"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
I’ve always been someone who has multiple life plans in my mind. I decide I’m going to do something, a new thing – whether if be a different career, teaching English abroad, going to grad school or spending a summer picking apples in Germany, to name a few. Then I research the hell out of the thing, start talking to people as if I’m 100% doing it, even sometimes taking up their time to help me formulate my plan and then….I do nothing. I’ve worked at the same job for nine years. I am a bit cursed by having a great job, a job too good to just leave and one that I enjoy very much. It makes it easy to give up on whatever life plan because I’ve got it pretty good. Also, until recently, I was in a long term relationship, which was another easy out.
Fast forward to the other night when, reading aloud to my sister an excerpt from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, I found myself unable to stop crying. I know myself well enough not to be too concerned, although my sister was rather freaked out. I’m a cry baby and I accept it. It’s how I express emotion, even if sometimes I’m not sure what that emotion is at that exact moment. I usually figure it out eventually.
In this case, I figured it out pretty quickly. The section I was reading was about living big, titled “Blowing Up Your Life.” In this excerpt Keller says,
Don’t fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living your live to your fullest. When we fear big, we either consciously or subconsciously work against it. We either run toward lesser outcomes and opportunities or we simply run away from the big ones. If courage isn’t the absence of fear, but moving past it, then thinking big isn’t the absence of doubts, but moving past them. Only living big will let you experience your true life and work potential.
I know the ONE thing that I want to do. I want to go to grad school full time and earn a Master’s Degree in Folklore. I have wanted to do this since I was still in school, earning my art history degree. It’s scary because it means starting completely over and it also means moving. Only a handful of schools offer this program and none of them in Denver. The top on my list right now is Eugene, OR. According to this book, to go all in means to put ALL my eggs in the basket, instead of dividing my time between multiple plans as is typical. I’ve decided to take micro-steps so I don’t get freaked out. I have to be proficient in another language, which I am not. So that’s step 1. I have to take the GRE. So that’s step two. Etc., Etc. This is a three-five year plan for me and I know that if, in that time, I still am working towards this and really want it – it’s the right thing. If not…well…I’ll at least know another language.
I’ve done it before. I quit my big girl job to go back to school. And it worked out swimmingly. I didn’t have to move though, that’s the difference. I’ve lived in Denver for twenty-two years, coming here for college when I was eighteen. I have an amazing community here and it will be hard to leave, if even for two years. Cuz that’s the thing…I can always come back.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one. – Mark Twain
So, here I go. Putting all my eggs in one basket. I’ve signed up for Spanish II in the fall…back to Metro I go. I am also taking a Women’s Folklore class, better make sure I really like it. In the meantime, I keep working on paying down my student loans and not going back into debt. I keep reading all of the books. I do everything I can to make this work. Come on eggs…lets go.
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