I can’t afford to follow my dream….
“Dan, In a recent 48 Days Online Radio Show you said, “Choose the life you want first. Find the community where you’d like to live. As important as I think work is, I still see it as simply one tool for a successful life. Map out the ideal life, then find or create work that embraces that life.” My question is this: At 42 years old, with a $40,000 per year salary, $20,000 dollars in consumer debt, no retirement money saved whatsoever, and getting older every day, how can I afford to choose the life that I love? How will I ever get ahead now?”-Chuck
Dear Chuck,
How can you afford to choose the life that you love? How can you afford NOT to? I have to believe that finding your ideal life releases more freedom and more money. Staying in something unfulfilling stifles your best resources. Being in a job that you don’t love is obviously not using your best talents and passions.
We often assume that if we did what we loved, our income would be less. Why do we think that? Would I make more money as a college professor because I could be in a tenured position and it’s a responsible thing to do – or as an author with no salary and no guarantees but it’s what I love to do?
Every day you spend knowing you are off track is a day squandered – that could have been spent living a better life. Working in something that is less than what you love is like driving a car with dirt in the gas tank and a block of wood under the accelerator.
Kent Julian was a youth pastor – respected and paid well. But he knew he had more to offer.
Today his speaking and training business provided a bigger impact and an income several times what he previously experienced. He couldn’t afford to NOT follow his dream.
Kimanzi Constable says he was living a life he could best describe as “existing.” He says he wanted more but he was listening to the fears and negative voices of other people. He was overweight, bored and over $100,000 in debt. In the summer of 2011 he clarified his dream – quit his day job, lost 160 pounds and moved his family from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Maui, Hawaii. NOT following his dream was killing him.
We have hundreds of similar stories in the members of 48Days.net community.
You don’t have to burn any bridges to do the dreaming and planning – get clear on what the ideal would be — then all you have to do is create a plan of action, complete with a timeline. Sometimes we talk about “paying the price” for success. Personally, I think we pay a much higher price for mediocrity in our lives.
