"And what do you do outside of your job?" my former health coach asked me.
"Oh, well I study French. I try to take three to four hours of full-immersion class per week; plus I have my studying. So maybe up to 10 hours of that?"
"That's great," he said.
"Yeah, I think so. And I'm also a circus performer. I don't train every day, though. Maybe five days a week."
"Okay..."
"And now I'm writing, directing, and producing my own work in circus. I guess that probably takes up most of my free time."
"So you're basically working another full-time job outside of your full-time job?" he asked.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
"And do you think you would be doing all this if you were able to be an artist, performer, writer, producer, leader, and maybe even French speaker in your day job?"
[Insert professional breakdown.]
I've recently had a number of folks reach out to talk entrepreneurship and self-employment. It seems there's an uptick in employees who are considering paving their own career path. (Rad.)
As wild as I am about what I do, I'm the first to tell colleagues not to jump ship if there's anything in them that could be happy in a job with an existing company. (For more information on why, please see the majority of my previous blog posts.)
As best I can tell, you've got to want it bad to get through the highs and lows of managing a start up.
However, when that's the case- either because you simply can't work for another soul and/or the job you want isn't available or doesn't yet exist- I'd recommend getting your savings in place. And then buckle up.
About a year ago, my conversation with the health coach seriously caught me off guard. Up until that point, I really didn't believe I could "have it all" when it came to my career.
As someone who tests smack dab in the middle of being left- and right-brained, I always felt torn about what to do professionally. Every choice seemed to require a major sacrifice that drained me of my energy. After stumbling across Emilie Wapnick's TED Talk on "multipotentialites," I took comfort in knowing there were others like me who were pursuing very different interests. I also assumed I'd need to have multiple concurrent paths (and probably never get paid well as an artist).
However, my coach's question implied that perhaps that job might exist- maybe I could do all the things as part of my main career. The problem was I had no idea how to make that happen.
Searching the internet was both bleak and helpful. I could see that training and instructional design would satisfy most of my cravings. The majority of the jobs just weren't "me," though. (Why is it so damn hard to be an absurdist business and leadership trainer?!)
After a lot of soul- and Google-searching, I ended up taking a part-time training job that aligned very closely with my values (love you, LifeLabs!). I also vowed to use the remainder of my time to develop a company that would hopefully shake up my field for the best and encompass everything else required by my demanding... errr... "dynamic" brain.
It feels good to be almost a year in and realize I've nailed most of my "need to haves" in a career. That has come from a lot of experimentation, mainly through short-term contracts that allowed me to test things out.
It also feels good to see how my various skills can come together to yield out-of-the-box ideas for my clients. The deeper I lean into all the important aspects of my identity, the better I seem to perform.
So, to my fellow corporate misfits, do not lose hope! If your dream job doesn't seem to exist, maybe you just need to make it up.
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