Have you watched those well-meaning Instagram reels that ask you to disappear for six months and be perfect at something, prepare for war in secret and then show up one day? I would say that's bad advice. Well, first, six months is not good enough time to be an expert in something. Not that I have any problem with disappearing if one is overwhelmed, overstimulated, burnt out and wants to just take a break. But again, taking a break and disappearing to learn something new are different things. The best is to not confuse your break time with preparing for life and learning new skills.
Quitting a job and blowing up your savings to do a three months intense certification isn't going to change your life. You are going to return to the same chaos that you left. Land in the same uncertainty. If four years of college education didn't prepare us for life and work, a small certification wouldn't. They are value-additions to your CV, not life-altering events that guarantee professional success.
Do the course, while still on the job. Start the side-hustle while still earning a fixed salary. And create your brand while still working for someone else.
You cannot turn into an overnight successful content developer or entrepreneur. The best thing is to do what you think you are good at while earning a salary. Put out your videos on social media, tell your story, and launch your business on a portal. And do all of this while you are still unsure about whether you are good enough. Write the book and get your first draft out of the way. When you do the things that you think are good while doing the other thing that you feel is only a temporary job in your life, three things happen: (1) You get to test whether you have the discipline and the will to do what you believe to be the only thing you were born to do. (2) You get the chance to be discovered for your talent, at whatever level of expertise you are. (3) You still have a safety net of a fixed income.
The first thing is to identify your voice and the story you want to tell. Once you have figured it out, you must go out into the world and steadily keep populating the web space with your presence. Some of us refrain from writing a blog or putting a video because we feel we are not good enough, despite secretly wishing for the success that mediocre content creators have. We feel we may not have something new to say. But that's beside the point. The reason mediocrity rules the roost and those who say the obvious things get discovered is because that mediocre person made the effort of going out and making his/her presence felt.
Registering your presence is part of the plan. Don't wait for yourself to feel inspired or authentic. You discover your authentic voice and find inspiring moments to propel your creativity when you have put yourself on the treadmill and started moving. Building the resistance to being judged and crossing off items from your to-do list is the first big achievement. If you can only achieve that while you are still on a full-time job, nothing like that.
(The writer is a mental health and behavioural sciences columnist, conducts art therapy workshops and provides personality development sessions for young adults. She can be found @the_millennial_pilgrim on Instagram and Twitter.)
