From Earning a Living to Living Your Dream
By Sally Lever
Do you find yourself trapped in a job you don’t enjoy but which you continue with in order to pay the bills? My experience from coaching individual clients and from running teleclasses on downshifting is that this is a very sticky issue with many people. “Earning a living” is what most of us do, isn’t it?...and then “living your dream” is some kind of pie-in-the-sky stuff, right?
Our culture attempts to persuade us that duty, ability, status and a kind of unwritten hierarchy of job type are all more important than working from the heart and yet we know that being in a situation where we feel forced to spend much of our waking hours doing something we dislike can be highly stressful. We also know that this, sooner or later, takes its toll on our health and wellbeing. According to a recent report from BUPA, 80% of Doctor’s referrals are for stress related illnesses.
So where’s the compulsion coming from?
There are some collective limiting beliefs that abound in our society that, for example, some believe that “professions” are more important than “trades”; some believe that science, engineering and IT are more worthy professions and command a higher value from society than the arts. I think we absorb these beliefs from childhood and end up convinced that, however much we enjoy our particular passions, wherever our heart is leading us is the place where we’ll never be able to earn a living.
Of course, assuming we are lucky enough to have a passion, to be able to articulate our dream, our heart’s desire needs to be balanced by a sense of groundedness and realism. What I’m suggesting though is that, for most of us, our lives are ruled by our heads and we have lost touch with having our hearts in our work.
What’s the alternative? How do you move from “earning a living” to “living your dream”?
Firstly, articulate your dream and own your passion. Some people like to see themselves as a vessel in order to do this. What role does the universe want you to fulfill? In what capacity can you give of your best? What unique gifts do you have to offer the world?
Secondly, take the money earning concerns out of the equation for a moment and ask yourself what you would do if you didn’t need the money? What does “meaningful, fulfilling work” mean to you?
There are various ways in which you can articulate your dream and add clarity and definition to your vision:
Visually: Create a theme board. Collect pictures, photos, sketches that depict your dream vocation and stick them on a large piece of cardboard. Hang this somewhere where you will see it every day. This will help you focus your efforts.
Orally: Speak your dream into a tape machine. Don’t worry about quality of recording, grammar, eloquence etc just get it out there! :o) Ask a trusted friend or relation to hear you without interruption as you explain it to them. Notice how this increases your level of commitment to your ideal vocation.
On paper: Make a journal of your dream vocation. Write everything down, stream of consciousness style. Notice how this helps you gain clarity and some alternative perspectives on how to manifest your dream.
Believing it’s possible and accepting it into your life.
Look carefully at other businesses. A great website about businesses run by those pursuing their passions is www.authenticbusiness.co.uk.
Each of them started as a collection of thoughts in someone’s mind, as a dream which someone turned into reality.
You could try this exercise. Imagine yourself in ten years time happily working in your new dream vocation. Imagine that person (the future you) being able to talk to and advise you on how to reach that point successfully. Imagine and write down the conversation that “Future You” has with “Present Day You”. What does “Future You” have to tell you about how they got there? What were the first steps? What was most important to them on that journey? What pitfalls would they tell you to guard against? How did they manage financially? Who helped them along the way?
As many have proved, living your dream is a real possibility when you are prepared to examine your beliefs and do the work necessary to overturn those that are holding you back.
Suggested further reading:
Authentic – How to Make a Living by Being Yourself. Neil Crofts.
The Work You Were Born to do. Nick Williams. (I have written a book review for this one, which you can read on the articles page of my website.
© Sally Lever 2006 www.sallylever.co.uk
Sally Lever is a Sustainable Living Coach who specializes in supporting and inspiring those who are downshifting or otherwise moving towards a more sustainable way of life. She offers one-to-one coaching, teleclasses in “How to step off the Treadmill” and a free email newsletter.
This article was posted by Sally Lever
