be a dreamer.

Posted by on December 9, 2010 in Business, Life | 1 comment

Being in my mid…ahem…well, late…twenties, I am in the stage of life where a lot of my friends are finishing school and going into jobs they hate or wouldn’t consider their “dream job.” I think in school we all get this idea in our minds that we are going to graduate and go into a job that we LOVE and have dreamt about and our starting salary will be $70k plus. Am I right? Did you have this thought? In reality most of us ended up (or are still in now) a desk job doing some kind of admin-type job that pays around $30k. Am I right again?

So, moral of the story…most of us don’t land our dream jobs right out of college…and I think we should expect that. However, Jon Acuff over at Stuff Christians Like posted a tweet this weekend that said:

Bad employees don’t make good dreamers. You can’t be lazy at a day job 40 hours a week & think you’ll hustle on your dream

What a profound statement!! I think by nature we {most of us} are dreamers. We want to own our own business, be a director at some huge company, work for some organization we admire, etc…and we SHOULD be dreamers!!! The sky is truly the limit when it comes to your life and I think we should really dream big. All of that being said…it takes time for those dreams to become a reality. (cue Disney music….) In all seriousness though, I tell all of my friends that we should all be in a job we don’t love at some point so that when you do land that dream job, you don’t take it for granted. But, just because you are in a job you don’t like doesn’t mean you should do a bad job at this.

I remember a very specific month or so in a previous job that I was feeling so discontent in what I was doing and like I wasn’t living my passion, and I started getting lazy. Balls were getting dropped and I was NOT giving 100% at work. I was super convicted of this and realized that I wasn’t being a good steward of my time or of my bosses money, and that wasn’t fair. I would not want one of my employees doing that with my money or time.

All of this to say, I am living my dream right now, and I am SO lucky that I am able to do this at such a young age. I get a lot of people telling me that I was really lucky that all of this “fell in my lap” but that is so not the case. I have worked really hard to get where I am and fully believe that everyone can be working in their dream position just by working hard. So, are in a job you hate? If so, give 100% at work and then at night and on the weekends work at your highest capacity to make that dream position a reality…it CAN be done, but that quote says it all – if you’re not willing to put the work in 40 hours a week and be a great employee, what makes you think you will do a good job once you land that “dream job”?

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  • http://www.risingwiththemoon.wordpress.com Laura C

    Hi Leah, this is Laura from TurboKick class…

    Just want to make a comment on your post, as someone who is roughly the same age. I definitely dreamed big when I was in college, but then I found out the hard way my major was unemployable. I ended up taking one of those “admin jobs that paid $30K” a year…I hated every minute of it, but it was a great learning experience, I worked hard, and I made efforts to help my coworkers. I stayed in that job until I finished my masters, working, going to school, interning…still hated the grunt work with a mad passion…felt like people were passing me by…but I got a good reference, was able to pay my bills, and they worked with my school schedule. And met some wonderful people.

    The lesson I learned is that you have to be ready for the dream. I finally got a better job…it may not be the “dream” but who knows…it’s on the right track. As you know, I had to move to take the great job, and things are really starting to fall into place for me. I start Monday in an area I have wanted to live in for a long time. But you really cannot appreciate and really maximize your potential…you learn what not to do, how to be a good person at work, and not just rake in money for yourself…but how to work with people, how to not give up, and how to be a good leader.