Every week, you start with a Monday or however your normal work week begins. For me, it’s typically been the Monday standard. At first, a new job brings stress, excitement, challenges, a new path forward. In my experience, passing time brings experience, comfort, expertise, and, well, boredom. This is where the trouble begins. You start losing interest, you go through the motions, you know what you’re doing and have seen every scenario imaginable. You call your boss for advice only to realize you already knew the answer, you just wanted confirmation. So, yeh. Welcome to the meaning behind my first ongoing album project entitled Quit Your Day Job.
I’m not even sure when the album title came to me or how, but the why was always clear. We go through life in search of some level of success, and a lot of times, the path we end up on leads us to something that doesn’t fulfill our desires or utilize our sstrengths to their full potential. What a waste of our talents and livelihood, right? Yeh. Does it mean to just, you know, quit your day job? Not exactly. I still have one. I have financial obligations. Does it mean keep the day job, then and stay complacent where you are? Of course not. It means push through the mediocrity of your boring life, examine your dreams, hopes, and aspirations, and pave the way to making a life based on these things. At the same time, I think it’s important to find pockets of beauty in your current situation. I work outside, so this usually manifests itself in a round of people-watching or observance of a beautiful sunrise. For me, love and family are things I always knew I wanted from a very early age. I had these at a very early age, too. I’ve been married since I was 20 years old and we have two daughters together, with a grandson on the way. I couldn’t possibly be happier with my family and our journey together. However, my work on this Earth is a little more complicated.
I appreciate my current job responsibilities and the opportunity given me in fulfilling them each week. However, I have to say that after ten years in my workspace, I am very much growing apart from the role. I mean, I’m good at it and I do everything I can to make sure I man my post properly, but I am tired. There, I said it. So, where is there room for me to pave the way to my desired work on this Earth? Well, with financial obligations, sometimes you have to actually keep the day job, for now. You have to keep it and work on your dreams either in your mind during moments of your day when you get a moment to think or after your main job and on the weekend when you have free time. It’s tough, I know, to do forty hours on the job and then give your family the attention they deserve PLUS put in the work to realize your true dreams is quite a tall task for a mere mortal. The bad new is that it is hard work and it is tiring and sometimes you will cry and want to quit everything and crawl into a hole. The good news is that we are quite capable of great things. We often think that situation, obligations, age, FACTORS will keep us from manifesting our greatness. The truth is that these factors only stop us if we let them. This weekend, I took a moment to reflect on where I am, what I’ve accomplished. I reluctantly had to acknowledge how much work is involved in moving forward in my dreams. It’s a tall task and falls far beyond my comfort zone. The truth is that I’m not completely sure on what that looks like. I know I love musical things, I sing and write music, and I would like to learn keys and guitar. I would like to become a great producer. I would like to be able to help other local artists do what they do when resources are slim and help is hard to find. Exactly what this looks like, I’m not sure. I know that my personal fears put my growth at risk along with the other factors of time and energy and resources. As a shy introvert who sings and makes music, there’s a lot to push through in order to move forward in such a big journey. This weekend, I took the time to read a book that I’ve heard come up throughout my life, mainly from my husband who was impacted by its words: The Alchemist. I never read it because my husband described it in a way that I didn’t feel I needed to actually read it for myself, but I’ve seen so many nods to this book, I had to read it for myself. I do believe that it is totally worth the read for anyone who has life left in them and a dream in their heart. I won’t spoil it, but it is ironically right in line with my ongoing album project. After reading it, I do feel a new spark of inspiration. So as we move from this weekend sigh into a new work Monday, let us look at it with a fresh perspective on who we are, what we wish to accomplish, and what we actively do to move forward in our truths :)