Growing up after 30: personal growth

Showing posts with label personal growth. Show all posts

Monday, July 21, 2014

Career Changes Cometh

As we all know at this point, one of the big end-game goals of the Growing Up After 30 initiative is the goal of shifting from a McJob, into a career I really care about. In my particular case a career in the IT industry. I started my trek by studying for, and passing, the CompTIA 220-801 and 220-802 for my A+ certification. The theory being that a degree in computer science (like a lot of bachelor's degrees) is highly over-rated. I figured that a few certifications, a little experience, and some good professional connections would be just as useful, if not more so.

The high cost of living (in a house)

This week's life improvement project has been working with a mortgage broker to get a pre-approval letter so we can start house hunting in earnest. We've finished the initial application process, and we're waiting for the great and powerful Underwriters to send word to us through the kind and benevolent Mortgage Broker.

It's been a fascinating experience, and I've learned a huge amount about the process. For instance, I always thought that the biggest obstacle to home ownership was down-payment funds, or possibly your credit score. It turns out that I was wrong entirely.

Real life gets in the way sometimes.

Over the years, I've developed a few phrases and quirks. Things that I'll say, for lack of a better term, as catch phrases. It's cheesy, I know, but it's not something I've ever done deliberately. They just pop into my head, and then pop out of my mouth. Think of it as cliché turrettes. Some of them I've ripped off from books or movies, some I came up with on my own, and quite a few others, I couldn't honestly tell you where, when, or how they came about.

Bad habbits

I started smoking cigars when I was 15 years old.

Mostly macanudos, but the occasional natural as well. When I was 19 or so, I also started smoking pipe tobacco (apparently, at 5'5" and overweight I didn't look enough like a hobbit) The funny part was that the first time I was ever carded I was 23 years old....

It's time to study.

The day after my wife and I got home from our anniversary, my study materials for the Comptia A+ certification exam were delivered by FedEx. (hence the lack of make-up post) They actually tried to deliver them the day we arrived, but as usual, they tried to deliver when nobody was home so I just got a 'sorry we missed you' slip. I'll skip that particular rant for now...

In any case, I've spent much of my free time since then studying for the Comptia A+, and I've come to a number of conclusions.

Yes, it is your fault.

I used to have a roommate who had just split with the woman he'd been shacking up with. (there's that term again) At the time, I was just starting to pull myself up out of divorce.

As you can imagine, we weren't exactly the dynamic duo. The only time the townhouse got cleaned properly was when one of us had a date; and to be perfectly honest, that didn't happen much.

Gossip pants.

Sometimes it seems that work, family, hobbies, and maintaining your health are just not enough to keep a person busy. We look around at our spotless home, our finished work, our already fully assembled scale model of the Death Star and think to ourselves, "Wow, if only I had something else to occupy my time and energy, because this certainly isn't enough to keep me busy."

The solution is a simple one:

Gossip™

Get your butt to work.

People need to get their butts to work.

I'm not talking about job hunting here, although that's a great topic. What I'm talking about is something a lot more basic.

When you have a job, go to your job. Go there every day. Go there on time or early. Actually work while you're there. You'd think that such a statement would be obvious; but you'd be wrong.

Making people change.

Everyone knows that you can't make a person change. You can support people. Provide inspiration and motivation. You can set an example and encourage people to follow your lead; but at the end of the day, each person has to do their own heavy lifting. (some of use more than others)

How to get better mileage and more performance.

A strange thing started happening on my commute to work this week.

Without so much as lifting the hood, my little red corolla was suddenly getting better gas mileage. It even seemed to have better performance. I was passing Porches and careening past Cadillacs.

The secret is actually pretty simple.

I wasn't towing a car loan anymore.

Make a plan, and make it loose.

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "In preparing for battle i have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

I've mentioned plans quite a bit lately. My own plans, what makes a reasonable plan, and so on. Today, I'd like to dig a little deeper into that subject.

It's okay to admit that you're not satisfied.

A couple of days after I started this blog, something completely unexpected happened. I'd just asked my wife to review a draft of a post, which I could tell she actually liked because she was still laughing when I left the room. After I asked a few questions, and wheedled some more feedback out of her, she looked at me with her Serious Face™. (if you're married, you know the one I'm talking about) She looked at me, and she asked very quietly, "are you really that unhappy with your life?"

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I think we've probably all heard the old joke that goes - Why are people always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up?

They're looking for ideas.

The very fact that we can laugh at, and relate to, such a joke tells me there are a lot of us who should have grown up a long time ago; who are still looking for what we want to be when we Grow Up™.