My 10 year old son and I will be going to see Brave today.
He is an archer. We spend Saturday mornings at archery lessons.(where I am right now)
Ever since the preview of Brave started showing we have planned
to go to see it. Just me and him. I think he has a crush on Merida,
I know she is a cartoon character, but he seems a little smitten.
The big line in the movie has got me thinking of my life...
"If you had the chance to change your fate would you?"
Well, I did.
Let me preface this by saying I hate reading about people who made that big leap. Hated their job and took all kinds of risks to pursue their dream. Oprah's magazine is good for that kind of stuff hence, I do not buy her magazine. When I read these stories that are supposed to inspire me, I am anything but inspired. A personality defect? Perhaps. It isn't that I'm not happy for these people, but I can't help but wonder...how the hell did they plan on paying their mortgage or feeding their kids while chasing their dream?
I am an insurance adjuster and enjoy all of the glory that comes with it(can you hear the sarcasm?)
When I was a kid I never said,"If I could only grow up to be an insurance adjuster."(see the stars in my young eyes...can you hear the 10 year old me sigh in contentment?)
Granted I never dreamed of doing this, but here I am...almost 20 years later.
It hasn't been all bad. I have done a lot of different things, I have worked in special investigations and do a lot of litigation work on injury claims, it can be interesting.
My first 14 years I worked for a great company that wanted to see its people grow and advance and I did just that, but it took a toll. I had 2 young kids and was working on the road handling high exposure claims on really bad accidents. The injuries were either fatal or serious and it really started to take wear on me.
I hopped of the career track and for the past 5 years I worked for a company that allowed me to work from home full time. Sounds great ehh?
Maybe with the right company, but not this one. It was a company managed by fear. Everyone else looking to cover their butt. It was stress and worry, worry and stress. I do not respond well to fear, most people surprisingly don't. There was also no career path. I went from an environment that was collaborative and focused on advancing it's people to the extreme opposite.
Was it bad enough to give up working from home? You betcha!
Things do happen for a reason(one thing was my kids are 5 years older now) and there were enough things that happened that I came across a job posting at another company. It was definitely a step up and for the first time in a long time I was looking to do something completely out of my comfort zone. Would they give me the chance?
Well they did and in what seems to have been a whirlwind, here I am.
I have changed my fate.
Yes, I am still in insurance but I am learning again for the first time in a long time. I have a supervisor who is mentoring me to bring me up to the next level. I have a manager that sees the value in my experience and actually expresses that!
I guess the purpose of all of this is that to change your fate, it doesn't need to be as extreme as you might think. For most of my 5 miserable years with my former company I would think,
"What is wrong with me?"
But I learned, it wasn't me, I was stuck in a broken system.
I had to find the faith that there are other systems out there that are not broken. I didn't need to start over in a different field or throw away my financial security to chase a dream.
I guess all I am trying to say is, see the signs and have some faith. If you are unhappy, you can change your fate. It may not be extreme enough to end up on the pages of Oprah, but who reads that magazine anyways?
