What should I be doing?

I know I have done a similar post to this in the past, but I got thinking again today and here you go, here’s another post.

 

Every now and then, I sit at my work computer and wonder what I am doing with this job. I won’t go in to exactly what I do, but it involves analysis etc. I graduated with a Bachelor of Business with an Economics major. Was this what I wanted to do? No. I started off wanting to be a Nurse, then decided I didn’t like the hours. I moved on to Landscape Architecture then wondered where exactly that idea came from and eventually landed on International Relations. Luckily, of those three ideas I only started a degree in one, International Relations. After a year, I wanted to move home to Sydney and transferred in to the Bachelor of Business when I realised a Bachelor of IR wouldn’t get me very far.

 

I’ve never had the overwhelming desire to land myself in any field. I never desperately wanted to be a Nurse, I never even thought about the job I’m in now. Not once did I think ‘yeah, being an analyst would be amazing’. I fell in to this job and while I am really grateful to be here and can see myself here for this chapter of my life, I can’t see myself here forever.

 

Over the past year or so, I’ve started to explore my hobbies a little more, hoping that maybe one day I can create an income from them. I know I love to help people, I know I am caring and like writing, sewing and taking photos. But I don’t know if I like any of them enough to make a job of it. The thought of re-skilling doesn’t appeal too much, so I want to focus on the skills I have now, to find out what it is that I should be doing in life. I often get the feeling that I am not where I am supposed to be. Maybe right now I am, but not for the long run, but I also find it hard to pinpoint where it is I should end up. I guess I am no clairvoyant :-P

 

One of the hobbies I have come to enjoy is writing. I know I am not all that consistent on this blog, or my new one for that matter (I blame Bali and my laptop cord breaking!) but those are not the only platforms that I explore writing. I am not a great writer, but I try often to explore my style, try new styles and better myself in general. I don’t have great hopes that this will lead to a job or income, but if it’s something I love to do, then why not spend time doing it.

 

I love to hear stories of how people ended up in their career, or how they have made money from their hobbies or previous jobs or even what their hobbies are (regardless of if you make money because money isn’t everything).

 

So, go ahead and tell me your story.

 

Do you have a business you run? Did you always want to be in the career you're in or did you 'fall' in to it? Do you want to be doing something else?

Who reads your blog?

Out of the 107 followers that follow me by google friend connect, only one of them knows me ‘in real life’…well, 2 if you count the blogger I met through blogging. It took a while for me to tell S what the address of the blog was. He knew I blogged and would often ask about it, but I never let him read it. Now he reads often and gives some good feedback and post ideas, or tells me when something might bore readers. He’s more proactive than me in taking photos for the blog as well, almost like having an assistant.

 

I’m not sure what it is about blogging, it feels ‘safer’ when there are only random people reading it. Who cares if they have criticism when they don’t actually know you. They can leave a comment and if it’s nasty (thankfully I haven’t received any nasty ones), you can just delete it and go about your day. Whereas if a friend was reading it, they can make a nasty comment that you will carry for a long time and let’s face it, you can’t just delete friends and family. It’s almost like opening yourself up to criticism (that will most likely never happen).

 

Part of my apprehension in telling anyone I even had a blog is the fear they will think I am strange or that I am a bad writer or boring. Maybe I am all three of those and the online world just hasn’t told me yet. I didn’t want to justify why I wrote something and I guess a part of me still holds apprehension in too many people known to me reading what I write.

 

Over time, I have slowly told people here and there that I have a blog. I usually give them a brief idea of what I write about, never much more than that. If they’re lucky, I will tell them the blog name, however usually I don’t.

 

This past weekend, I mentioned in passing to a couple of girlfriends that I have a blog. The following day, we were with one of them and S mentioned to her partner, T that I had a blog. He was interested straight away and although I didn’t tell him anything about the name of the blog, I received a couple of comments the following Monday from T. So, that cats out of the bag because he promised to read it once a week. He’s probably reading this too, Hi T!!

 

The feedback I’ve gotten off friends and family that have read the blog is all positive, so I think the fears that stop me from telling more people are probably a little silly. In saying that, I just can’t advertise it to everyone that I write a blog so perhaps for now I will leave it at telling a few people here and there.

Do you tell people ‘in real life’ that you have a blog? Have you had any negative comments?