Last night Murphy’s Law seemed to reign at my job. I awoke this morning with the frustration still eating at me.
The details don’t matter. You’ve probably felt the same, that desire to just say “fuck it” and change your plan.
So what can you do when that desire hits?
You can do the same thing that I do.
You can stand tall, pull up your panties, and keep working towards your goals.
Every single day you need to do something to bring your dreams closer. Every single day you need to wake up and take one step towards your goals.
You may not see any results at first. Like the Chinese Bamboo, it can take years to see progress. Like the Chinese Bamboo, you need to feed and water your dreams every day.
And like the Chinese Bamboo, when the time comes, success will appear so suddenly that you will be amazed.
That was exactly what happened when I achieved my freedom for the first time. I had spent two years of my life writing nonstop as I struggled to support my family. I had almost given up. I had taken yet another public job making shit for pay and resigned myself to a life of struggle.
But I kept writing.
Despite the fact that I had resigned myself to the fact that I would always be forced to work at a public job I still kept working on my plan. Each and every day I wrote a little bit more. I wrote on this blog. I wrote
You know what? It worked. One day I woke up and checked on my progress. My jaw bounced off of the floor. There was more than enough book royalties coming to me to cover three months of living expenses.
I was finally free.
A dream that I had first allowed myself to dream back at the turn of the century had finally come to fruition. A dream that I hadn’t seriously started working towards until 2009 had become reality with a suddenness that left me amazed.
Now I have a new dream. In order to achieve that dream I find myself in yet another public job, earning less as a manager than I would make as an entry-level burger flipper at the local McDonalds and right now that grates, especially after the frustration of last night.
It would be easy to throw in the towel. It is hard when you look around and you feel as if you are barely making progress. You look around, questioning yourself as you wonder if you made the right decision.
Those are the moments that define you. Those are the moments when you discover if you are dedicated to your plan. H
I know what I intend to do. In fact, I’m doing it right now.
Are you?
Annie, if MacDonald ‘s pays more, why don’t you work there? Too far away? Thanks for your honesty in your posts.
Distance is one concern. It would more than double my walk. My primary concern at the moment is getting my teeth sorted, however. I’ve known this was coming (complete toothlessness and dentures) for a long time, so when my employer offered us low-cost dental and vision insurance I grabbed it. I’ll more than make up the small weekly expense when the time comes to pay for the dentures and I recovered a significant portion of the fee when I invested in new eyeglasses.
That said, once my teeth are sorted I’ll re-evaluate. I’m due for a review in June so the numbers may be different by then.
You know the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, grab a coffee”.