CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Netting Your Niche

In this, the winter of our economic discontent, it’s not surprising to see the number of people who are finding an opportunity to reinvent. Sure, sometimes it has more to do with just an itching to try something new than anything. But more often than not, this decision is terror-driven or security-driven. Ether way, once you get past the sheer panic of OH MY GOD! WHAT AM I GONNA DO NOW, you just may find yourself in a perfect position to try something new.

Take my boyfriend, for instance. He started out with an enviable career as a lawyer in Chicago. He found it to be soul-crushing, draining work.  So he made the transition to a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch,

When 911 happened, he and his co-workers were told not to come to work for about a week, for fear of a similar attack to their Chicago skyscraper. So after sitting on the couch, eating Doritos for a couple of days, he decided make use of his gym membership. It was there that he encountered yoga. Throughout a several-month-long process of business, career and life disappointments, yoga was just about the only thing that kept him sane. So after another move, he decided to try teaching yoga. He knows it’s far from perfect, but he finds it much more rewarding.

I was a graphic designer. I FINALLY finished school, got my first job, and realized I absolutely hated it. I felt like such a fake. I felt as though I was “playing” graphic designer,” only it wasn’t much fun. I figured it would get better though. When my contract wasn’t renewed, I panicked for sure, I did get that “WHAT NOW?” feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, but only because I had spent so much time preparing for it, I felt sort of trapped. The thought of finding another job in that field nauseated me so much that I decided to quit design altogether. So more out of desperation than anything else, I started writing. I had been working in coffee shops to supplement my education, as well as my indecision. This gave me an incredible opportunity to observe human behavior, and inspired the idea for “that book I’ll write someday.” I recognized my opportunity to finally put my idea to paper, and got it published.

Many people, while they like their jobs, want to keep their options open, because they know that it’s not what they want to be doing forever. Unlike the generation before us who would find a trade and plan on working in one career for the rest of their lives, we live in a much more restless society today where people have many interests and don’t feel they should limit themselves to one career. It is not uncommon to find people working in two or more careers.

Po Bronson says in What Should I Do With My Life? a book outlining several people’s quest to fulfill their dream careers,  "Most people's purpose comes from experience; it's not something you choose from a course catalog, but you only have a transformative experience if you're open to being changed by it."  We've all heard a story or two of someone who has spent numerous years in a passion-less job and then finally, when they pursue their passion, ultimately succeed. When we hear of these folks who dare to dream, no doubt it thrills us to our very core. We, ourselves, may even let our mind entertain brief thoughts of following suite. Unfortunately, most people desert their dreams in favor of responsibility and security.

“But I have a college degree,” they protest, “why should I let all the time and money spent obtaining this go to waste?” Or conversely, “I don't have a degree, how could I possibly be suited for my dream career?” Dan Miller responds in his article, Is Your Work Your Calling or Your Profession? "We have a myth in our society that the more education one has, the more opportunities or choices one has as well. True, more education may lead to more economic affluence and the ability to purchase more stuff. But I find that more education often narrows rather than broadens the choices about meaningful direction in our lives. When someone has spent ten years getting a medical, dental, or law degree, how can that person discover at 40 that he/she really wants to be an artist or a truck driver?"

Suzanne Falter-Burns further explains in her article, Find Your Niche, that sometimes we just need to tune out those well-meaning, security-bound voices around us. "When we begin to listen to our own voice, and throw off all those other helpful ones in our head, life really starts to make sense. Not only do the wheels of progress finally turn in the direction we want, but we begin to put more and more credence in that small, lesser known part of ourselves that is the seat of both our vulnerability and our power. This is the place where our creativity, our imagination, and our own unique 'I-ness' really lives…”

So, it is very possible to turn our current economic winter into “the glorious summer made possible by this sun,” if only we can recognize, and take hold of the right opportunities.
c. 2009