A Change of Scenery

On September 3rd, 2013, I turned in my two weeks resignation at my current job.

On September 13th, 2013, Will be my last official day at work, and the day before my birthday.

But it was in late August of 2013, the week before my two weeks notice, that I decided I wanted to create the life I want to live.

 

So what sparked the change?

 

Well it came from one of the most unlikely places, Ashton Kutcher. He made a great speech at the Kids Teen Choice awards show and talked about, what’s important in life. He also discussed Steve Job’s philosophy during the time when he was creating Apple. But it was this message that struck a chord with me:

Paraphrasing here, “All your life you are told to follow the rules and conform to society. Work from 9 to 5, pay your bills, feed your family, rinse and repeat. But these rules that we follow, they were made by ordinary people like you and I. If they could create these rules, so can I! So why not create our own rules and live the life that you want to live?”

I brushed this thought aside. What does Ashton Kutcher know? He’s a well-off celebrity who’s living the high life. He has money, fame, success, and I personally thought he was an idiot. But then he made that speech. He talked about how he helped his father with hard labor, did odd jobs for several years, and basically worked his ass off to get to where he is now. It was after his speech, that maybe… just maybe he wasn’t an idiot after all. Curious as to what he said? Follow the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXwKGZHmDc

 

Back to the topic at hand.

 

Well like the rest of you, I have bills to pay; money to save; and a future to prepare for. The job I had was paying for everything that I wanted AND needed. It wasn’t the fastest, but at least I could pay what I needed to get by. I know, I should be grateful to have a job in this struggling economy.

But as I continued to go to work, I observed a lot of misery emanating from the people around me. Unsatisfied with their career, their life, their household. I just kept thinking to myself, “I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to be unhappy.”

 

To everyday be driven to anger by incompetence.

To not be valued for your contributions.

To earn a living on a meager paycheck.

and most importantly…

To not pursue my dreams for the sake of coin in my wallet.

 

For if you continually go to a place where you are unhappy and unfulfilled, you are merely subjecting yourself to an ethereal form of confinement. You are free to walk around wherever you please, do whatever you want, but when the time is come to put food on the table and to pay the rent, you go back. Back to the prison you’ve made for yourself.

But the sad part is, the only thing that keeps you in that daily prison… is fear. It is the fear of not being able to eat; not having shelter for sleep; and not being able to achieve.

It is through listening to other people’s experiences that I realized, I haven’t tried hard enough to achieve. That I am being too cautious with my life and have not put enough risk to garner the much greater reward. I had to convince myself that no matter what obstacle is thrown in my way, I will. Survive. It is through the survival of the most extreme circumstances, that you realize what you’re capable of.

Those who have found success in life, have overcome great trials and tribulations. They have been rejected, and have struggled through many failures. But most importantly, they overcame their fear and pursued their happiness.

I have an example for you, and though the stakes aren’t as high, the story is no less meaningful.

My girlfriend and I found out that there was going to be a Grand Prix in a city that was 2 hours away. The trip was going to be long, expensive, and neither of us had ever seen Formula 1 cars racing in person before. My girlfriend had her doubts, and I would have normally said, “It’s too expensive, let’s just stay home.” In fact, I almost said just that. But at the last second I realized that I was being too cautious again. That I was refusing myself an experience out of fear. So I told her over the phone, “Let’s just freaking do it.”

So we went, and though it was off to a terrible start (namely nearly running out of fuel and getting lost), the event turned out to be a real blast. And the journey we took to get to there, made for a very fascinating story to tell friends and family. I would tell it here, but it’s a story that deserves its own blog post.

After going through that ordeal and seeing how it turned out for the best, I started to believe that this could be applied to my current situation as well.

 

So I wanted to inspire those of you who are miserable where you are, to leave and experience the world as you want. But I know those of you who are reading this blog won’t do it, no matter how much you hate it where you are.

You won’t do it because you have responsibilities and obligations as an adult or a parent. I know, I felt the same way, and deciding to leave my job was a very difficult decision to make. But I never said that making the change would be easy, in fact, it’s very hard.

But what finally drove me to cut the cord? I told myself this everyday:

 

“Life is too short to be wasting it on a venture to nowhere.” I kept thinking what would happen if I dropped dead. Would I have been happy with what I accomplished? Or is there something more I feel destined to do?

 

That’s when I knew it was time. I analyzed where I would be getting my income from and realized that I could fall back on my consistent freelance work to keep me afloat. It’s a lot more unstable than having a full-time job, but I will have more time to go after what it is that I want out of my life.

“What is the point of life, if you don’t live it to the fullest?”

Be free, and do what makes you happy. Be afraid to fail, and fail. Because the only other direction to go after you’ve faltered, is up.

As a parting note, enjoy this beautiful song from Two Steps From Hell (Orion-Rebirth), and as Nike says, “Just do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcjr046X2Dk

Wilmar Luna

Wilmar Luna

Couldn't be a superhero in real life so he decided to write his own. When he's not creating empowered female characters he can be found watching films, reading books, and playing lots of video games. Buy his books here: https://www.thesilverninja.com/purchase/