Go for it! - My advice to people unhappy with their current jobs

Are you unhappy with your job?

Lots of people go to work every day, come home, have some sort of routine, and then go to bed only to start the same process for the next 4 days, and then the weekend comes where they can catch up on chores. They feel miserable, locked in a rut, and they feel like they can't get away from this scenario. Their job doesn't excite them. The money they make doesn't excite them. The future of their professional career doesn't excite them. They don't find things that give them a reason to get up in the morning. They have nothing that makes them go all chips in.

Does any of that sound familiar to you?

Maybe you just aren't happy, period.

What would you do if you could try another job? I know some things I could think of include:

• Be a boat captain
• Teach Yoga
• Be a full-time volunteer
• Organize trail bike rides
• Become a scuba instructor
• Make custom wooden furniture
• and the list goes on..

Try and make yourself a list. If you can't come up with anything, keep trying. I do not have my captains license, I've never scuba'd in my life, and I don't have a yoga teacher training certification, but that doesn't matter. These are things I would like to try.

Once you create a list of things you'd like to do, see if you can narrow down the list. If you have a list of things that you do know how to do, like make custom wooden furniture, start with those items first. These are your possible "set me free" interests.

Here's where I usually see problems, however. What if you just can't make a list? You try and you try, but nothing interests you enough to write it down. Well - at this point, I usually look people square in the face and ask if they are truly happy, from within. How they answer is irrelevant. I truly believe that to be happy, you have to have a state of advancement in your life. You have to be working towards something. If you have no skills to advance, that's fine. But if you don't have any things you can even think of learning, or working towards doing better, than you have a problem.

​Humans are tool makers. That is what set's us apart. Some animals use tools, but nothing on this Earth makes them except us. We do this because it's necessary for us to answer questions of how. How can this be done faster? How can that move with less effort? How can this grow to be more bountiful? How can I live more successfully? The answer is with tools. Either a skill-set, or tangible items, or a network of helpful people. These are all tools. At this point, I would encourage you, if you can't make your list, to pick something - anything at all - and begin trying to get proficient.

What can I do if I have no time to learn?

The first thing you have to realize is that you do have time. If you feel like it would be a waste to learn anything that doesn't help you outside of your current obligations, than don't do that. Find something to do better in your current life.

If you don't want to learn anything even remotely related to what you are doing - even better. In that scenario, pick anything you like, and stick to it.

Find something you like - and stick to it.

My life has shown me that when you are a child, no matter what you are doing, you go for it at 100% effort 100% of the time. Look at kids next time you are in public. If they aren't holding onto their parents, and they are moving, they are likely running. If they are laughing at something, its mouth wide-open and making a lot of noise. There is no 50% with kids. They go for it.

Now, as we get older, we tend to throttle back on a lot of what we do. We don't run everywhere - maybe it hurts to run, or maybe we just aren't excited to get anywhere. We don't laugh like we are hearing the funniest thing we could ever hear. We just lose passion in every day life. This is okay. It's normal. What is not okay, is to not have anything in life that we want to be 100% on. 

Go for it!

Now is when you need to go for it. If you want to start at work, that's fine. How could that play out?

Do you wait tables at a restaurant and sell wine, but always wish you knew the wine list better? Perfect! Go to your boss, ask if you can get to learn the wines by tasting them with foods with your chef, and if you are sincere, and let your boss know you are, I bet they will be happy to oblige and you'll feel great once you start selling wines that you know pair well. 

Do you manage a marketing staff, but wish you understood digital marketing a little better? Great! Take a class on Google AdWords. Tell your digital-focused employee that you are doing so and go over items with them that you are learning or need help with. You'll create a better bond, feel more confident about your abilities, and maybe find more that you want to learn about.

​What if you want to take a sharp turn, and do something totally unrelated? GREAT!
Always wanted to be able to play guitar? Go take lessons. Can you only afford 1 per month? Take 1. Make no excuses.

Always wanted to be able to cook a beef wellington? Go on youtube and search for beef wellington recipes and keep inviting anybody over who will take a bite and give you honest feedback.

The key here is to just GO FOR IT. Find something - anything - that you like, and stick to it. Don't make excuses. If you have to go slow - fine. If you have to fail a lot at first, no problem. All of these things are excuses not to start. Don't allow that to happen.

Go for it.