Changing jobs to suit your situation

I was 63 years of age, working one full time job and two nights on weekends and feeling quite unhealthy. My day job required me to sit for long periods of time and my night job required standing for 6 hour shifts but payed double the hourly rate of the day job.

Slowly I was growing wider and wider from sitting in a call centre and not getting any exercise. My heart was showing signs of a lack of fitness and future problems if I continued on my present path. My husband was showing his own unhealthy problems and I seemed to be following his sedentary lifestyle which I had always refused to do in the past. So what happened?

I was moved to a temporary desk at my day job and picked up someone else’s book that was sitting on top of the computer. As I started to skim through the pages I came across a section of questions which made me stop and think. What was I doing? I had been considering making a change to improve the situation by giving up one of my jobs or finding something more casual that allowed me to work on my health in my spare time.

As I read these questions, bells were ringing. How accurate they were to my current situation. They went as follows:

• Define your nightmare. What is the worst that could happen if you did what you are considering?
• If you were fired from your job, what would you do to get things under financial control?
• How would you get things back on track?
• What would be the outcomes or benefits of making such a move?
• What are you putting off out of fear?
• What is it costing you?
• What are you waiting for?

I decided to look for opportunities that improved my situation. I needed to plan whatever I was going to change and I needed to make solid decisions that would not lose me too much weekly money. I went to the next set of questions:

• What are you good at?
• What are you best at?
• What makes you happy?
• What excites you?
• What makes you feel accomplished or good about yourself?
• What are you most proud of accomplishing
• Can you repeat or further develop it?
• What do you enjoy sharing or experiencing with others?

I have given these questions a lot of thought and have come up with 100 new ideas from working from home, internet business, 2 days casual work, selling photography, and painting.  I find it is all possible as long as I am well organised before I take the plunge.

How would you fare? Are you still working? Is it affecting your health? Tell us about it in the comments.