Fear Is a Powerful Motivator
In April of 2022, I almost overdrew my checking account when paying rent. May was a close call as well. I wouldn’t say I’ve had too many times in my life where my income well exceeded my bills, but until April happened, I’d put any legitimate worries about not having the money for rent well behind me. So this had me very afraid of what the next few months held, and far too scared to think much of what the next years would hold.
I had to act. Over those two months, my budget was off by around $800, so, $400/mo each. That’s no small misstep. I needed answers. Mainly to the big question, “Why did this happen?” Fortunately, I found that answer relatively quick. I’d been working overtime so long, that my lifestyle had crept into needing that extra income. I know, I know. 2022 had some exceptional external factors as well, but I’m doing my best not to “play victim” here.
So, in the short term, I of course buckled down. That did get me out of any immediate danger. The issue still stuck in my head was essentially, ‘But what about when this is no longer enough?’ Strategies like lowering the grocery budget, skipping the movie theatre, etc., have a rather minimal impact. And 2022 was teaching us a higher potential of capitalism and inflation. So, I couldn’t be done taking action. Things would certainly catch up, and soon at this rate, so I had to figure out a way to draw in more income. This is where my mind was in early May of 2022.
My first action was taking a course, which ran me just over $200. I was confident in this decision. I’d been seeing a couple topics on TikTok for a while. If you’ve used that app, you probably know the uncanny way their algorithm seems to know you better than yourself. One thing I kept seeing was about people who are “multi-passionate”, and I agree that I fit this description, which told me I needed a line of work that allowed me to have more varying tasks or varying topics, that is, more curiosity. The other thing I kept seeing on my For You Page were posts about being a data analyst. The description of this job in those videos fits my skill set very well. Additionally, I figured this job is one you could work from home (which I want to keep doing). For those and a few other reasons, I started learning SQL.
I started with the free options. You know, “get your feet wet.” Those went well and I was enjoying how the database stuff worked, and could see a bit of what this job would look like. So, with that and a sale running, I bought Charlotte’s course. I finished in about three weeks, on June 1st. I was so hoping to have been done before June, but oh well. From there you’re tasked with filling out your portfolio, so I got to work on that, and finished some. However—
This is where I ran into a big, big question. I was getting close to submitting job applications. If you’ve done this within the last 10 years, actual, cold submissions online, than you probably know how brutal and desolate this can be. No surprise, I wasn’t looking forward to it. But I had this thought, this niggle, that just wouldn’t leave me. “Then what?” I didn’t have an answer for this. If I go through this process, get hired and everything, ok, sure, my money situation is well improved for at least a couple years. Presumably my job wouldn’t be so frustrating as my current one. I’d definitely be learning new skills. Most of that will be low impact if any after two to three years. So then what?
I was stalled.