Dec 8, 2017
In todays episode of Join Up Dots, David Ralph shares three different stories from three listeners who are building their dream lives and all are struggling in one way or another to make the next step to where they want to be. We get more and more questions from listeners who are listening to the show and are inspired by the content and want more and more from life. So let's start with the first question, which was received in our FB group from a lovely lady in America, who preferred not to be names in case her boss heard the show. So in this episode we will call her Derek..... "Hi David, Why do I have zero motivation at work!? Please don’t share this on the podcast with my name but I’m curious if you ever felt at your past life job that you just couldn’t give a fuck about the job at hand? I come in excited to start the day coming off of your podcast and then I get here and turn to absolute mush. Did you have days like that? I feel like it’s bleeding into my desire to get out in that it’s just completely draining me." You will hear the answer to this question on the show as you would expect from a top ranked podcast. The second question was posed from a guy, who knows what he wants to do, and knows how to do it, but is holding himself back from going full time. "Hey David, thanks so much for personally getting in touch. I've just realised you did, so apologies for not getting back to you. I'm from Bath, in good old Blighty like yourself. Thankyou for taking a moment to lend me your ear. In answer to your question, what is my biggest issue I have to reply, in a word...FEAR! I made the decision some time ago to change course in my career before reaching the age of 40 to pursue my love of photography. It's something that always consumes my thoughts and heart but until recently not something I thought I should develop on a freelance basis. Well, that changed when in my current job as a gardener I started to lose interest and a new manager appeared in the last 5 months and unfortunately we don't see eye to eye (a little similar to your origin story I think!) So, after 15 years in that career (and my back and knees are getting a bit knackered!) I thought, this is the perfect time to switch it all up again for the new decade of my life. I've now decided to prepare myself, the finances and inform family members of my decision to go freelance and to commit full time to taking photos - I've had some success in the past doing it in my spare time and appeared in a few newspapers, commercial work and recently won a competition on the Expedia/Trover website where the prize was a £1000 holiday. I love shooting events, festivals and adore landscape photography especially if I can get to work with outdoor and travel brands. I think I'm ready, but, as I mentioned before I'm scared. Fear has grabbed me, it's the great unknown and my knees are a knocking! Just can't seem to leave the comfort of a regular job and step into a world of freelance even though I'm sure I can do it and have a much more fulfilling life, just as you discovered when you found your true calling. Apologies for the lengthy ramble, though it would be awesome to get your insight and advice on how to not be too much of a yellow belly and confront this fear! Wayne Farrell, UK. Now for our last question we bring onto the show a lovely lady who has been a friend of Join Up Dots since the early days, and through listening to the show changed her life dramatically. But now that dramatic phase has become a little bit boring. So what do you do when life becomes humdrum? Do you do more and more to keep it exciting, or sit back and focus on what is brilliant in your life? Well as you can guess, we will answer that question on the show...and its a good one that connects all the others spoken about in todays episode. "Hi all! Just wanted to post an update and ask a general sort of question. I’ve been teaching a crazy amount of in person English classes since I got here, but am looking into teaching online. I can make dollars again and save on my commute which would be great. Outside of that I am honestly not sure what my long term plans are at the moment. Lately I have been feeling so much pressure to travel and even explore Prague with any free time I have but also feeling like I need to be studying grammar and teaching methodology. This has left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and slightly paralyzed. Truth is, as I mentioned I don’t know what my long term plans are. I know I don’t want to move back to America, but outside of that I am feeling a giant question mark. When I try to think about what I want to do I truly don’t know outside of travel. Have any of oh found ways to ease up the mental stress and pressure you tend to create for yourself in these situations? That feeling of I should be doing more all the time?....Megan, Czechoslovakia"