I have a hard time shutting my brain down. Every time Jeremy is out of town for work I find myself working until 1,2, 3 am and I realize MY GOD I would be a flipping CEO somewhere with no life if I didn’t have him to ground me and make sure I relax EVER. I can’t take credit for this ridiculous work ethic, I just naturally have it. I wish it would calm the fuck down, to be honest.
This leads me into what I got on here to talk about. I was going through a box of my old high school and college notebooks and folders tonight and as I was reading through it, I remembered just how much I love to learn and how much I love getting new and challenging information, and working it into my frame of reference. I don’t get to debate the causes of World War 1 or the rise of nationalism and the immense damage it did in modern Europe, and I miss it. I miss hearing a new theory or reading information and having a ding in my brain as I can see events connecting across centuries and countries. This stuff truly excites me, and it always has. I worked tirelessly then on it and it made me think about how I am living without it since I quite clearly, am not working at a university as I always intended.
Then I had that familiar “ding”. What keeps my brain humming and gives me gobs of energy now is business. Specifically my businesses. There is nothing that excites me more right now than challenging myself with something that I love and that I think is worth doing. I always have to do more, to learn more, and to be more. But I love it. I love it as much as I love learning about and debating history and the human condition. This has taken the place of academia for me.
I really love how sales ties into all that. I have always loved to study people throughout history and how they react to things and how they learn, change, and persevere. People are amazing. AMAZING. I admire the hell of people and what connects them as well as what separates them. I am highly perceptive to people and what is unique about them, and this is what makes me a good salesperson. Because of this, I LOVE being in sales. I love constantly changing and challenging myself to be the perfect person that the client needs me to be at that exact moment in time. Because when I do my job right, I have made a difference in someone’s day in a positive way.
I love how trends change and yet revolve and recycle and I have to constantly keep up and also look back to predict the market or I lose out. When I make a mistake, I love the knowledge that I have gained from losing money (is there a more effective way to learn a lesson than by losing money ?!?)
I love that even though I am not directly using my degree, I have found a way to tie it into my adult life and I feel immeasurably lucky that I have found something that I love to do. I didn’t always know this about myself – I floundered after college, big time. I had a job I hated (office work, NOT FOR ME!), followed by more waitressing, which can be profitable, but it just wasn’t where I was working, followed by my pawn shop job which I actually kind of loved but had it’s own set of issues, followed by stay at home motherhood which I lasted in without having a job for about 3 months. Then came eBay. My businesses have grown naturally from there. I never set out to do this, but damn am I glad I trusted my gut and kept making moves in this direction. I have a LONG WAY to go before I am “done” and happy with where I am at in my own business world but – where I am at right now, while overwhelmingly busy and constantly challenged, is pretty awesome.
Aside from family, isn’t this what life is about? Finding something to get our brains whirring so life isn’t monotonous and depressing?
No matter what you have to do to live, if it is mind numbing and awful – find some time to let your mind wander and pay attention to where it wanders. When you find the thing that makes it “ping” – stop – take note – and figure out a way to work that into your every day.
I promise it makes a huge difference. But you might sleep less đŸ˜‰