I’d like to share a short story with you , it may not help – as all issues in life are relative but I hope you will get something from it.

I had traveled the world , come from a fairly affluent family had many friends etc but eventually I squandered a lot of great opportunities and my addictions led me to run straight into many failures. These failures sort of “culminated” in my getting arrested for possession of prescription pills in Atlanta and spending six months in Fulton County Jail , not even calling any family and not really having anyone actively looking for me.

Understand that I had great expectations from life andfor a time could sustain this fiction with a thin coating of material success. But here I was . Broke , in an extremely rough prison and without a person in the world who I felt I could call. But you know , in a strange way I felt free for the first time in my life.

After that I got a job at Michaels (a retail craft store) as a salesperson and went from six figures to $7.50 an hour. I put my soul into that work (even though I could easily have hated it). And thats the key, that’s how we win no matter what by making joy our strength.

I am not back where I was financially, currently working as an electricians apprentice and at the age of 32 living with my Mom. A complete loser, right? Sure , anyone can categorize me that way and they would be correct , only I don’t feel that way at all. So in my internal world which is the only one that matter I am happier and more successful than I have ever been.

Why? Instead of “living with my mom” being some horrible mark of shame I see it as a great opportunity to enjoy and improve a relationship with the only family I have , I was, honestly, terribly lonely out in the world with all the trapping of a “good life”. Instead of starting a new, much lower paying and less “prestigous” (its funny too me that I ever had such a simple understanding of life where I thought my job defined me) position feeling like a drop to the bottom, its an exciting new adventure where I get to learn so much about myself and now my new dream is to start my own business selling solar panels and to that end I have saved $50,000 .

I am not saying that anyone should follow my turbulent trajectory or that you need to fail at anything only illustrating that a change in perspective is a choice and an extremely powerful one. I can say , for sure , that these last years have been the best of my life and I am growing as a person in a way that I never would have in my old life.

So I approach every day with humility and gratitude. Our stories are different but I would suggest you trick yourself into loving your job and your life while you plan for the future. No time on this earth is less valuable than any other so while you are making these plans for the future, you can get a lot out of what you are doing right now.

I know how hard it can be and I wish you the strength to hang in there but don’t forget how amazingly exciting the journey ahead of you is going to be and that without a doubt, in your future you will miss certain aspects of what you are experiencing now.

Best of luck!