SIGNIFICANT CHANGE in the MIDST of an ELECTRIFIED NEW YORK

My post was inspired by reading another post describing the author's going west and unplugging. He and his wife are part of a movement to return to a basic life in nature. It's a great idea if that's the life style you like. As for me I love my computer and would suffer without it. However I do have a suggestion for many who would like to feel freer but feel trapped in their jobs. My suggestion is to decide who is the final authority in your life - your boss, society, your reference group, your supervisor, or yourself.

If you decide your final authority is yourself then you get to make up the rules for what is most valuable to you and reject that which is not. In other words your future is determined by the next choice you make.

Forty five years ago when I looked over the sea of depressed civil servants I worked with in the Labor department - whose greatest value was figuring out how many years before they retired - I figured I would have to figure out how to leave or I might as well throw in the towel.

What mainly motivated me to face my bleak reality was my feeling squeezed by the tie I was forced to wear and sitting in endless boring and unproductive meaningless meetings playing the game of social slap fiving. Despite having a masters degree in Psychology I was feeling as if I was at a dead end.

One night going to bed feeling utterly depressed I called on myself to give me a way out. The next morning I woke up with a viable solution. People like me need to be my own boss.

Whereas as this strikes me as no great revelation I had to face the fact that there was a psychological distance of a billion miles between my dreams of glory and taking the necessary steps to realize my dream in a focused and disciplined way.

Once dedicating myself to struggling with struggle to free myself from my own self imposed entrapment the solution came to me in a flash. So I decided to stay with the job but treat it as a bridge experience. Additionally I returned to graduate school, got a Ph.D. and am now experiencing the joy that comes with never having to wear a tie to work and never having to sit in a boring meaningless meeting.

Although no one else pays for my medical insurance, vacation, rent when I turn my key in the lock of my office I never cease feeling a sense of exitement associated with my experiencing the pride of ownership and the sense of freedom associated with it.

P.S. Additionally, I can use my computer whenever I choose to do so needing no one's permission , nor fearing any one's criticism. What a pleasure.

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