Love What You Do. If You Haven't Found It. Keep Looking. Don't Settle

We're living in a vast universe. A whole wide world. With so many options to explore, so many ways to discover the wonders of life. So many chances to learn.

But we've only given one chance to live. Once chance to make better decisions. One chance to make the most of everything.

Life is a quest. A beautiful journey. An exciting pursuit. All the options are given.

But we're only afforded with a single ticket to live. A one-way ticket ride to a destination where we could be comfortable and be fulfilled.

A One-Way Ticket Ride

So what we gonna do with this one-way ticket ride? What route to choose? Which road to take? and which intersection in life we should start checking if we have spent our single ticket in the right direction?

It's through this reason that I kept checking my plans if I am walking in the right track of life, if I'm following the route where I should suppose to be in. If I have spent my one-way ticket ride in the correct path where I could disembark in the destination I've always dreamed to arrive.

The Magic of New Beginnings

So I did not stop dreaming to get what I wanted. I continued aiming to fulfill my goals or at least achieve 70% of the priorities I've set. I've only one chance to live. One chance to be fulfilled in life. I shouldn't waste it. As long as I've lived, there's always hope.

I'm always fascinated with new beginnings, new chapter, new environment because it's an opportunity to traverse a new path, a new journey, to recreate life, to fix what needs to be fixed, and a chance to restart and recharge.

It's always great to push the "restart" button in life. It promises a new beginning, a new chance to make things better. And I believe we can start at any point in life. There's no such thing as too late.

In my life's journey, things were not easier all the time. There were lots of mishaps, lots of disappointments, too many stopovers, and I've got tons of failures.

But I have not given up.

I believe I can always reconstruct failed plans. Life never ends in failures. And frustrations.

I'm still not tired of trying new things, not yet tired experimenting ways where I could be at my happiest because in all those failures, I've learned. I've developed my wisdom.

Life as a Quest

For me, life is a quest. And it's not meant to be lived in one corner. It should be explored. It should be discovered.

A happy and satisfying life where we are in our most calmest, is a state where we have seized all the opportunities available in this world. And work from it. Learn from it.

So I've continued my quest, looking for a place where I could celebrate my uniqueness, looking for an opportunity where I could put my potentials into great use.

Where my being me would be recognized. Where my value as a person wouldn't just be wasted with a routine that's meaningless.

I always find meaning in all I do.

In my life, I have explored many options to unearth my potentials and developed whatever skills I believe I have.

I cultivated my passion. I developed my hobby in writing, nurtured my interest in various fields, published books and blogs, traveled for leisure.

In that aspect. I'm successful. I've accomplished everything. I discovered so many things including my weaknesses and strengths. I've learned a lot. It helped me to evolve into a better person.

However, there's one aspect in my life that still left bleeding in the corner. My professional life.

See, despite having books published, running a successful blog and achieved more than 50% of the goals I've set early on,  I still wanted to have a regular job because life is a journey, a never-ending quest, and I don't want to get stuck in a single field.

I want variations in life and in all the things that I do so that I have options to be happy, and I won't die with boredom or get burned out of redundancy.

Focusing on a single career for me is a dead quest where life has stopped rotating. It's a dead world, a lonely walk, thus, I have lived my life trying to put my talent and potential into great use, because I believe we should not ruin ourselves in redundancy and boredom.

But my professional life always sucks. At least in my opinion. I still couldn't be in a place where I'm satisfied with the work routine. Where I'm compensated fairly and justly. And where I am doing what I believe a great work that I would love all the way to the sunset of my life.

I've been into so many things, yet satisfaction is far from it. So I didn't stop pushing myself. I didn't stop working on my goals.

And this quote of Steve Jobs always inspired me to keep moving in life, to keep looking for an opportunity where I could be fulfilled.

"Love what you do. If you haven't found it yet. Just keep looking. Don't settle". Yes. Do. Not. Settle. Just keep looking. Someday, you'll be in a place where you always wanted to be.

Remember that life is a quest. 

It's been one of my favorite "wisdom", one that truly motivates me to keep going in my journey, to keep looking for better opportunities, to keep defining my biggest goals.

To be in a place where I always wanted to be - a comfortable and fulfilling life where I could be in my most calmest and happiest. It's not so much about money but about self-fulfillment.

So here's a cliche for you...

If you're not satisfied with what's going on in your career and you think you can do better than what the circumstances are offering you at the moment, then keep looking, keep searching. Don't get tired. Don't lose hope.

And don't settle for mediocre. Do not live in redundancy. Otherwise you will be choked up with boredom and burned out with mental stress.

You deserve better. It's just a matter of courage to wind off challenges. Just don't be afraid to try and take risks. If you have taken the right options. You are on the right track. "Good things are coming down the road, just keep walking".

That's what life is all about. To try, take risks and face challenges. If you don't, you would never know what awaits you on the other side of the fence.

You'll never learn if you are always scared. You'll never discover a great place if you won't try. Just take off all your worries. 

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you have not found it yet, keep looking. Do not settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it". - Steve Jobs 

Many times in our life, we hesitate to change career, we hesitate to quit job because we are so afraid of change, we are too scared to try because we are afraid we might fail or we might not like the outcome, but life is all about taking risks.

If we are too scared to try, we will never find out what opportunity awaits us. Who knows it might be something we have been praying for so long.

Take risks. Do not settle.

In my life, I have so many hesitations. Like everyone else, I was also too scared to try. I was too scared to go out of my comfort zone because I might regret everything. 

But I have so many goals, I have big dreams. I have this huge belief that I am destined for something better.

However, I didn't have the courage to get on with my goals. I was too scared to push myself. I was afraid to change career because I might suffer, I might not get what I wanted.

But then I realized if I would not do it, no one will do it for me. And I might sail into the sunset of my life with too many baggage of the past. Too many regrets. Too many "what ifs".

I figured, if I will be scared all the time, I might not be able to achieve my goals and live in peace. I might spend the rest of my life in regrets.

So I started mapping out plans, realistic plans. I started reconstructing my goals. And I've set realistic priorities.

I went back to school and took masters. Then ventured into the corporate world, leaving behind my fears and self-doubts. 

Still, I haven't get what I wanted. And for years, I felt like a drifter, a wanderer. Did not know exactly where to settle, where to maneuver my boat, what career path I should follow. 

I kept going back to the basic, just to see where I should be heading, where I should grow as a person.

I did too many stopovers, looking for every possible opportunity that would satisfy my longing for a settled life.

While most women of my age already settled down and have children, I was taking a separate route, followed a different direction, determined to live an independent life and vowed never to waste my one-way ticket on a useless  ride of life.

I want to make a difference.

And run my life the way I want it. The road of life is always an exciting one to traverse, never mind on many stopovers, it makes the journey a fulfilling quest.

I am still not tired to try new things because life is a continuous quest. And I believe in the magic of new beginnings.

I am always a risk taker because I wanted my life to put on the line of so many things. I don't want to waste it by just sitting down and let moments just pass me by.

I want to make my life worth living, an interesting story of motivation. Something that could be learned by others.

In my quest to get what I wanted and achieve the goals I've set, I tried different jobs, cultivated my passion, nurtured hobbies and developed new skills. 

I am happy with the outcome, I discovered so many things about myself and I am satisfied the way I progressed in life. 

However, I am someone who always aimed satisfaction. Who always find meaning in all I do.

If I could sense I am not progressing, or feel stagnant and not fully utilized my potentials or discredited my worth and just treated like a rag, I am easily disillusioned.

And began thinking if that's really what I wanted. Life is what we make it. We've a choice to stay or it's time for a new adventure.

This quote of Steve Jobs, summarizes my very principle in life: 

"Love what you do, if you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle".

It inspires me to never give up and never be just contented with a routine job that wouldn't get the best of me, that wouldn't give meaning why I'm working eight hours in a day.

It inspires me to keep moving in life.