Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Drastic Changes

I was talking with a dear friend of mine this week and she mentioned that she wanted to change things in her life. Home was happy, but in her career, she felt she was coming to an age where, if she didn't make the change to follow her passion, she'd be stuck. Her income is needed, it's not like what she makes is disposable - it's truly a two income family. She has ideas about what she'd like to do, but in this economy and unsure political, financial, world climate it's a tough call. My question is, have you met or have you yourself made this sort of change? What were your experiences? My sister did it, was laid off of a very lucrative middle management job and decided to become a chef - she never regretted doing it, but acknowledges that it has not been easy and she's had to adjust quite a bit to a less lucrative lifestyle at an age when you're getting into that "red zone" of retirement planning. If you have any thoughts to share, I'd love to hear them.

1 comment:

Marie said...

We live in a consumer society where all day every day we are told that we need more more more to be happy, to be successful. In truth, material goods and long work weeks steal life from us.

In my case, working in the world of big business as a CPA felt really meaningless, outside of the hefty paycheck. I finally decided to quit, cut back everywhere I could, and give my best self, a happy self, to my children.

I am still scrambling around trying to figure out how to make money. I am divorced and have 6 kids so, believe me, money is an issue. But I'll sell my house and scale down before I'll go back to work full time.

I encourage your friend to follow her desire. NO ONE gets to the end of life and wishes that they would've worked harder for a bigger house and more stuff...they usually wish that they would've slowed down, lived more simply, owned less, traveled more, helped those in need, and laughed and spent time with self and loved ones.

BTW, thank you so much for linking to Deep End of the Gene Pool! Reading your blog, I can tell we are kindred spirits!