We all experience epiphanies, but for me, the greatest epiphany I had was last year when I decided that having a job wasn’t enough.
My definition of a job was something I was passionate about, and that required a great deal of dedication, challenge, and opportunities to learn—I wanted a career, something I could apply my passion for critical thinking, creativity, and attention to detail. While working at a non-profit, an organization that I believed deeply in and was passionate about, it possessed none of the qualities I had hoped for. As I began going through the motions of my day-to-day task I noticed a pattern of repetition, monotony, and felt that it failed to adhere to what I believed I was capable of. All of this was very challenging because while I was also passionate about the organization, I did not feel that I was contributing to the mission in the capacity I had envisioned. I soon began asking myself, what is my purpose here?
The next steps in my journey were to do a self-assessment of my skills and compare those to the job market, and more specifically, the job market of the location I live in. This allowed me to get a comprehensible understanding of what the needs in the job market were, as well as, what new skills I could learn and apply them to a job that I was passionate about and invested in.
Upon doing that, I was able to discern that skills in web development were going to be the next step in my journey and my pursuit of a career. After months of research I was finally able to locate the best tools, resources, and web development boot-camp and certificate programs. Today, I can proudly say that I am in the midst of that journey, and have worked through many challenges and moments of doubt, but grateful to be learning and developing valuable skills and knowledge that can be applied to an array of jobs--I even got a job at a fantastic tech company, but that, I will discuss later on.
I would like to ask you, have you ever wanted to shift gears, and if you could make that change, what would it be and how would you go about achieving it? Aren’t we all deserving of going after that thing we've always been deeply curious about and that brings us satisfaction?
If you haven’t thought about it, I challenge you to take 5 minutes of your day and think about that one thing you’ve always wanted to do. Please, share your answers in the comments below--I would be honored to know what your greatest aspirations are, and if at all possible, help you with finding the resources to achieve them.