Your Success in 2024: Follow Your Heart When Setting Career Goals

The world needs who you were made to be.

We are sixteen days into the new year and *how ‘r you doin? Feeling good about the success that’s coming? Well, you should. Now, let’s talk about getting there.

So, I little story about myself which I think you might find inspiring. When I was 19, I had just failed out of college (music school); I was back living with my parents, and my life seemed pretty dismal because I had no direction whatsoever. So one day my dad sat me down and explained that I need a goal that I’ll be working towards then he offered me an internship at AT&T Bell Labs in Middletown, NJ. Bell Labs, if you didn’t know, is a world-class research facility focusing on all things communications. A few of their many inventions are first sound recording (1925), Computer Animation applications (1960s), and Detecting “Big-Bang” Radiation (1960s).

I ended up having a few different internships there. During the first one, I was doing hand and computer drafting, which I seemed to be good at but, after a while it got boring. (Which is why I was fired from one job designing ambulances. I tried to get the plotter to recreate an art print and, well… I broke it, so I (thankfully) had to go.) I had a few more drafting jobs after that, and sure, I did my job, but that’s all it was. A job.

When the Bell Labs internship ended, I went back to school and just took random courses in liberal arts, still with no goal and wasting my parent’s money. But then I got this not-so-bright idea and ended up trying to go to school for what? Engineering. (I shudder even as I write that my math understanding ends at algebra 2 and goes no further.)

Engineers made mucho dinero. I had made friends with some engineers at the Labs and they told me that it was a fulfilling job that made serious cash. So I was in.

Wow, do I wish I could go back to my 20-year-old self and say STOP, you idiot! But I can’t. So I ended up at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire in a trigonometry class. It started at eight in the morning and I had to drive an hour to get there in the freezing darkness of early morning. I don’t remember the prof’s name, so Ill just make something up. How about Professor My God-This-Woman-Is-So-Freaking-Mean? She wore these shoes that would make the loudest noise coming down the cold, cement hallway floor, making me shudder. Why? Because that wasn’t where I was supposed to be! Why was I trying to be someone I wasn’t? Omgosh, it was awful. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t understand what she was saying, let alone doing.
(BTW I just checked out some trig problems and there’s a ton of memorization involved. I think if I took the class now, I could at least pass.)

Like my new Bitmoji? My kids made it for me.

So I, of course, did not complete the course, dropped out again, feeling like a total failure.

I spent many nights praying to the Lord to send me on the right path. One Bible verse you might want to consider is Proverbs 16:3: Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved.

And then, my old boss from the Labs offered me another internship (a second chance!) and (Tada!) I got a job in the art department.

And then my season of success began. You know why? Because I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Creativity is who I am—it’s what I do.

In the summer of 1989, my beautiful Aunt Carol got me to watch The Little Mermaid, and I became obsessed with becoming an animator. I found a school in Florida, and decided I wanted to go there.

So I made a goal to get into the Ringling School of Art and Design. I went back to community college and got my Associates in Art in six months. I stayed home every weekend drawing and painting and learning. Then I had myself a portfolio and applied to Ringling and… I was one of 40 people accepted into the computer animation program out of like 200 applicants. Success!

The goal I made coincided with what I was good at! Once I figured that out, parts fell into place for me. There was no more disorder and pining to do something that wasn’t part of my natural ability.

I attended school that year and returned home, then headed back to work at Bell Labs. And that’s when I met a manager who needed my services and I got hired as an animator!

I did another year at Ringling, returned to NJ, and started my final internship at Bell Labs, except this time, I wasn’t making coffee. I was actually creating cool animations for the technology that my group was producing. I stayed with the company for eleven years. It really wasn’t a job…it was like going to work every day with family (that you liked) and watching amazing things unfold.

Find your thing.

So, what’s my story have to do with yours? When I finally found success, it was when I started to know myself and know the thing in my heart that would make me happy and make money.

What’s the thing in your heart that you really want to do but don’t?

Be an entrepreneur? Work at a zoo? Be the curator of a museum? Work with kids? Be a YouTube star? Ask for God’s help and see what happens!

Don’t have the answer yet? If I may suggest, put down the cell phone/tablet, shut off the news, close out the internet, and take some time out to be quiet and think and listen. Listen for God’s voice. What’s the thing that brings you peace and happiness? Is there something that’s part of what you like that you can make a living from?

There are tons of resources on the internet to find a new career. And, you’re never too old! I started a whole new career after I was a mom! It happened to use my skill set as an animator, but I still had to take courses before I was any good at it.

Maybe the thing you want to do hasn’t been done yet and you’re a trailblazer! Ever think of that? Yes, you could be the next… oh I don’t know… Elon?

Remember: The world needs who you were made to be!

I would say if you’re looking to do something for the first time, or just changing your career, first, decide what you like to do. Look at your hobbies. Is there something there that you would like to do for a living?

Please add your comments, questions, thoughts to the bottom of this page. I’d love to hear them!

*Side note: Before I moved to South Carolina, I used to say “How you doin?” because in Jersey that’s what we say. Notice New Jersians can remove the “New” from New Jersey and just say Jersey. You know why that is? Because everyone who lives there doesn’t actually have time to say “New” or the ‘are’ in how ARE you doing? (Nevermind adding the G to doin.) So now, because I live at a slower pace, I’ve added the ‘r’ in how’r you doin? - See? I think it sounds more southern. Eventually, I’m thinking I’ll just say “how y’all doin?” when I finally become a local. Of course, it could take years to shed my Yankee-isms.