Your Life Inventory – The Job You’ve Always Wanted
Have you ever done an inventory on your life?
That question sounds inapplicable in more ways than one. But when you think about it, really think about what that means.
Think about your mentors.
Think about your “friend” list on Facebook.
Think about your IRL friends.
Think about your job and the career you’ve built.
Do you write a journal about any of this?
Do you track what you’re doing?
If you’ve been struggling with any of these areas, I struggled for years, and I still do sometimes. I’m still looking for the right fit of where I want to gladly exhaust my energy and efforts. That’s right…exhaust them.
I’ll break it down to the idea of philosophy and a simple principle.
This part shouldn’t sound good to anyone else, and if someone else thinks you’re obsessed with an idea, that’s their problem, not yours.
I spend my time keeping up with Switchfoot, I’m developing The Middle of In Between (the Web site is under construction because the current one makes me want to crawl into a hole), and then, there’s my education.
Specifically with education, I’m back in school to learn and/or hone the basic fundamentals that I have/need for Web and Interactive Design to work for Switchfoot on a freelance basis (notice I didn’t say full-time) and make The Middle of In Between a real monetary thing, all while being able to live a lifestyle that makes me happy. I don’t want my life to look good in squares on social platforms because life is life, and it took me two years of self–pep talks to not define my worth by “LIKES,” but I’m nearly over it.
My philosophy is that I found out I want to provide my time and finances to non–profits that support others who are figuring out who they are because life is tough enough as it is, especially when you’re a kid. I’ve always liked being around kids and working with them, and my hobby is to shine a little light and hope for those who are trying their best cause life maybe dealt them a bad hand.
(Note: The non–profits involve myself in are the Switchfoot BroAm and StillKickin (which I don’t talk about as much.))
In order to provide value and entertain within the storyline (at the expense of my own goofy and weird personality that I confidently accept), I need to brush on the basic fundamentals to do the job.
I want conversations I have with strangers to count and I want to leave a lasting impact that’s not exactly visible.
I tweeted this out the other day:
I’ve been told I’m obsessed with Switchfoot and that I’m a Groupie. Sure. Go ahead and label me like that, but I can handle it without explaining myself. My short answer to you is that you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I find a little bit of my personality in each of the guys. Do you know how hard it is to find good humans who truly put action into their own words and then when you meet them in–person, they’re no different? I don’t look at you and verbally make judgements about that group, place or event you show up to on a consistent basis and then mutter under my breath how your time could better spent. I really bite my tongue (social media how dare you intervene) and keep it to myself because I don’t know you or your community.
Do an inventory on your life. Figure out your “why.”
If it takes any less pressure off your thinking cap, I took two years asking myself what my why was with Switchfoot because I needed it to make sense. I wrote out a blog about why I spent 1,620 hours serving people greasy bacon, pizza, pasta, burgers and other foods.
I spent seven years not knowing or sure of what my purpose was after I graduated from college.
What kept me going back to the restaurant industry?
What kept pulling me back to the guys?
What do I need, for fundamental skills, so I can live a life that I feel has meaning?
I think have the answers I need to move forward with who I want to become and it was a lot of me telling myself “that’s a pathetic answer TRY AGAIN” self–talks.
None of us have it all figured out. We can only do our best to play our part and create it as we go. The next time you yourself “what am I doing?” ask yourself first off if you’re ready to live the life you say you want to live.
Do the inventory.
To help get you get started on how that could be done, I created an Excel spreadsheet and listed my weekly accomplishments/roadblocks/future goals. Seriously. I have a few other tabs with other information listed, but this helps me keep things in order.
You’re welcome.
Stand, but don’t stay in the middle,
Rachel
