“You can do what’s reasonable or you can decide what’s possible.” – Unknown
I was used to taking the reasonable route. After all, it is, well – reasonable. But this time my awful job wouldn’t allow me to be reasonable. I had been working at an adoption agency for the past three months, and to say the least, it was a terrible fit.
While I can look back on it now and realize the risks of quitting weren’t so great, they felt enormous at the time. I had just graduated from college and moved to a new city, with my own apartment, car, and job to be responsible for. I was ready to take on the world and to put my shiny new diploma to work. But it didn’t take me long to realize that my very first grown-up job was something I detested.
The people working there were miserable and mean, the office dark and damp, and the work itself completely mundane. It made me sick to think about going to work each morning. (Maybe you can relate) And while (yes, it’s true) I lasted there for a grand total of three months, I knew that I just couldn’t stand it one minute longer. So I quit. And it wasn’t reasonable.
Just like today, I had bills to pay. I had a responsibility to be working. And I wondered what the fallout was going to be. Would my parents be shocked? Would I make rent? What did it say about me that I quit my very first real job three months in? But I knew that in some ways, keeping that job was the unreasonable thing. I had to focus on what was possible for me. And that’s just what I did.
Landing Your Dream Job
Years later, in my work as a career coach, I see those same fears and the same worry about what’s reasonable and what’s possible in the lives of my clients. They worry, just as you might, about who will be shocked if they quit, and if they’ll be able to pay their bills on time. But there is also a quiet knowing that keeping a terrible job like the one I had, like the one you may have too, is unreasonable.
When you’re in it though, it’s very hard to uncover the possibilities. It all just seems like fear and hopelessness and worry. A tool I’ve created that I call “The Reverse Resume” can help you shift away from the concern that moving on is unreasonable, and start to see the possibilities that exist.
The Reverse Resume
Now, I know that it might still seem unreasonable to you to go around thinking about and designing your dream job. Maybe you’re worried you’re being entitled or like you have a bad work ethic. But that makes me wonder – How will you ever know what’s possible for you if you don’t first define what you’d like the possibilities to be?
So today I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to set aside any thoughts or concerns that you might have about whether it’s reasonable to go after a work situation that you love. In this economy. With your circumstances. Knowing what your friends and family will say. You see, looking for a new job in the want ads is backwards.
Unless you get lucky, you’ll just end up with another job that doesn’t fit. You probably won’t find something you love unless you know what you love first. You have to define it. And that’s exactly what The Reverse Resume will help you do. You can uncover what you want and what’s possible for you by digging deep and answering these Reverse Resume questions:
- What do you want to create, eliminate or improve in the world around you?
- What do you want to experience or learn in your next work situation?
- What achievements do you want to cross off your list?
- What does the new job or business feel like?
As the picture begins to emerge – when you begin to see and feel something different, something better, something designed by you for you – I promise that you’ll begin to open up to the idea that new possibilities really are possible.
That sense of excitement is the first step in creating anything new that’s worth creating: You can be in charge of what happens next in your career. I think you’ll agree that taking the “unreasonable path” is actually the only reasonable thing to do.
About the Author
Jessica Sweet is a career coach who works with people who are bored at their current jobs, and who want to start making a living doing what they love. She is also a trained therapist. You can get The Reverse Resume and the rest of the 7 Day Live Off Your Passions Course free at http://try.wishingwellcoach.com/welcome/
