The little voice keeps telling me to do it!

Do you ever find yourself in an awkward position and realise, you should have listened carefully to that little voice in your head?  The one that says “take this job” or “No it’s time to move on” or “Run for your life”? Well, this is the same position which Paulette William find herself in, when deciding on a recent career move.

I went to university after working full time for a year and learning first hand what the term dead end job actually meant. I thought uni would give me more options, set me on a clear career path and help me to earn more money. After 4 years of studying, I’d say it did all three but what it didn’t do was actually help me to determine what I wanted out of life.
My first job after graduating was as an Employability Support Worker. I began to appreciate how blessed I was and the opportunities that I had been given that many people hadn’t. I realised how much I had taken for granted and I believe that rather than build a career in that field, I was there to learn that lesson because after 9 months I was bored stiff and ready to move on. A voice in my head was telling me that there was something more challenging out there for me and so I started to look for a new job.

At around this time I began to question how so many people could genuinely operate at their best during the traditional office hours. I didn’t like early mornings, would become really productive at around 4pm and by now was pretty sure that the 9-5 thing wasn’t going to work for me. I was also hit with the entrepreneur bug and was convinced that I would enjoy working for myself more than any job. But with no business idea and no clue as to where to start, I decided to stick with what I knew and get a new job.
In the interview I had for my next job, I was asked how I felt about it being a fixed term one year contract. “It’s ok” I told the panel, “I’m going to be starting my own business anyway so the contract is the perfect time frame for me.”. Well after almost 5 years of working with that organisation,  I barely recognised that girl. She’d become bogged down with bills and commitments, trapped in the 9-5 comfort zone and her dreams were tainted by the harsh ‘reality’ of life.

I convinced myself that life was hard! That everyone disliked working but were just getting on with it and so should I. But as I started telling people about my dreams of stopping working and starting my own business, I learned that everyone didn’t think like me. Some were happy with the security of work and had absolutely no desire to change that. Neither way was better or worse, it just showed me that I shouldn’t make my decisions based on what those around were doing or what I thought they felt.

I got a new job and after 6 months the little voice crept in again and I was way too comfortable in the job. Finally I said to myself, “I could continue making myself unhappy in the spiral of getting a better job, bigger house, newer car and a better job to pay for it all. Or I could stop, pause for a while and give up ignoring my gut feeling. I made the decision to leave my job, take a career break and figure out what the little voice has been encouraging me to do.” The little voice was right

Paulette Williams-is the Founder of  Allwayswinning  a positive Lifestyle Blog for UK Women Who Want it ALL.