What's your Fantasy?

I've been a little behind in updating my travels but it will be coming soon. Internet connections and lots of free time to organize photos and write have been few and far between lately so I've just been doing small quick ones. A recap of my time on the Olympic Peninsula will be coming in a day or two as well as recapping the 4th of July festivities. But for today I have another short one.

A recent post on a forum I frequent got me thinking. The poster asked a simple question, “What's your fantasy job”. And not just a way out there fantasy (insert ridiculous fantasy here), but a realistic one that could actually be achieved.

My first thought after reading the question was that I already had it, but after thinking about it a little I realized that wasn't true. This is hardly a job and while it's currently what I want to be doing more then anything else I realize the desire to do this won't last forever. I actually don't have a fantasy job, something I came to understand a few years ago. It used to be that fixing cars was what I wanted to do more then anything, or at least something in the industry. I lived and breathed the electronics and computer systems in todays cars; spending almost all my spare time teaching myself, learning from others, and attending training classes around the country. In the end I spent too much of my spare time doing those things and I ended up being very burned out and started devoting my free time to other things that gave me pleasure. I thought after a little break my enthusiasm would be renewed, but it wasn't.

I thought of getting a new job in some other field and moving away from Estherville but when I thought about it I realized there wasn't anything else that I really had a burning desire to do either. I was reluctant to move somewhere just for the sake of moving so instead I decided to stay where I was and to prepare for something that might come along later. I should say now that it's not like I hated my job, just that I didn't have much enthusiasm for it anymore and I kind of missed that.

I started by taking much better care of my finances. I began saving money and not wasting it on needless things (this still didn't stop me from buying 3 kayaks last year) and I used any extra money I received to pay towards the principle on my house loan. I decided that when that “something” came along that I really wanted to do that I was going to be able to do it and not have anything holding me back. After taking a 2 week vacation to Arizona this spring in which I either camped, slept in the car, or stayed with friends I couldn't stop thinking of how much I'd like to do a lot more of that. I was back home for about 4 days when I decided that within a month I wanted to hit the road for an indefinite amount of time; and that's just what I did.

There were multiple reasons for the trip; the main one being purely for pleasure. I also thought that working at new shops and with new people along the way might re-spark my passion in the automotive field; and if that didn't happen I might stumble across some other field I wanted to get into. So far nothing concrete has turned up but there are a couple opportunities that have come up which could take me in a totally new direction and I'm giving them a very serious look. So far this little adventure of mine has been a lot easier then I expected and I really feel that my options are limitless. It's like looking out at a totally blank horizon and I can choose whatever path I want to get there. It's too soon to know what the conclusion will be or if I'll wind up even more lost then when I began, but I'm hopeful. I'm keeping my options open for anything that might come up and that's about all I can do for now.

So, are you currently living your fantasy life and working at your fantasy job? If you are then congratulations! If not then what are you doing to make that fantasy a reality? I'm starting to to think it's not as hard as everyone wants you to think it is.

NOTE: Here's another thought I had after posting this. Maybe we should be striving for a fantasy life rather then just a fantasy job. What's better, a fantasy job or just a regular job that allows you the freedom to live your life's fantasy? Maybe that's the real definition of a fantasy job?