Pursuing Your Dream Career in a Rotten Economy

I’m getting ready to reveal some big news here. But in the meantime, I wanted to share something short, but hopefully meaningful.

I started this blog a few years ago because I had a profound belief that if every person did what they were born to do, the world would be a happier place. Children would grow up with happier parents. Parents wouldn’t feel resentful and jaded. People might even be kinder to one another because they wouldn’t be living in a repressed state.

When we are free to be who we are, it is like coming home. My hope in writing here was to help free others to live their own dreams, whatever that may be.

While the blog has changed a lot and grown, I still feel strongly about my purpose. When I hear friends and family complain about the bad economy or hear reporters talk about the worsening job market, I try to stay hopeful. I want to rise above the anxiety and fear with hope and blind faith. The only other choice is to believe the worst, immerse ourselves in negativity and consequently sabotage any efforts we have to rise above it.

But I doubted others felt this way. And of all people, I hardly thought financial guru Suze Orman would agree with my thinking. But she went and surprised me.

On her show The Money Class on OWN, she said the following to a mother and military vet who found herself unemployed:

“Why do you want to be a waitress when your dream job is to be a photographer? You should pursue your dreams…a job is not a career, a career is a passion.”

Amen Ms. Orman! It thrills me to no end that she feels this way. Even in a bad economy, you can own a dream and there is no shame in pursuing one. It is not selfish. It is not asking too much. It is something we all deserve-if a dream is as big as Walt Disney’s and if it’s as small as wanting to learn how to be a photographer. Maybe you’re working full-time and still want to be an author or an entrepreneur or a painter. Don’t give up on your dreams! Keep to it. The only sure way you won’t get there is if you give up and never pursue it.