~ Follow Your Bliss ~
Recognize and be cognizant of your passions and strengths for they could be your future.
I was a reconnaissance specialist during my first Army tour. But when I reenlisted I changed my specialty to software engineer and the Army sent me to the Adjutant General School. After that tour I took a civilian GS position in the Dept. of Defense doing the exact same job albeit for a lot more money and that was my livelihood for the next 16 years. Five of those years I served overseas and felt like what I made a real contribution. But a while after I returned stateside I became unhappy and no longer felt as useful as before.
My life long passion for playing golf and later collecting antique golf clubs precipitated an unexpected opportunity for a part time side hustle selling golf clubs. I hesitated initially because I traveled a lot for the D.O.D., but I self-indulgently found a way to do both.
I opened a very small retail golf store and continued to go to work every day as a software engineer. Two years and one golf store expansion later it became painfully clear that my heart was at the golf store.
I followed my bliss and quit my very secure, but heart, mind and soul numbing government job to devote myself full time to a very nebulous, but heart, mind and soul nourishing retail golf side hustle.
Well, to make a long story (Freedom Is Just Another Word
For Being Your Own Boss) very short, it payed off. Four years, 3K miles and two expansions later I had a 6,300 square foot retail golf, repair and PGA accredited teaching facility across from a mall in the golf mecca of the United States.
My golf side hustle fed my family, heart, mind and soul very well for the next twenty years, and if it hadn’t been for 4 very long years of 6 lane road construction fifteen years ago, I’d probably still be there.
So, the moral of my story is not to set aside what you love for what you think you need.
Give what you love a chance to give you what you need.
