Sometimes a good paying job can stand in the way of you following your dreams just as much as a bad paying job…

I talk a lot  about obstacles and opportunities. I have talked about how everybody has obstacles in the way of their true authentic dreams.  Some of these obstacles can be legitimate things that are stopping you from achieving your goals, but some obstacles can be imaginary and we blow them up to gigantic proportions in our head. Most obstacles in our heads and can just be excuses as to why we are not going to try to follow through with our business idea. Whether obstacles are real or imaginary, they can stop us from trying to get off the couch and get moving towards our goal even when you have everything stacked up and ready to go. One very large obstacle for many people is their job. It is sometimes quite easy to imagine ditching your horrible job that works you really hard and pays you way too little. However, it may be really difficult to leave a job that you actually kinda like and that pays you really well. A good paying job could easily be an obstacle that stands in the way of your dreams.

I have had some really cool jobs in my life. I worked for the NBA as the Front Office Marketing Manager for it’s Minnesota WNBA team. One of the coolest roles in my job was planning the 10^th anniversary rebranding campaign. I decided to quit my job with NBA, because I had my dreams of opening up my awesome hipster icecream truck. Once again, I put those dreams on hold. I chose to take a position where I traveled the country working for Nintendo.  I absolutely LOVED my job. It was a great job and I put all of my dreams of opening up an ice cream truck on the back burner. So, why did I finally start Feverish even with such an amazing job? Well, I kept on wanting to leave my job. For about two years I kept a sketchbook that I wrote down all of my ideas for my business. In 2008, the economy went down and both my husband and I lost our jobs. Although I loved my job, that was the best thing that could have happened to me. It finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to start the job.

I totally understand having a job be your obstacle.  My job was an obstacle for me stopped me from fulfilling my dreams. I decided to let my incredibly cool job get in the way of my potential. You might be afraid to quit a job because of what that might mean for you. We call that golden handcuffs You might not even realize that you are trapped, because you are given a lot of money to sit in a cubicle and do the same thing every single day. The problem with this is that you aren’t actually fulfilling your dreams. If your dream is to sit in a cubicle, answering to a boss, working the same hours just waiting for Friday to come around, then more power to you! I know that I loved my job, but I am so glad that I lost that job.

Many obstacles get in our way of our dreams. We might not have a lot of money, we may not think we have enough training, we might even believe we don’t have the education required to be successful in a job.  These obstacles can keep us from achieving our full potential.  We need to identify these obstacles and figure out what exactly is getting in our way. Is your job actually stopping you from becoming great? If so, then it’s time to reassess your situation.