Russ Towne's A Grateful Man

It is my hope that my posts on work and play inspire others to do what it takes to experience greater peace, lasting joy, and greater passion in their lives.

When I felt unhappy with my job or work situation I found that sometimes if I could just change a part of the equation it would help keep me going until I could change more of it:

I looked for jobs within the company that I could take on that would be more fun, challenging or better growth experiences for me. I was open to lateral roles with a greater focus on the parts of the job I most enjoyed (or that didn’t involve the aspects I most disliked). I’d sometimes even consider those offering lower pay if they were more likely to get me where I wanted to go. Ideally they used my strengths and experience but opened up more opportunities for fun and/or growth an/or added new skills that would eventually help me to find a more interesting position inside or outside the company.

Sometimes I needed to work with a different boss ,and changing shifts, roles in a company, or even changing companies accomplished that.

There were times when I felt I needed a completely new work environment and changing employers was the only way I could achieve it. It can be scary to make such a big change, and they didn’t always work out, but as I matured and made better decisions regarding environments that would work for me, the changes most often helped.

Getting so proficient at a hobby I loved that I could begin to turn it into a profession. This can be an especially jarring or risky proposition financially, and is certainly not the right choice for everyone, but I found it eventually worked best for me. I’m wired to be self-employed. I was also willing and able to at least initially live more frugally to give myself more options as to the type of professions I could do and still keep my family fed with a roof over their heads.

At one time or another I’ve done all those things. Many of them were downright challenging at the time. Some worked out and some didn’t. It was a long journey to get me where I am today. Of all the possible regrets I could have regarding my choices along the way, the one I most regret by far is not doing everything I could much sooner to get out of the profession I grew to hate so I could do what I love.

With Love,

Russ