Moving on to Plan B
“Concentrating on the good aspects of your current job—the reasons you chose it in the first place—can help you go from feeling like a victim to someone who’s actually in control of the situation,” Cora advises. In addition, she recommends thinking of ways you can bring what interests you about a Plan B career into your current position: “If you’ve always wanted to start something from scratch, look for ways that you can head up a new project within your company.”
Psychology Today has a piece about that itch people get to quit their jobs and go to Plan B—Plan B being that thing they’ve always wanted to do. The bit of advice of finding ways to get excited again about the job you already have, is helpful—unlike the examples the writer chose to illustrate this story: financial analyst becoming a blogger, engineer becoming a teacher, lawyer becoming an actor, and equities trader becoming a documentary filmmaker. These are all people in high-paying jobs who built a cushion for themselves to pursue something else they loved. Sure, if you have money, it’s much easier to try a new career path. But what if you’re not in a high-paying job? I would have loved to see an example of how a dental assistant pursued his or her Plan B career.
THIS! THIS! THIS! I love reading stories of people starting their own business but it gets tiring hearing the same variation of: I left my career in finance to become a ___. My goal is to start my own business and it is disappointing to find very few stories that aren’t backed by a cushy financial position to begin with. I know these stories are out there.
I am trying to make my Plan B (vintage and handmade vintage-inspired clothing sales) happen right now and I left my not-so cushy job last year to travel and currently I am a temp so it is really slow going.
The best advice that I would give me a year and a half ago when I quit my job would be to have kept my ok-paying job for the start-up capital instead of piecing together work the way I do now. There is a reason why so many of these stories are about people who leave high-pay fields.
so good! it is really annoying to always hear about people ‘pursuing their dreams’ with either no attention to the money piece, or people who have capital in the first place. example: http://thedreamshareproject.com/
like that’s great and all, but i have to support two people on my income and pay rent, i can’t just quit my job.
As someone who’s been thinking about this for months, this article comes at the right time. To want to love what you do as well as make enough to live on doing it, in this economy, is the most difficult thing.
Mike, your tagged Plan B sounds like a good Plan A+ from where I’m sitting (in my office overlooking the pub approaching my lunch hour).
I think it helps if your Plan B is something that few others are into…like, your low-overhead pet waste removal company can allow you to escape your call center job and get out in the fresh air, whereas your party planning business might not be the ticket out your desk job that you think it is.