Following Your Dreams, Even When They Change

Today I want to lift the curtain and talk a little bit about my career path and where I’m at now if for no other reason than to hopefully make someone else feel empowered to follow their ambitions. I feel like we’re so often shown images of people thriving in their careers or making huge career shifts and not seeing all the work that goes into it behind the scenes.

So let’s start from the beginning. I grew up thinking I would become the CEO of a hospital. Sort of a funny aspiration for a kid but I thought I’d follow my parents path and end up in healthcare. After college I worked at a consulting firm for several years before moving into the healthcare track I’d always assumed I’d be on. I then had a wonderful career in healthcare for around 10 years that followed a very clear and predictable path to success. There were clear metrics so I knew if I accomplished X, my reward and promotion would be Y. I loved being rewarded for my performance and I placed most of my worth on client feedback, financial rewards and generally making it known that I was always available to work 24 hrs a day.

That was all fine for a while, but at the same time I had been working with my husband on his film projects since grad school and I was starting to crave that artistic life. Whenever we’d talk about what our life could be like it always involved having our own production company and working together, yet in reality that seemed like a crazy leap to make. I was also starting to feel 100% burned out. I brought my laptop on our honeymoon and would try to secretly work whenever my husband was out of the room. I had set such a crazy pace for myself it was hard to keep up and it just wasn’t rewarding anymore.

So finally I made the leap to start a production company and it was everything I dreamed it would be. I’m not going to lie, working for myself is everything I’ve wanted and is really perfect for me. We had many great years doing commercial work and I could have continued on that path for quite some time. Of course it wasn’t without it’s challenges (self-doubt, lack of heath insurance, uncertainty when I am the worlds biggest planner) but the pros majorly outweighed the cons.

Now fast forward a few more years and I decided to make another shift. Instead of continuing on as a producer my husband and I decided to become a directing and writing duo. This wasn’t something I would have ever predicted for myself but once again I am loving it but I will be the first to admit I needed a lot of encouragement to make this leap (and Christianne was and continues to be a HUGE support to me). So now here I am in my late 30’s (ewww typing that makes me feel somewhat unwell because I swear I was just 28 lol) and I’ve moving on to my third career and I’m still learning something new everyday, doing things that totally freak me out and thriving. And who knows what my career will look like in the next few years. Maybe I’ll make another shift or maybe I’ll be happily settled into what I’m doing now.

When I was younger I really thought you picked a career and stuck with it but I am here to tell you that is not the case whatsoever. So what’s the point of sharing all this? It’s to say it’s ok to change your mind, to do something new and to try scary things. You’re never too old, too inexperienced, too anything, to start something new! And if you don’t like it, try something else.

Here’s to whatever’s next for all of you!

- Callie