What is your dream job? Though I try to find ways to make my current job as fulfilling as I can {and it’s a freakin challenge sometimes}, I still find myself daydreaming about escaping the cubicle and doing something I could say I loved doing. I’ve got ideas. In no particular order, here are the things I would like to say payed my bills:
- Boutique/consignment shop owner. I would sell things I make, others make, and give new lives and new homes to lovely things. I have considered opening an Etsy shop, and maybe some day I will, but right now I just dream about designing store fronts, managing inventory, scouting thrift shops and yard sales, and making a living making things. This one’s definitely the far-fetched dream, as I know it would take an insane amount of work to make it happen {and continue to succeed}. But it seems like it would be so worthwhile.
- Layout designer. Since I was a yearbook dork in high school, I’ve loved playing around arranging copy and photos on spreads. I can spend lots of hours buried in magazines. I design websites, I scrapbook, and I’m a compulsive rearranger. It seems like the kind of work that I could do while zoning out with headphones. And it sounds lovely.
- Food photographer/blogger. I’m not a great photographer, or a great chef… I’m learning with both. But I am mesmerized by beautiful food. I look at Tastespotting and other foodie blogs pretty frequently, wishing I could spend more time in the kitchen experimenting and were more committed to making every meal an EVENT. Seems to me it’d be such if it were a career.
- Party/event planner. It seems there would be something so gratifying about creating miracles to make an event come together and making it seem effortless. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people have a great time, especially when it’s due to hard work on my part. It’s a mix of creative and organized I feel totally suits me.
Obviously, my personal dream job is something creative and something with a very personal stamp on it. That’s the “theme” in my dreams, and I like to keep it in mind so it positively affects the decisions I make now.
Making notes, listing, dreaming and scheming can be absolutely productive; it makes the things I am doing NOW tolerable, acknowledging they are not only temporary, but not a waste of time. Sometimes I have to consciously remind myself how the things I’m doing now will help me live my dreams later. I set goals for myself to create things, never get out of the habit of challenging myself. I take on the projects at work that will give me experience, skills, or contacts I can use in the future {even if that just means helping to plan conferences and summer picnics}. Though I might not have a creative job, I am exploiting the benefits to beef up my resume and skill set. If nothing else, daydreaming {ironically} keeps me focused on making better choices for me.
Maybe I don’t even know what my dream job is yet; maybe I will find it simply by looking for the right characteristics in a job. It’s certainly possible.
What about you? What would you love to do, if you could pick anything in the world? How do you set yourself up to eventually make them happen? Or are you doing it- already living them dream?
kellieanne.wordpress.com 
I would be a wedding florist. Spending all day surrounded by beautiful flowers, finding new ways to combine them and make things pretty…yum. Currently doing absolutely nothing to get me closer to “the dream.” Sigh.
That does sound lovely, it seems too good to be a real “job” doesn’t it? I always thought, though, if I ever became an event planner, I would stay far, far away from weddings! I hear too many “bridezilla” stories, and have known a few! But for those who aren’t, it would be a magical profession, to help plan peoples’ happy day!
The old phrase “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life,” resonates in my head every morning when I head into my mundane 9-5 job. I envy those who have had the ability to pursue their dreams and start their own businesses. I, too, would love to be an event planner, graphic designer, or even run my own stationary boutique.
But what are we doing that is helping us get closer to these dreams? For me, it seems like blogging is my only outlet – hey, if I can’t make my dreams a reality, at least I can write about them.
Hang in there and keep dreaming – everyone has to start somewhere!
Thanks for the encouragement and thoughts! I hope you get to do what you love one day! Blogging is a great outlet- and wow! What a fun blog you have! So many ideas to check out- can’t wait to really dig through. 🙂