Happy 2020
Happy New Year everyone! I always feel motivated and positive in January, perhaps since it’s also my birthday month. This post is quite a personal one. I’m sharing my thoughts and struggle in pursuing a fulfilling career, and three things I’ve decided to do differently this year to overcome that. I hope this resonates with you in some way or another.
2019 was a year of ‘discovery’ for me in many ways, I’m in my thirties and I find myself thinking if what I’m doing now is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Growing up in Asia, I was told to believe that success was measured by how much money you earn, where you work and marital status. So, as a kid, my dream was to work in a big corporate like my mom told me to, to earn lots of money and respect in society and with family. I studied hard I went from one after-school tutorial to another, thinking that’s the way to achieve my corporate dream job, believing that would lead to successful and fulfilling life.
Fast forward to many years later, I work at a bank that pays a decent salary, it enables me to pay my bills, go for a vacation overseas, and occasionally treat myself to nice things. A decent salary certainly makes life more convenient. I am grateful but strangely it was not a dreams-come-true moment. Some people would consider my job to be a glamorous one, it might be right for others but to me there are times where I feel ‘out of place’ at work, stress and unfulfilled. I’ve started to wonder what if I could do what I like. Would I achieve a lot more and feel more fulfilled? But, what do I like? I never spent a lot of time focusing on what I like, because what I believe success to be was earn good money and work at large corporate organisations.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that there’s more to life and there are other ways to measure success, I’ve found what it means to have an ‘interest’ or to be ‘passionate’ about something. Long story short, I was introduced to creative activities including dancing, choreographing, directing dance productions, concept styling editorial photoshoots and fashion design. I found joy and excitement in doing them. After my wedding, a dream to pursue fashion as a full time career slowly crept in. I completed a fashion course part time and my full time job started to become quite hectic. After a busy day at work, I was too tired physically and mentally to do other work which I found impacted my ‘creative juices’ and ability to create my designs. While I want to take this passion more seriously, I fear the unknown and failure.
I admire those who are passionate about what they do, work hard and smart to achieve their goals. In order to take my passion more seriously, here is top three things I would like to do differently.
1. FIND Courage and do it
All these years I believed success was measured by how much money I had and job status. I fear the unknown and the thought of failure. To sacrifice some income by taking a part time or less demanding job, at least in the beginning, in order to make more time for my passion. What if it doesn’t work out? I don’t know if I’ll be successful, but I do not want to regret not trying. They say ‘Most people regret for things they didn’t do, rather than things they did before they die’.
2. Plan and Prioritise
‘A dream without a plan is a just a wish’. Though I am not good at this, I recognise that need to set up micro goals and plan my daily schedule. For the most part we are in control of our life, we need to set our own deadlines, because no one else will.
3. Surround myself with likeminded people
I hear this tip quite a lot from TED talks and self-help books. I agree that it is hard to always remain positive when you are alone in the journey so I’d like to find other designers, entrepreneurs, artists to connect with through social media, friends or seminars to learn form and share ideas, perhaps I could collaborate with them too.
To finish this article, I’m quoting Nelson Mandela – ‘ It always seems impossible until it’s done’. I would love to hear your dream, goals and though. Cheers to the New Year lovies! Stay positive and courageous.