31 Days 2 Get You Started! January 21: Self-sabotage as an escape-hatch.
If you’re feeling stuck, and panicky, and helpless, trapped in your life/relationship/career…I feel ya, Kid. I’ve been there. Know all about it. But try and remain calm. Try not to sabotage your current choices, without taking the time to create some kind of a back-up plan. I’ve also been there and done that, by the way. Hello, law school! Or, more accurately, hello crushing six-figure law school debt. Ahh, good times.
Because I always say, “Go big or go home!,” I fled halfway across the country, instead of simply having the presence of mind to calmly acknowledge my options and try to create a plan. Nope. It made more sense to me to move to Indiana, and study law, fer f**k’s sake, than to be a mature adult. Did I mention that I moved half-way across the country with cats? Did I mention that the boyfriend who was driving had nothing to say to me, and was silent for 12 hours? Whew! Road trip! #youhavenoidea
Thus, when I see people really committing to the free-fall of their “professional” lives, people who are clearly miserable, my heart breaks. It’s not fun. Ain’t nobody got time for that. But then I think, “Well, right now they’re in agony…but if they’re honest with themselves, in years to come, they might even give thanks for this period.” I know: that makes me sound like Patty Hearst on a particularly brainwashed day in the 1970s…but it is true. I certainly could do without my law school debt, but those 3 years of being miserable really made me understand what was important to me. And what was horseshit.
My point being, maybe you’re sabotaging a career that no longer fills your emotional needs. Maybe it’s time to stop beating yourself up for all the pain, and start trying to understand why you feel the way you do. Give yourself permission to do you…couldn’t be worse than the way you feel right now, could it?