3 Year Plan

3 years from today, I will quit my job. That is the 3yearplan.  Not that exciting, huh? Let me give you a little more background.

In general, I like my job. It’s a good job  and I work for an amazing company. I earn a good salary and I receive large stock grants from my company on top of it.  I’m also a single mom to an amazing 4-year old little boy.  We live in a nice house, I drive a nice car, and we have a good life courtesy of the nice salary and stock that I mentioned above.

So why would I want to throw all of that away?

1. I miss my son.  I’ve missed so much of his life already because I’ve had to go to work.  I feel guilty every single day when I leave him in the care of someone else.
2. I have been employed for 11 years; I’ve spent the past 11 years of my life making money for and fulfilling the dreams of someone else.  It’s my turn now.
3. Life is Good has a slogan that has appealed to me since the very first moment that I read it: “Do what you like, like what you do.”  This slogan is written on one of my favorite coffee mugs.  Every time I look at it or think about it, I feel that same familiar ache to “follow my bliss.” Life is too short to be anything less than happy.
4. From a young age, we teach our children that they can be anything that they want to be, the sky is the limit! Why is it that when we make it to adulthood that some of us have become so comfortable in the familiar that we stop chasing our dreams? I know that I did—not anymore…and most certainly, not in front of my son.  The best example that I can possibly set for him is to follow what makes me truly happy and to “walk the walk.”

So why a 3 year plan instead of immediately turning in my notice?  In 3 words: I’m not crazy.  Just kidding! I have a mortgage to pay and a child to support! I believe in myself and I know that it WILL happen, but it is something that I cannot blindly jump into.

So why blog about it? Because I know that I’m not alone.

I know the mini-thrill that I feel every time I read about someone who has successfully managed to follow their dreams. When I read a magazine article or a blog or Etsy’s Storque Quit Your Day Job blog installments, I feel excited and energized.  I feel this wonderful sense of encouragement that I too can take a risk and make it work.

There are women and men everywhere who share this dream.  For me, I know that it is time to make that dream into a reality—join me as I make it happen.  I plan to blog it all—the ups, the downs, the reality.  All for your reading pleasure (and my personal motivation—hold me accountable, people!).