Being obtuse

[brake man]

"48 Days to the Work You Love" by Dan Miller

A great book that I am working through myself, as are a few of my friends. Pick it up and start reading through it. It is really good.

Before you do that, though, and while you're reading the book, pray the Lord will give you wisdom and guidance. It's hard to do but the only way to do things.

[Double R 2]

Hayes gave you the best advice....lots of prayer!!!
Now, I'm gonna give you the next best advice....been there-done that....while you're praying, get the hell away from your family.....if you're single, do it NOW!!!
Don't wait....go to Costa Rica, Australia, Colorado, Alaska...... it doesn't matter....GO, MOVE, VAMOOSE....SEE THE FRIGGING WORLD....you can get a job, after you get there!!!
Good Luck....let us know where you're headed to!!!

I second that advice and previous similar sentiments. My advice: hit the road. Quit living up to everyone else's expectations. Travel. Buy a one way ticket to some part of the world, pack a bag and shove off. Steamboat, Colorado, for example, is a great start for someone on your predicament. Plenty folks - young and not so - working coffee shop shifts, landscaping, trade, and government labor between back country excursions, ski seasons and parties; plenty folks sleeping in trucks and on borrowed sofas, otherwise having the times of their lives. Anyone in Alberta, Canada, tall enough to fog glass on a cold morning can get a job making $20 an hour or more in the oil industry and the hunting is great. One of my greatest influences when I was about your age was an old-school taxidermist that used to work around here, one time swept the floors and changed the sheets in a brothel up there to make hunting money. I never aspired to do that but, what the hell, that old boy lived half his life hunting and fishing in Alaska which is all he wanted to do and, let's face it, not many folks can say that. You're only young - and dependent-less - once in your life. Time to cut the apron strings and see the world, which contrary to popular opinion, is one helluva lot bigger and interesting than Mississippi.

[tombstone]

Through all the comments and smart alek replies that come on this board, we often wade through them and find some really good advice from people who have a little more experience than us.

There has been some great advice offered to this thread. I was born and raised in this rotten town and was always afraid to leave. My wife is that way now. Take it from someone who was afraid to pack up and go, get out while you have no responsibilites (wife, kids). I agree that you don't have to decide what your will do the "rest of your life. Find something you enjoy doing and do it good!!! Life is unbelievably short and as a wife and kids come, those chances to gamble slip away. Don't stress yourself. If you have to take a job to make ends meet, then do it, but don't be satisfied. I did, so I can speak form experience.

Remember this: The only difference between a rut and the grave is the depth!
I am praying to get out of the rut before I get in the grave.

[JaMak84]

Buy a one-way ticket to Bora Bora and open a tiki bar. Even if you're as broke as a spoke on a cheeseburger's bicycle, F-it, you're in Bora Bora.

On a serious note, good luck and be patient, the right job will come along.

[LawDawg]

my friend just got off the shrimp (actually prawn) boat in australia. made 4 grand in 3 weeks, got to catch tuna with a handline and got to see some of the most remote places in the world. go do something you always wanted to do and just make enough to live.

[BAY KINGFISHER]

Hit the road, man...make some memories! speaking from experience, it may never get better unless you try a different path!! I am living proof of it, 34 yrs old new career paths several times, divorced, remarried..etc etc....I have made good money, never really happy though, have a great wife, nice new home.....but still feel that I should be doing something different....just dont know which way to go....I sure hope the rut wont get any deeper or the grave dont get closer!! in the mean time I will just keep grinding on!!! Goodluck!!

[JDgator]

Sounds like you just want a new direction. I gotta tell you never went in the military but wish I had. Have you considered OCS? You could go into some pretty cool fields and you wont have to do much mopping floors when you become an officer. Just a thought...

[Up2Early]

my friend just got off the shrimp (actually prawn) boat in australia. made 4 grand in 3 weeks, got to catch tuna with a handline and got to see some of the most remote places in the world. go do something you always wanted to do and just make enough to live.

LawDawg - Ryan did it right, didn't he... I'm still jealous. Let's go fishing sometime next week.

[missed deer]

im not pist at my brother i know how bad it is and i want him to succeed in his life i am always behind him in everything he does i just thought that this was a good oppurtunity to get away from here and do something different. i am not pressureing him of anything of the sort i just want him to be pleased in what he does the job he has now doesnt do that for him anymore and i am trying to help him find jobs. My brother is very good at a lot of things and im very proud of him i just wish something would come along that he is really interested in. I think he should be a writer becaues he has excellant stories that he has wrote that would blow you mind he is very good at that. love you Tom not pist just trying to help you

[LawDawg]

my friend just got off the shrimp (actually prawn) boat in australia. made 4 grand in 3 weeks, got to catch tuna with a handline and got to see some of the most remote places in the world. go do something you always wanted to do and just make enough to live.

LawDawg - Ryan did it right, didn't he... I'm still jealous. Let's go fishing sometime next week.

yea he did. I'm jealous too. I can go fishing any day next week except monday. You tell me what day and I will meet you there.

[bigwater]

bro.. as for the job thing.. i think you'll find that once you have a job (for the most part any job will do).. but once you have that first job.. you'll find that it'll become a lot easier to get that second job.. and usually that second job will be somethig more to your liking...


or if you won't something really exciting.. i've got several blueprints laid out on various banks to rob here in the jacktown area.. the police only catch about 1 in 10.. i like those odds.

[Duck Nawteek]

Prayers sent buddy. Lots of good advice here. But just remeber you got to make yourself happy first before anything else. Since you are not married or have any kids running around that you know about, do like some on here have said get out and see the world, do something different,and like your bro. said write a book about it!!!!!!!!

[duck_nutt]

join the military....can sample some different jobs and different places.
it's much easier to do when you don't have a family to move around...
oh, and the praying part is the best advice...pray and listen

[cwink]

Don't be afraid to take a job that seems "below you" or not exactly what your looking for.. I started turning wrenches for my Dad in HS.. That was tough.. Then took a job loading lumber at Sutherlands, quit there for a job at a competitor called Builders Square and transferred to another store when I went to college. I worked there in the summer and they had an opening at thier Computer Help desk. Which was in line with my degree.. I told them I would work every weekend if they would just give me off Tuesday and Thursday to go to class.. The other people at the helpdesk loved that because they would be off on the weekend.. So for the last 2 years of colleged I worked M, W, F, Sat, Sun from 8-5 and went to class on Tues and Thursday all day.. So that is 7 days a week with no breaks.. Upon gradutation, I had to find a job that would pay all the bills (according to dad) I found one and told the company I had to leave to find better pay. They counter offered and trained me to be a compture programmer.. That led me to MS and a nice cushy job where I can post all day long....

I wanted to set the world on fire when I was your age.. Now I just want to earn a paycheck and go home and see my wife and son.. Your priorities will change as your life changes..

[jacksbuddy]

and there will always be a hot Chinese girl who, when you ask her to 69, she asks, "Why you want a beef and broccorri right now?"

I'm sorry, but this got me. Fuuunnyyy.

Now, back on topic. It is your life, and your future. It doesn't matter what others around you say you 'should' do for a living. It's been said that most people die with most of their songs still inside of them. If you spend your life trying to make other people happy by doing what they think you should do for a living, you will die a young and miserable failure.

Enjoy your life. Do what you want to do for a living. Learn to live within the means of that living. Accept that there will always be good and bad associated with every job - and learn to live with those characteristics. Remember a few simple rules of life -

You only have one life, and you don't know how long that life may be; so make the best of it.
You are not alone, and you never will be.
In every life there is regret. Make sure that you regret things you did, instead of regretting things you did not do.
Measure success properly. It's more than just $.
Don't sweat the small stuff. And it is all 'small stuff'.

Ok, enough ranting. I could go on, but you didn't ask for a disertation.

Good luck, and keep us posted my friend.