How people react when I tell them

I have trouble to talk about my career change with my friends and people around me. I was worried that they wouldn’t understand or worse they would mock me. What? You want to change your career? You graduated from a great school, you are in a great company, and you have a decent salary… Here are all the voices hunting my head. I was really careful to tell what I was going through to the right person and the right moment. This matter is very important to me and I really don’t want people to make a joke out of it. I don’t want to have to explain myself for hours. According to all the kind of reaction I got, I classified people in following groups:

Type 1: People who don’t understand at all

They are completely closed to the possibility to have a passionate job or other way of living. They think that life is about:
• Having money,
• Having children,
• Having few days of vacations,
• Working to have money,
• Working for 9 to 5,
• Experiencing your passions/interests only out of your job,

Those people think that life is like that and you can’t do anything about it. I would only get sad and waste my time to think otherwise. The faster I would go back to my right mind, the less painful it would be. They would argue with me for hours that I’m wrong and I can’t make my passions to be my job. They think that if you make your passion your work, it would get boring and daunting as it is for any job.

Type 2: People who pretend to understand

Those would pretend to understand but at the same time say that it’s not for them. My dream to make my passions to be my job resonates in them but they are limiting themselves so much that they directly find excuses. They want to feel free to dream and to pursue a passionate life.

But they only see the limitations: the loan they took for their house, their kids, their duties towards their family. They feel trapped by the walls they built themselves. They are left with their frustrations, their daily complains. They feel their own life is out of their control. They sometimes dream about their possible life full of excitement, fulfilled, as a photographer, an artist or architect… They feel stuck on the ground by all the reality

Type 3: People who understand

People who understand but they:
• Don’t know how to do,
• Don’t know what to pursue,
• Don’t feel confident enough,
• Don’t dare,
• Are scared and prefer to stay in their comfort zone
This is where I am.
I want to meet more this type of people because we are in the same place. We can exchange some tips and help each other. I met a colleague who is expressing the same project to change her career. When we talk about the people who don’t understand us (type 1 and 2), we think they are unconscious. People like us are the “conscious”. It’s like in the movie Matrix. We are conscious of the Matrix and we want to unplug to live freely. I didn’t understand why people are not more conscious. My colleague and a counselor reminded me that the world wouldn’t work anymore (at least the way we know it) if everybody was conscious, people wouldn’t work in boring but necessary jobs

Type 4: People who are living the dream

They are inspiring and uplifting me. They make you want to fight harder and be resilient and make you believe that it is possible to live passionately and to make their dreams come true.

I think I experienced all the types except the type 4. I dream to reach the type 4 and to live my dream. The important thing is to believe, keep faith, want to change and ask yourself the right questions. We are all more or less free in our mind. We all need to dream. The more we are tied down by your fears, limiting beliefs, blocks and resistance, the less we would allow ourselves to dream or take actions to free ourselves from the depressing daily activities. But you might have noticed that all the limits exist only within us. Our education, experience, family and friends shape who we are. For example, if you are being told your whole life that you have to work hard to earn money, you have more chances to believe it will be harder for you to become wealthy. On the contrary, if you are told that money come and go easily, you are more likely to earn money easily as you believe it. We bear beliefs and walls of fear/illusions that limit ourselves.
I cannot imagine myself in the same job for 5, 10, or 20 years. I would hate myself for staying in a career that I dislike till retirement! It’s screaming in me that I live only once and I owe it to myself. This scream is stronger than my fears, louder that my laziness and fiercer that my security needs. It’s only up to me to change my beliefs and pursue my dreams. It’s up to me to beat my fears down. I don’t say it will be easy. I say it’s possible. Keep faith and pursue your dreams! 🙂