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Posted On 07.27.10
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"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."
- Flora Whittemore -
 
 

When faced with a big, life-changing decision, what do you do?

Do you make the more sensible decision or do you take the risk, not knowing what the outcome is?  How do you evaluate it?  How many people do you talk to about it?  Which people do you talk to about it?

 

I've never been good at making those tough choices.  Especially ones that could change your life.  But lately I've been re-evaluating where I am in my life.  

I'm almost 27, with a job that's starting to make me miserable, in a city that is slowly becoming unsatisfying.  The only thing keeping me here, really, are my friends.

 

My decision?   

 

Quit my job at the end of August (when my lease expires) and buy a plane ticket to my home land and spend a few weeks traveling abroad.  Risk the unknown - both in a new country, and when I return to the States - not knowing if I'd be able to find a job when I return, not knowing how long I'd be able to live off of a small savings account, not knowing .... anything.  

or
 

Stay at my current job (and hold onto the benefits of having health insurance and growing my retirement fund), in my current city, and settle for what I have.....until I can find something better.  IF I can find something better.

I have every intention of re-visiting my home land, but I've always had an excuse not to.  I don't have enough money.  I don't have the time.  I don't... I don't... I don't... I'm starting to run out of excuses.  I'm starting to realize that I need to do this, but it's a trip that could potentially change my life and that?  Is scary.  Because this time I have control over it.  I can do it on my own terms.  

Teachers prepare you for certain things in the "real world," but they don't prepare you for those life-changing decisions you have to make.  Moments that could change your life, for better or worse.  Time that cannot be undone.  Experiences that will shape another part of your life. 
A decision (and trip) that could potentially change my life and I'm too scared to make it. 
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July 27, 2010 9:28 am

It is important to recognize your strengths and identify your weaknesses. Once you take a moment to search within self, you will begin to see new doors opening for you.

July 27, 2010 12:47 pm

How likely are you to actually pursue (or to pursue wholeheartedly) the if/until you find something better path if you're coming from a place of security (benefits, retirement savings, etc.)with no immediate impetus to change your circumstances other than a creeping feeling of dissatisfaction with your job and city? I think the natural instinct is always to stay with the safe and familiar while telling ourselves we'll look for an upgrade, but we never quite devote the diligence to this looking when we know that we have a fallback/plan b/safety net. A lot of big-ticket decisions are made from urgency or desperation. Shaking things up from a place of relative comfort (rocking the boat vs. abandoning the Titanic) is a much more difficult proposition.

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