things coming for you too. Wish I could lend you my citizenship!
Amen sister!
<3 Peace out mental health!
I think that it was really brave of you to share this, Davida. You’ve got to do what makes you happy and if you’re not happy then you have to change something.
I really love being a journalist, I love writing, speaking to people, hearing their stories and following up articles. However, the long hours are tiresome. I would love to have the time (and money) to blog full time. I sometimes I feel my blog gets neglected because I have to ensure the paper gets out every week on time.
I know that feeling! If blogging were a feasible career I’d love to do it, but I have to be somewhat realistic. Keep on writing when you can. We all gotta pay the bills too 🙂
I think it is so great that you are following your passion! I wish the best of luck to you! I am very passionate about helping people, kids, fitness, and nutrition. Right now I am teaching, but I’m not sure if that’s something I will do my whole life. It will be exciting to see where life takes both of us. 🙂
Thanks so much Becky! I’m excited to see where life takes you too! We are so fortunate to live in a world where going after our dreams IS possible!
The past couple years, I’ve fallen in love with baking, but I also know that isn’t always the most lucrative passion:) I want my job to be something I love, but I also want to be practical and money makes being practical a lot easier! I’ve always thought catering would be a blast, so if you end up doing it, let us know what it is like! I’m glad you keep blogging, because you are so good at it!
It can be practical! Especially with talent like yours! Don’t ever give up Mary Frances. You have great things coming in your future 🙂
Wow, congrats girl! This is a huge, brave step and I am SO proud of you for it! It may be scary to step off the beaten path, but life really is too short to do something that doesn’t light you up. I think the more you trust yourself and where you want to go (even if you don’t know exactly where that may be), the more you’ll find things falling into place for you. I’m wishing you lots of love as you move forward! This is going to be a great new chapter in your life! Thank you for sharing your bravery and story with the rest of us!
Thank YOU Alex for inspiring me to open up more about my life! I love the honesty you project in your posts and they always feel relatable to me. Gave me the confidence to share more of my journey 🙂
So proud of you for making the best moves for you! I can totally empathize with feeling uninspired at a job… I feel that way about nursing from time to time. As much as I love it, there are certain aspects I really don’t. I’m working on finding out how to incorporate my passions into my future career 🙂
I’m so excited for you graduate and start making moves to figure out your passions! The world is your oyster so NEVER settle! Can’t wait to see you in a few weeks 🙂