And Achieving your dreams

Many people can’t afford to study further, so they feel stuck in jobs that they don’t enjoy and that kills a little piece of their souls daily. They feel cheated. For those that have studied further, many of them didn’t know what they wanted to do so they picked a career from a hat and went with it but as they got older, they realized that they didn’t want to follow that career anymore. They feel cheated too.

I used to be like the first one but in 2006 I took control of my future and resigned from a banking job that was killing my soul slowly. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for the job and I learnt a lot, but I didn’t fit into the banking scene, I am too weird and they don’t like weird.

I upskilled myself by doing a course on being a nail technician and received my certificates for that. I then worked for a salon for a while but that didn’t earn much, so I opened my own nail salon at my house. I was building my business but then my youngest daughter got ill and sometimes I couldn’t keep to appointments made with clients because I was in hospital with Lexi.

We moved to a small town in the Western Cape and for a few years my days and nights consisted of looking after my beautiful little girl and trying to help her fight for her life. That meant that I didn’t have time for any other type of job.

A while after Lexi passed away, I opened my craft shop in the Western Cape and it was quite the learning curve. I had to learn how to run a shop, craft lessons, how to package, how to buy stock and manage it, how to do stock taking and there were so many other skills that I required. So, what did I do? I Googled of course and went to the library and read up on what to do. I upskilled myself.

After two years my shop was making a small profit and had paid off it’s debt. I then had to close due to getting a divorce and moving back to Johannesburg. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do because I had put so much work into it and I loved my shop.

Once in Johannesburg, I looked for work and kept making jewellery for people in order to make money. I found work after a year and I worked for that company for four years before I was retrenched in 2017. I have not found a permanent job since but what I have been doing is upskilling myself and working on my own business. While I was working for the company I also upskilled myself on how to get my poetry self-published and I got my poetry book published. The literary world opened up to me.

I am not one that can just sit back and do nothing while waiting for work to magically appear, especially in South Africa, it would need to be magic because jobs are almost non-existent here. I was going to do the things I love and make them work for me and I wasn’t going to just sit back and wait for a job.

I did research, checked what worked for me personally and started creating. The end result? A Task planner in 2018. I continued researching and have bettered the planner every year since. I then decided that I wanted to do a desk calendar. I did research and upskilled myself and made the desk calendar.

I have since created an A4 and A5 notebook too. I have learnt so much about the writing and stationery world, all from research and upskilling myself. I have written two books in a series and I’m busy doing the first edits. I upskilled myself in editing and proof reading a while back and practiced on a few other people’s books and did very well.

With blogging, I have two lever arch files full of information on how to blog and make it successful and all the tips and tricks and how to do your mailing lists and so on and so forth. I have two files full of information on how to be a good writer, files on how to be a good proof reader and many other info files.

I found this wonderful place called Shaw Academy and I got addicted and am now a life time member. I have done 19 diplomas through them so far, even though South Africa doesn’t recognize those diplomas, they still taught me something.

I was able to advance my graphic design career and my photography and that’s just to mention two things. I have now done quite a few graphic design gigs and I came to the realization that I absolutely LOVE it. That and photography. I also love blogging even though it’s not as easy as some people make it seem, especially when it comes to affiliate links.

Every day I learn something new and I love it. I’m not going to leave my future in the hands of wishing for something. With God’s help and if it’s His will, I will make it happen. Wishing on a star doesn’t work, as Tiana said in The Princess and the Frog: The only way to get what you want in this world is through hard work.

I am now what you call a Creative Entrepreneur.

If you were like me and you couldn’t get a University degree, don’t let that stop you from doing something that you love…unless it’s being a doctor, you kinda need a degree for that. Don’t want you killing anyone! If it’s something that you could achieve without a degree but you just need the knowhow, then get the knowhow. Do research, upskill yourself. You’d be amazed at what you can learn on Google and YouTube. Don’t let your dreams swim past you. Reach out and grab them. You can do it!

That’s it from me for now…

Please show me some love and comment below. If you enjoy what you see, please follow me for more features.

Enjoy the moments

---

(This blog contains affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases of their products but only when you use my link. This is at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support)

Love my content?

You can find more on my YouTube channel.

You can support my blog on Patreon by searching for Patreon/OndeaneLourens.

Fayma believes that trying to standardize women is not acceptable, and their development is a manifesto of the uniqueness of being female. That’s what their motto is about: “No more sizes. Only me”. That’s the philosophy of Fayma, to offer a solution that will allow you to create beautiful clothes according to your pixel-perfect pattern, which takes into account all the features of the figure.