“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”- Lao Tzu

Does the movie Office Space resonate with you a bit too much? If the answer is yes, please keep reading. I started noticing that I needed a change when people asked what I did for a living and I didn’t want to answer. I wasn’t proud of how I spent upwards of 60 hours/week, nor was I excited to talk about it. It was work for me and it paid my bills. I could have continued doing what I was doing for the rest of my life and lived extremely well. Or could I?

Many people refer to this as “comfortable.” But for me, it was the complete opposite. Almost every day, I caught myself daydreaming of other places, other foods, other people, smells, landscapes. The daydreams were so vivid that sometimes the phone would ring and bring me back to my senses. Back to the grey and sterile walls of my cubicle where the warmth of the Australian sun on my back or the feeling of a wild ocean breeze had quickly been replaced with background noise of conference calls and cold AC. It was utterly painful. Each and every time, coming back to the reality of the blue glare of my computer screen, the dings of Outlook notifications, and the deep held belief that I had missed my chance at making any of these daydreams possible.

I was in my mid-twenties, still living at home saddled by student debt, but I had a good job. A job where I worked with good people, for a good company, in an industry that would most likely be going nowhere anytime soon. I was gaining financial independence, I had bought a new car, I was accruing vacation time, I was on my way to moving out, and the list could go on and on.  But it all boiled down to one thing; I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t fulfilled. I felt stuck in a place where I wanted to be legitimately *anywhere* else. I knew there was more for me than the life I was living and so I became determined to live my daydream instead of my nightmare.

And so, was the single step.