AMA with AMA - Finding your dream job!
... in the outdoor industry (or anywhere!)
Hello Kula Diaries folks - I’m here today with more of a traditional AMA so that I could respond to a question that was submitted via the Kula Diaries Google Form. I thought this was an important and relatable question, so I decided to answer it right away. Next week I’m planning to get back to the ‘How to Create Anything’ series - part 4 (unless somebody else submits a question I can’t resist - ha!)! Also, I want to say that I did slightly shorten the question below - I left everything I felt was relevant, but tweaked it a little bit to simplify it and make it more applicable to all of the readers of this newsletter.
Ok… here’s the question… it’s a good one!
Dear AMA: I am not sure what job applications to prioritize right now. I know that I don’t like the feeling of what I’m doing for the last few years and I imagine myself doing something quite different in the outdoor industry. There are outdoor-adjacent jobs that when I look at the description, are more likely to get me shortlisted because my CV overlaps quite a bit. However, I worry that it would still feel like drudgery.
Then there are jobs, internships, and opportunities that feel like they are getting much closer to what I want to try out (e.g. lots more creativity and ‘adventure’ in the job) but I don’t feel that I have the qualifications. I’ve applied to some of these before and never heard back. How I’ve been thinking about this question is: do I focus on small steps or giant leaps? The small steps feel ‘safer’ but might mean I keep delaying my “real life starting” … however, if I keep trying to take big leaps that never materialize - then I am “stuck” in my current position.
I think it might be helpful to have someone help me notice the grey area in what I am seeing as black-and-white, or find another way forward that I haven’t considered.
What an amazing, amazing question to receive! And what an incredible place you find yourself in - on the absolute precipice of infinite possibilities. So before we start talking about steps, I think that the first thing that I’d probably recommend is to do a little bit of a ‘reset’ of sorts by taking some time to ask yourself these questions:
I want you to take some time and seriously marinate yourself in your honest answers to the questions above. Really take the time to ask yourself these questions and to answer them. It’s easy to skip this step. Don’t skip it, I promise you - it’s important. As you answer these questions though keep in mind that you do not need to know the specifics of this job. You don’t need to know where it is… what company you are working for… you don’t need to know anything about it specifically. What you do need to focus on is the specific feeling of the job and … if you close your eyes… what are the basic things that you can see and feel yourself experiencing. It might just be an overall sense of freedom or contentment - don’t get hung up on the details if you don’t know them yet… and don’t get stuck on the ‘how’ this might be possible yet… that will come.
Let go of the job applications that are currently piling themselves into your inbox or on your desk for a moment and really focus on exactly what you want — write it down or speak it out loud into a voice recorder and let yourself FEEL EXCITED about it. Begin to shift your mindset from, ‘I want to get a new job,’ to, ‘I want to create a new job.’
To help you with this process, I’m going to pretend that I’m ‘me from about 6 years ago’ … and I’m going to do the exact same activity, given where I know I was in my life at that time (which sounds similar to you). That will give you an example of what this might look like for you - and then you are free to use that inspiration to create your own version of this process.
As you begin the process of visualizing and creating something that doesn’t exist yet - keep in mind that we are slowly tuning your frequency to point in the direction of this new job, whatever it might be. We want your internal satellite signal to be saying (very strongly): show me THIS aka SHOW ME MY DREAM JOB IN THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY (or whatever industry you want to find a job in).
Here goes… (and please notice that I’m writing this entirely in the present tense).
I’m working in the outdoor industry doing something that makes me feel really excited. I’m working with people that I connect with and feel energized by. I might be running a gear company. I’m teaching people about hiking or backpacking. I spend a lot of time outside - I see myself climbing and hiking and going on adventures and I feel really excited about it. I’m financially secure and I’m able to retire my husband from his job. We both feel really excited as we watch things continue to grow and bloom in our lives in surprising ways. We are living in a house on a lake in the mountains and we both feel healthy and energized. When I see myself in this new role, I look vibrant and alive. I’m smiling and laughing and I’m spending my time being creative and having fun. I have a lot of free time to do the things that I love to do. I feel at ease and peaceful. I wake up every single day and I feel excited about everything that is coming. My job feels fun and adventurous. I see myself outside, doing creative things and exploring in ways that feel good and exciting to me. I don’t know exactly what this looks like yet, but I feel like it is real and I am looking forward to it!
From your question, it sounds like two of the important characteristics of this ‘unknown job’ are: creativity and adventure.
So, from exactly where you are right now… what can you do in your current situation that allows you to cultivate the feelings of creativity and adventure? Possible ideas are:
go for a hike or backpacking trip
plan an adventure
paint or take an art class
learn a musical instrument
embark upon a quest to visit new places (i.e. I’m currently on a quest to visit Lighthouses!)
Dance!
Meditate or do something that is slightly different for you and changes your energy a bit
change one thing in your routine every day … i.e. drive a different route to work, go to a different cafe, etc… just make a TINY little change
do something that gives you the feeling of abundance - buy an unexpected gift for a friend, send a letter of appreciation, buy a random coffee for a stranger, etc…
Your brain is going to want to focus on what you don’t want through this process… which might be the drudgery or the monotony of the day to day grind at your current job… but if you find yourself dipping into that place where things feel boring or BLAH… see if you can do something to discover a little bit of a sense of freedom. You can even read the description of your dream job over and over again and turn it into a fun imagination game. Begin to expect this dream job/opportunity to start to appear in a fun and exciting way. If you find yourself going into a place of ‘not knowing’ what to do next - try and ‘catch yourself’ as you start that repeating pattern and gently shift your thinking (this is the step vs. the chasm part!) to something like, “I don’t know all the answers yet, but I can feel that something adventurous and exciting is coming and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it is. I’m open to whatever it might be!”
As you are doing this process, I recommend that you put your WHOLE HEART into finding the energy of this goodness - your number one priority can and should be to radiate the feelings of creativity and adventure - isn’t that a lot more fun than submitting boring half-hearted applications? Then… as your energy begins to shift… watch what starts to happen. Maybe you send a more inspired job application in… or maybe you ‘randomly’ learn about a job that you wouldn’t have otherwise heard about… or maybe you bump into somebody who just happens to know about something that sounds pretty perfect for you… or maybe you get an idea for something and you decide to try it and start something new on your own. I cannot possibly say what ‘THIS NEW THING’ might be - but I DO KNOW that it will be equal to the energy of what you are creating from within yourself. The creativity and the adventure that YOU are creating will be reflected in your exterior world in ways that will be beyond your wildest imagination. You will be surprised and delighted as magical opportunities and ideas start to pop up.
And if they don’t pop up right away? That’s OK too. It’s easy to focus on the lack of them - and that’s a tricky place to be. When we want something… but don’t have it… it’s so easy to focus on the lack of something and think that when we get THAT THING, we will feel better. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to begin to find those feelings in whatever way works best for you … and then allow the change in your internal state start to show up in your external world. I know that this sometimes sounds a little bit far-fetched, but please trust me when I say that this is exactly what I did to change my life from being a burned out railroad police officer to an outdoor gear company owner.
I did not know ANY of the answers. I was wearing a police uniform and driving around on nightshift patrolling railroad tracks and trying to figure out WTF to do with my life… and how to get started in the outdoor industry with absolutely no outdoor industry resume. Yes, I had taught backpacking classes, but from all outward appearances - most of my experience was in law enforcement… so initially, I ‘railroaded’ (pun intended) myself into that career path and when I was very unhappy the first thing that I did was start looking for other police departments to apply for. After my near death experience, I had this cataclysmic realization that just changing my job wasn’t going to change anything in a meaningful way - it was just going to be a temporary balm. I knew that what I really needed was a powerful, internal change.
So, I sat down and wrote this seemingly wild dream of starting an outdoor gear company and retiring my husband from his job and hung it on our fridge and wrote at the top, “READ THIS EVERY DAY!”. I imagined feeling adventurous and creative and being surrounded by similar people… and at the time I had no idea how it could be possible because I had no experience … but the more and more that I focused on changing how I felt inside … the more my external world changed to reflect that.
Magical things started to happened. The idea for Kula, which had seemed a ‘silly impossibility’, resurfaced… I started my online FB group for hiking and backpacking… and all of those little steps started leading to more and more little steps… which led to more and more little steps. Honestly, the entire process has just been a series of little steps… one after the other. Just like going on a hike or climbing a mountain. Even leaving my job felt like a little step in the process, because by the time I did that… I already had momentum going in the direction where I felt like I knew where I was headed.
You are where you are right now - which means that these job applications are a part of the process for you. You don’t need to throw them away and start from scratch. Maybe one of those jobs will be a good fit… or maybe the job applications are a bouncing off point for another idea that hasn’t occurred to you yet. As you change your focus from what you don’t want (drudgery) to what you do want (creativity and adventure) … I can assure you that something will change. Doing things that feel creative and adventurous might feel like nothing - because our very traditional states of mind have told us that we need to do things a ‘certain’ and ‘linear’ way in order for things to work out. But, as you become focused on creativity and adventure - you can simultaneously begin the process of being open to the infinite possibilities that exist out there.
In your hand, you might hold a handful of job applications… but the moment you say, “I’m open to things that are creative and adventurous,” you’ve just increased your stack of possible dream jobs by an infinite degree. Namely, you’ve even opened yourself up to the possibility of creating something that doesn’t even exist yet - because maybe (just maybe) you are the creator of it.
This is a very non-traditional approach to ‘getting a job’ — but if you want to step outside of the auto-pilot world… it starts by realizing that the old way of doing things will only put you on repeat to create the same things you’ve always created. None of this is intentional or your fault - it’s just that none of us (including me) are even aware that we are doing this. We are so focused on what we don’t want that we are unintentionally hitting the repeat button over and over again. You are absolutely right to be concerned that jumping into something that feels the same will be the same… because it absolutely will be. In order to create something new, we have to take our index finger OFF the repeat button by shifting our energy now… so that it matches the energy of what we want to create.
What is my scientific proof for this? Well, I think I’m a pretty good example of it. I didn’t have any special connections in the outdoor industry… no specific outdoor industry ‘experience’ … no business degree… no experience making a product… no social media following… nothing. I was, from what you described in your question, almost exactly like you - dissatisfied with where I was, and looking at a whole bunch of possibilities so that I could jump to another job, hoping that the grass would be greener over there. All I did, from the very beginning, was start to let myself visualize what I wanted… and I did everything that I could to allow myself to feel the feeling of ‘whatever that was’ … right now. When you start doing this process… when you begin to see it unfold… you will become all the proof that you need.
I want to end by saying that there is nothing you are doing wrong… nothing you have done wrong… and nothing you can do wrong. You are doing your best. Let go of overthinking about how to do this … and invite more of the energy of life into your heart… and just see what happens. Trust that you do have everything inside of you right now to be, do, have or create anything that you want. There is nothing that will make you more whole — you are, in your absolute essence, perfect in every single way.
I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that a ‘job’ beyond your wildest dreams exists for you - it might come from a job application… or it might not. Think of yourself as an expectant detective… waiting on the edge of your seat for this opportunity to come from anywhere. Be open to it arriving in surprising and wonderful ways — do things that sound fun and interesting — embrace and feel the absolute miracle that you are and know that good things are coming. When they arrive … trust me… you’ll know.
I’m sending you so much love on your journey and adventure, friend - keep in touch and let us know how it all unfolds!
Love,
Anastasia
P.S. If you have a question, comment, or want to share an idea or a topic, please use this Google Form to submit it anonymously. If you’d like a specific response, make sure to include your e-mail address. Thank you for all of your kind words - I read all of them!