Obituary Repellent

Photo #3 - Dave (ff)Dave had a good job at a record company. He was in sales, made decent money and liked his coworkers. But something was missing. The job left him feeling empty, day after day. Can you relate?

Recent surveys indicate better than half of us are in the same snafu. Under-challenged and disengaged. Long-term dissatisfaction in the workplace guarantees insidious stress and all too often, a shorter life-span.

In “The 4-Hour Workweek,” author Tim Ferris says many of us have become so averse to change or setting any type of exciting, life-improving goal that we’ve developed ADD (Adventure Deficit Disorder). There’s no juice in our life. Just a repetitive turn of the crank until the clock runs out. 

Dave was just like many of us. Living smack in the middle of a comfort zone. Yet a workplace discrepancy gnawed at him. He had recently earned his pilot’s license. The more he flew, the more jazzed he became. He began toying with thoughts of flying for a living. 

Then he would slap himself back to reality. 

“Change occupations?” he thought. “That’s nuts!” At the record company everything made sense. Flying was dicey.

One day he seemingly made a rash decision. He quit the record company, packed up and moved to Florida to become a newly minted flight instructor. 

But Dave hated it. Instructing wasn’t his type of flying. Right church – wrong pew.

Although you may be well-suited in your profession, are you in the wrong department, working for the wrong boss, with work that leaves you wrong-minded? Sometimes a small change can make all the difference.

Dave re-evaluated. He would keep flying but apply to a different “department” – commuter airlines. In time, a company hired him. He’s now flying jets and loving it. 

Yes, Dave could have stayed with the record company and skirted all that stress and change. The money, music business perks, friends and security were tempting. But even with all this predictability, comfort and stability, things changed with the record company as well…

It went bankrupt.

If you aren’t satisfied with your current circumstances, maybe it’s time to bet on yourself. Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed in the things you didn’t do than the things you did.”

Take a chance. Follow your heart and passion. You’ll be happier…and probably live longer to boot. 

Please comment here about this true-life story. Or forward to a friend!

Aim High to Fly,
John