Fear of Poverty
June 30th, 2006 by Laura Moncur in Motivation“You will eat, but you will not live.” That phrase has haunted me since I first typed this quotation into the database years ago. How do I feed both parts of my psyche? I need to make sure that I make enough money to survive, but that survival can’t come at the expense of my soul.
There have been so many jobs that I took over the years that fed my stomach, but not my heart. I was really good at mixing solutions, processing claims and typing letters, but I didn’t really ever enjoy it the way I enjoy writing. I was always a hard worker, but I never felt passion in those jobs.
If you are in a job that is sucking out your soul through your pores every day, make an escape plan. What did you want to be when you grew up? I never wanted to count pills when I was a kid. I wanted to be a writer or an archaeologist. Archaeology could have been a fulfilling career for me, but writing is so easy to do in the comfort of my air-conditioned home. No dust. No muss.
Don’t quit your job. You still need to eat. You can feed your soul in your free time. Set aside time every week to do what you always wanted to do with your life, no matter what it is. It might be that the eight-year old that you were was wrong. Maybe owning a vineyard isn’t as fun as you thought it would be. In that case, you are free to set that old goal free in your mind and pursue other dreams.
Let your 8-5 job feed your stomach and pursue your dreams every week. Guard that time just as fiercely as you would your full time job. Don’t ever call in sick on your dreams. If you give enough time to follow your dreams, something will happen.
Maybe you’ll find out that you hate your dream. Then you can set it free.
Maybe you’ll make so much money from your dream that you can quit your full time job. Then you’ll have a whole new set of barriers in your way.
Maybe it will be enough. Maybe you will return to work every day refreshed from your dreamwork and maybe that good attitude will actually help you be a better worker at your 8-5 job.
No matter what happens, remember. You need to eat, but you also need to live.
June 30th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Ay, it is important to have substinance of the body, and also of the soul. What you say is true. The idea of wanderlust and of adventure is something that everyone desires.
We in this day and age enjoy getting away from it all, and doing something that breaks away from our norm. We all have a need to live, to really just… live.
I feel that Shaw is really saying to me, don’t do something that encompases you so much, you forget to live.
Honestly it is like me more recently, I got my first job so that way I would have money to do things with the people I care about, but now I don’t have the time. But that is changing, see I am doing something that is enjoyable, and from it I am continuing my hopes of learning, but also, fate it seems, has made convient breaks for me. I will be going to my brothers wedding tomorrow, and even spending time with my family on the 4th of July, even though I have not requested a single day off, and even when I agreed to work holidays.
Fate it seems, has found another purpose for me.
Overall I am trying to say that living, it in fact the most important thing, you must be relaistic with yourself, but more than that, honest. Don’t hang on to a dream you never really wanted, toss it aside, and find another.
This world is filled with many ways to make money, but few ways beyond yourself to live life.