Right now I’m reading a book filled with stories of people who made one or more significant career changes during their lives. One left a high-paying investment banker role to join an NGO. Another worked 20 years for the CIA before leaving to take a very lucrative executive security position at Disney. Others left the private sector for government jobs and vice-versa.
It made me reflect on my career path and the things I wished I had done differently. I had so many more options available to me that would have been better – if only I had considered them or had even been aware of them.
But even as I reflected, I knew that many of these “cool-sounding” careers wouldn’t have been right for me either because I’m Small At Heart.
- I preferred working for small businesses.
- I had a small family.
- My friend group was small.
- My dream job was being a small shopkeeper or sole proprietor.
- I like living in a small neighborhood.
- I prefer a small home and a small car.
I live a small life.
Perhaps if I had chosen a career that exposed me to working internationally, or for the government, or other “big” situations, environments, and locales, my life wouldn’t be small. Maybe I would have grown love living large.
I’ll never know for sure.
But I have a feeling that living small was the right path for me.
