Up-skill continuously
“The only job security you have today is your commitment to continuous personal improvement.” (Ken Blanchard)
Given that you do not have the technical skills to be a care person, Option 4 may not be immediately available to you, at least for now.
But you could start working towards this goal.
As the world we live in is constantly changing and evolving, you may need to go back to school to acquire the appropriate paper qualification for you to do that care job competently.
This may mean additional education cost for you, which you have to personally fund at some stage.
Regardless of what you do, it is always wise to continuously up-skill or up-grade yourself in your current job or to a job that you are targeting or thinking about.
It’s just good practice.
It’s about creating job security for yourself in the long run.
It is taking one step at a time.
Minimise your expenses
“He is rich whose income is more than his expenses; and he is poor whose expenses exceed his income.” (Jean de la Bruyere)
Without knowing whether taking a career risk will be suitable for you in the long-run, do try to minimise any additional expenditure or expenses until you are absolutely certain.
You do not want to incur any study debt without first understanding the return on investment and whether that future job is something you are passionate about.
Going on a journey of self-discovery will require you to be ruthless with your expenditure by having a strict financial budget and disciplined cash flow management.
Save money where you can and watch your cash flow.
Relocating can accelerate your learning experience
“Three ingredients of luxury lifestyle design are time, income and mobility.” (Time Ferriss)
You can exercise any of these options in different geographical locations and countries, provided you are willing to relocate and enjoy a different lifestyle and if it truly accelerates or enhances your self-discovery journey.
If you have older children, this may become much difficult, but not impossible.
The key is to find the path of least resistance to fulfill your goal of knowing your purpose and who you are.
Less developed countries can sometimes offer better learning and experimenting opportunities at a much lower cost of living.
Working in Asia, for example, can give you a wider breadth of experiences when compared with western countries like Australia that focuses on depth of experiences.
The breadth and depth of experiences and the opportunities that can be presented will be some of the deciding factors you have to consider as to whether you relocate or not.
If relocating countries mean that you can exercise option 4 without much cash flow impact due to possible lower living expenses, then this could be an attractive option for you to consider.
Grab all opportunities to learn and improve yourself
“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” (Ann Landers)
My working philosophies have been these:
- Just do it.
- Do your best in everything and in all things.
- Never say “it’s not my job”.
Be like a sponge and learn and improve yourself as much as you can.
Everything that you do, your experiences that you have gathered or acquired will remain with you forever.
Use the learning and experiences to continuously improve yourself, to be a much better person.
So don’t complain when your boss gives you more work, sometimes beyond your job description.
Develop a learning mindset
Early in my working life, my manager would give me things to do that were outside of my job description. I just did them anyway for the sake of learning and trying new things and gaining experiences.
I also proactively seek out other learning opportunities.
I have become so good at human resources that I taught wannabe human resource practitioners the skills that I have learned on the job and not in university.
Just do it and do your best, even if you have not done it before or just hate doing the task.
These are real learning and improvement opportunities that may not come again. Cherish them.
Always learn from mistakes
They are also opportunities to learn from mistakes.
When we do things for the first time, there is a higher likelihood of making mistakes. If you do make mistakes, learn from it, do not repeat them again, and move on.
Be child-like
Like a child, testing, experimenting and curiosity will be your hallmarks.
Be child-like rather than childish – this should be your approach to life.
Always ask the “why” question and find the solutions.
Also constantly ask, “What does success looks like for me?“
Think long-term, think delayed gratification
“Delayed gratification is a sweet lesson whose teacher knows the best is not right now, it is yet to be.” (Maximillian Degenerez)
When we have an immediate entitlement mindset that is short-term and somewhat destructive, we would not go far.
I advised my daughter to try out something new and her immediate response was, “How much will I get paid for doing the work?” (Not surprising for the young generation!)
This is the wrong question to ask.
I told her that it is not how much she can get paid but whether employers are willing and able to pay for the value she can give or create for people.
(That didn’t go down well for her!)
For me, the right question should be, “Can I give to or create value for people so that they will pay me without me asking for it first?”
It is only when people value and experience the work we do and we have no expectation of anything immediately in return can we find our self-worth or true worth.