need ... inspiration ...

[veronica_rich]

This is totally not an emo post. I'm just missing my - inspiration, mojo, work ethic, whatever you want to call it. I have no desire to do much anymore, and it's driving me batty. I spent years working hard - good grades in high school and college, awards when I could, worked hard on my career (70 hours a week or more for little pay) out of college, got all kinds of awards there, too. Heck, when I lost my job five years ago, I took up temping and all kinds of part-time work just to stay afloat financially. I've lived on freelancing and legal work for the past several years. But I've hit a wall; I just can't do it anymore. I can't summon up the energy or inspiration or anything.

At this point in my career, as hard as I've worked, I ought to be somewhere, not stalled at a place 12 years in with nothing to show for it except a fancy resume I can't really use anywhere. I can't afford grad school, can't really afford to move and look somewhere else for an actual career-type job, and I simply don't know what to do to keep my spirits up and my "train on the track" these days. I've become lazy and uninspired, and that really sucks.

Comments

[queenoftheeggs.livejournal.com]

What I am about to tell you may sound completely naive and immature, but I firmly believe it.

Pack up, quit your job (or take a break from it if you can), and go away. Go far away and take a lot of risks. Do something you've always wanted to, or something that scares you...ANYTHING.

In order to be inspired and feel accomplished and alive you need to break out of the rut that put yourself in this mood in the first place.

Maybe this is too drastic, but as dejectedmadness said: you need a project to take your mind off of what's boring you. Whether it's a newfound love of photography, or taking a roadtrip to a random city...I'm sure anything will do. Break out of the routine.

This is much easier said than done, but I truly believe this.

Hope everything works out.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Ah ... what Chandler on "Friends" called "Get The Fear!"

I've actually had the fear a couple of times already, and I end up deeper in debt after each one. The first time, I quit one job for another and moved hundreds of miles from everyone I knew. That job ended after a little over a year because of shitty employers - I quit without having another job ready. In fact, I quit to go overseas for a month - the second instance of "getting the fear" - and spent money I didn't have, though I did learn a lot.

So it's not that I don't know how to do just what you suggested - I simply can't afford it any longer, LOL.