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Originally Posted by Rat-race  I’m 45 and I still don’t know what to do with my life. I have recently left the corporate world after 20 years as a cubicle dweller. I was very unhappy in my job, so at least I know what I don’t want to do...
My focus right now is to try and figure out what I am passionate about, and hopefully create one or more viable income streams.  |
I think one of the most easily-overlooked ways to succeed in a new direction is by helping others who are stuck with the problem you used to have.
For example: Rat-race, you started a blog called theratracejournal.com where you post some personal reflections. If you think big, you could also use this site to embrace, inform, and inspire the millions of people in this world who hate their job and need to connect with others of a like mindset. My family, friends, and coworkers would not tolerate or understand negative talk about jobs, so I always assumed I was crazy, lazy, and ungrateful when I hated jobs; I needed to connect with others who understood, but I didn't know where to turn. Ok, I know now that there is whywork.org and probably 100 other sites with an anti-job theme, but surely your personal beliefs, experiences, interests, and skills could serve job-sufferers in a unique and meaningful way! (It's not about designing a strategy to build web-traffic, it's about realizing how to best help the most people... the resulting web-traffic is an effect, not a cause.)
A similar way to look at this type of situation is that when we identify something we hate passionately, we get an indication of our purpose and goals. You stated on your blog, "...it was the actual “job” mentality that turned my stomach. The idea that the only way to eke out a living was to sell my time to a faceless corporation sickened me." (By the way, I completely agree!!) Maybe one of your core values is the belief that we are all valuable, powerful beings who can't afford to waste our lives in beige boxes slaving away at someone else's greed-driven, shallow dream. And maybe one of your life goals is to live as a free-thinking, free-acting individual and encourage others to do the same.
So instead of seeing it as wasting the last x number of years doing something you hate, realize that you have become an expert in the subject of something that your values and goals would have lead you to bring change to or wage war against at some point in your life anyway. It's likely that even if (in some parallel universe) you never worked a job by this age, your values and goals would still call you to speak out against the concept and practice. But now you're just better prepared to do it, more inspired to do it, more knowledgable about it, and better respected on the subject. It's true that an ex-prositute may have wasted her last 10 years prostituting, but as she reforms her life she is also in a unique and trusted position to help countless others still stuck in it and to prevent others from ever falling into the trap.
The same goes for anyone rising out of an unhappy, harmful, difficult, or confusing situation: help those who are hurting/needing/wanting/seeking as you were, and you will not only be a blessing to them, but you will further be blessed in the process and you will be that much closer to living your purpose.
Turn your mistakes into opportunities; use your pain to heal others; build your victories out of defeats.