Recently I have found myself slightly overwhelmed.
This is the first time in my life where I’ve been unsure of what’s next.
All through grade school and high school, I always knew what was coming.
After eighth grade, comes ninth.
I had known since I was 12 which college I would be attending.
Six months before graduation, I had a job fall in my lap. Everything has always been easy.
I’ve never had to make much in the way of life changing decisions.
Fast forward to now.
I have been at my job for two years, and I am not sure it’s where I want to be spending the next two. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity, and I really enjoy the people that I work with, however, it just isn’t that interesting or fulfilling for me.
I make efforts to try and be more engaged, yet I struggle with it. I work hard and always do the best I can, yet I’m getting to the point where I dread going there. I sit at a desk for nine hours a day in front of a computer screen crunching numbers; it’s the exact thing I always said I DIDN’T want.
I have been building this blog and community to support the decision to change my lifestyle. But what if I still haven’t figured out exactly what that lifestyle is? I know that I want to run my own business. I know that I want to travel.
Alright, that gets me part way there.
But do I turn into a digital nomad and travel for years? Do I start my business here in Portland and then take shorter journeys? What is the best way to go about it? I’m realizing there is no best way, and no one can make the decision for me. I have to decide what I feel is best for myself, and move forward with that.
Maybe I should just go spend some time here?
However, it’s encouraging to know how much progress I’ve made, compared to where I was a year ago. I have a much better idea of what I want, as well as what I don’t.
While I may not know all the details, I know enough to make progress towards getting there. I’ve learned the lesson that you don’t always have to know exactly what’s next in life. You don’t need to know every single detail to make a change or to do things differently.
That’s exciting to me.
I just have to make sure that I keep setting goals and continue to make forward progress. The last thing I want is to go against everything I have been writing about here.
For any of you that might be going through a similar situation, I want to provide you with a few resources to show that people have done it and been extraordinarily successful, not in spite of their decision to quit, but because of it.
A few articles at Location Rebel:
Quit Your Job, Move to Hawaii –My buddy Ryan did exactly this, he wrote a four part series about his journey. And let me just say, his current lifestyle is so cool it’s been really hard not to hop on the next flight out of PDX. (UPDATED: Updated in 2018 to be a single blog post).
These Stories from Location Rebel Academy – I did a minor update to this post in 2020. We’ve now had SO many people with these success stories, I figured it was just worth linking the playlist of a handful of them here.
I would love to hear what YOU do when you aren’t sure what to do next. I know that this current wave of frustration will quickly pass, and the more time I spend really considering my goals, the more motivated I am to take action.
I think that is what you do when you don’t know what to do.
Look at yourself, your goals, and your life. Decide what you don’t like and change it! Sure it’s never that simple, but the more time I spend reflecting on what I’m not satisfied with, the easier it becomes to make the change.
Reading through this post, I am realizing that it’s a little more personal than many of my other posts.
At first I neglected to actually consider posting it due to this fact. However I quickly realized that I want this to be a community of support and learning, and in order to accurately depict the process I’m going through, there has to be a little bit of vulnerability. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that I will get to where I am trying to go, but the path to get there isn’t always easy!
Anyways leave some comments and give me your thoughts, I would love to hear them!
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Sean Ogle
Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.Join over 40,000 people who have taken our 6 part freelance writing course. Sign up below and let’s do this together.
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