I’ve got school on my mind today. I’ve been feeling the urge to go back to it lately, and I’m trying to weigh that out. I’ve got two little daughters, a business, a part-time job, and student loans already. I might not try to fit more in anytime soon, but I know what I can do in the meantime.
And I’ve got work on my mind. I’m thinking about the degree I did get, in a field with lots of opportunity, and great income potential, and how it’s just not my passion. I’m thinking about how freaked out I felt when I first realized it, and what a relief it was to later discover the truth about the whole thing.
So with both of those things on my mind, I want to pass this on to you today:
“Everyone drills us with the importance of college, and we’re told that if we want to achieve our dreams we need higher education. We make sacrifices to go; we borrow huge amounts of money. We’re investing in our future; it’s worth the cost.
College isn’t the only way, or the last stop. Your current job offers you priceless opportunities to learn and develop, and it will pay you to take them.
“But so many of us don’t see the same value in our job. It’s just something to pay the bills. It’s taking up our time; keeping us away from things we’d rather be doing. It doesn’t give us enough. It’s not our passion; not what we went to school for. It doesn’t represent who we are or what we believe in. It’s not the right fit. It’s let us down. It’s something we resent.
“And I can see why – it’s how I felt for a long time, in almost all my jobs. We aren’t taught to feel any differently. Myths about our employment are spread around like the flu, and well-meaning people start infecting us the second we’re old enough to understand the concept of trading time for money and set up a lemonade stand.
“Not many people will tell us the truth about our jobs, because they don’t understand it themselves. Not many people will tell us that it’s a place we can continue our education, and gain truly priceless knowledge, skills, attributes, connections, advantages and opportunities, that can help us to achieve our biggest, craziest, most-obnoxious dreams and goals.
“I haven’t heard that passed around very much. So here it is in black-and-white:
“No matter what your job is, how you feel about it, and how long you plan to stay, it has all those things for you, and it will pay you to take them. Don’t pass that up.
“Use your job to get what you want for your life.”
That’s a page from my book, Use Your Job: A 90-Day Challenge. And I know - it might seem like a pretty grand claim, or like I’m telling you to skip college. But you don’t have to take my word for it, or alter your life plans, or make your mom have a meltdown. Just try it out and see, when you’re in a job anyway, and whether you’re in school or not.
And if you’re feeling stuck in a job that seems to offer nothing you need or want, just give this a try. You can do the 90-Day Challenge, or follow this blog to get strategies, or use this site for resources. Your job doesn’t have to be the right fit. It doesn’t have to pay enough, or be challenging enough, or be your passion, or be what you went to school for. And you don’t have to love it, and you don’t have to stay at it.
And for whatever amount of time you’re at it, you can use it.