What Dreams Are Made Of

When I learned I wasn’t going to be able to keep my current job, it set off a bunch of worries. What if finding a remote job isn’t as easy as I originally thought? What if my qualifications aren’t good enough to land the type of job I’m looking for? What if I don’t find a job right away and my dreams and living situation were jeopardized?

Now, for anyone trying to forge their path to living the nomadic lifestyle, I think all of these are valid concerns and worth giving time and attention to – at first. With 3 weeks left until I was no longer going to have a job, I’ll admit, I was really nervous. Thankfully, I have amazing friends and a great community to support me. They confirmed that I’d be fine. They also confirmed that they wouldn’t let me fail, should things not go according to plan.

I am so thankful for them.

Flash forward exactly one week and I found a job!

I’m absolutely awestruck at how fast and generally painless it was to find a new place to work. I’m sure I sounded confident when I started this journey. Post-COVID life would make it much easier to find a remote job, but I still had my doubts. Allow me to recap: Tuesday, I missed a phone call from a recruiter at the place I applied. Wednesday, I spoke with her for the first time. Thursday, we talked over lunch to set up a plan for Friday to speak with the recruiting manager. Thursday night I spoke with the recruiting manager. Lunch on Friday was my interview with the company. Friday afternoon, I was offered (and accepted) the position.

And just like that, everything seemingly fell into place.

A Look Forward

One of my biggest realizations moving into this year is that work-life balance shouldn’t be about making it through your work day to enjoy your free time. Work-life balance should support you and all of your aspirations to make your life what you want it to be. They always tell you to find a job you love, but we really need to start focusing on finding a job that makes you love your life.

The weight off my chest from hearing the company say “We don’t care if you’re in your pajamas, because nobody is going to see you” was astronomical. Not because I want to work in my pajamas. It made me realize that working from home is going to allow me to structure my days in ways I could only dream of; in ways that I always thought were reserved for people who were fortunate enough to not need to work.

As I was showering this morning, I suddenly felt like I got hours back of my life. An hour of commuting time is now mine. An hour of lunch is mine. The mental time moving from one place to another in order to do any process now belongs to me. That’s roughly 8 hours of time per week that I suddenly have available to me for whatever I so choose.

Now, instead of jumping out of bed to get ready to be presentable in an office, I can spend that time waking up and being grateful and stretching. Instead of running to find something to eat for lunch and spending half the time eating, half the time not wanting to go back to work, I can focus on the things that make life tick – take a shower, write a blog post, rest, do yoga, clean. Instead of planning every minute after work to decide if I need to pick up food for dinner, how to best use my commute for errands on my way home, if I have time to do anything other than chores, I can just do it. I can simply look in my fridge and say “Looks like I need cheese” and go get the cheese.

I have longed to be able to eat my first meal around 10 and my second meal around 3 for quite some time now. But with an office job, I had to take lunch at noon. Not when I needed a break, nor when I was hungry. Noon. So perhaps it will be that way with this job, too. With my fridge mere steps away, I can now eat when I’m hungry, instead of when I have to.

Of course, there’s also the obvious, too. I can work from anywhere.

My dreams now have a path forward. I challenge anyone reading this to challenge their ideas of what it means to love their job. I’ve spent so much of my life reaching for a job that paid well, that I loved doing so that I would enjoy my days doing work, so that on the days each year I can get paid to take off, I can do whatever I want. But that’s not the magic. The magic is finding something that serves you.