"If you are in pain, or know someone who is; if you feel there is no one who can relate to what you're going through; if you have been frightened into immobility by secrets you believe you have to maintain to protect yourself, your family, or your career, understand that you are only as alone as you choose to be. One phone call, one email, one text to the right person or agency can make the very literal difference between life and death. You just have to decide to do it"
Becoming Superman by J.Michael Straczynski p439-440
This is from a powerful autobiography which I don't know how to easily summarize other to say when the cover says "My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood With stops along the way at Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Movie Stars, Cults, Slums, Sociopaths, and War Crimes" it is not exaggerating and is not talking about say what he wrote about but what actually occurred to him and around him.
The quote is at the end of a chapter looking at the challenges that some former cast members of one of his shows had with Drugs, Alcoholism, and Mental Health and connecting it to the physical and emotional abuse he and his mother and sister faced and speaking to the importance of Reaching out in all these cases.
This seems especially timely as this is a season many of my friends are struggling with mental health and actors in shows I am currently watching are publically struggling too. This is a season within a larger time period which has been hard for so many of us.
Also, I know that reaching out sounds great on paper but it can be extremely hard to do when it is needed. So I am not going to end this post simply telling others to reach out but meeting you all halfway.
One of the greatest challenges in my life at this moment is I have lost my purpose, my compass. Busyness has overtaken meaningfulness and I am currently a bit lost. A number of factors play a role (Mental Health, being in-between Jobs, former Jobs that drained my soul ....) but in the end, I have somewhat forgotten how to dream big, bold, impossible things vocationally.
So my Reach Out:
I am soliciting vocational dreamers:
What impossible/improbable things do you see me setting my eye on? What wild things do you think I should reach for? Really anything to shock me out of my blahs, because right now all vocational goals seem blah. I think I need a "send a person to the moon" type of challenge.
*** You can't go too big or wild assuming your suggestion is actually physically possible (yea time travel is out) and something I might actually enjoy (I have zero interest in say climbing Mount Everest, or being a playboy bunny or a supermodel etc use your judgment :) :) :))
I need help breaking out of my vocational immobility (I think some of my struggle to actually work on Job searching is because it is a lot of effort for something I feel Blah about, If I have an exciting "send a person to the moon" to aim for the searching will feel less like pointless effort, because it will have a purpose)
***Note: I am seeking vocational dreamers not resume/interview/networking/ to-do lists/should-do lists.
This is NOT life or death at all but I recognize I am stuck so I am reaching out. I hope this also helps others reach out with their own challenges small or great. If we all get in the habit of reaching out we will be more able to when it is life or death. Thanks for your help in keeping me from "Going Through The Motions".
I'm trying to think about the moments when I feel like you are most excited/passionate about life, which is often related to one of your fandoms or writing/poetry. So what if you thought about a vocational goal related to one of those? Like actively campaigning for Mayor Pete (are they looking for volunteers or hiring?). Compiling a book of poetry that you'd like to self publish by X date. Does traveling/seeing new places excite you? Set a travel goal--go to X by X date. Look into retreats for writers--maybe some places offer a stipend for volunteer/working on-site. As hard as it can be to get motivated to volunteer, I found that my time with Eliza really helped reset my brain during hard times (and gave me something else to focus on rather than over-analyzing my thoughts!). It doesn't have to be an intense mentoring/tutoring situation, but actively doing something to support others can help a lot with purpose and not just "going through the motions."
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