Fear

The most troublesome emotion that plagues my thoughts on a daily basis, although I like to think that I am pretty brave. If I were to give into this feeling, I would get nothing done. Even just sitting here now writing this blog I have that funny, uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach and the general internal warmth building, but that could just be early menopause! Typical thoughts are “who do I think I am, writing a blog, who on earth would want to read about me?", “ am I insane to think that I can completely change my career and have any chance of success?”, “ I am completely selfish for risking my families finances just to make myself happy”! These thoughts can be paralysing. For years, I have felt like I am in the wrong job, with very little satisfaction. Don’t get me wrong, it was and still is not a horrible job. There are parts of it I still enjoy. I am also a very proud person and refuse to do a bad job, still going above and beyond because I really do care. So, how do we overcome this fear and start actioning a change?

Well….. I am not going to claim that I have the answers for you, I will just tell you how it came about for me. I am a master of procrastination. I have so many thoughts whirring around inside my head and am full of ideas, yet I often get that feeling of serious overwhelm making procrastinating so easy. I recently read an interesting article on this and found out that it is actually a real coping mechanism for our mental health, so any fellow procrastinators out there, don’t be too hard on yourself! I would have that internal battle with myself where I would find myself moaning and being unhappy, but then doing nothing to make an actual change. Which in turn would just make things worse, getting more and more frustrated. I had to have a serious word with myself and realise, if I really want this, no one is going to do it for me. I have also come to realise that life is very short and after losing someone my Dad, it has pushed me into making key decisions for a happier life.

To begin the whole career changing process I had to find something that I was passionate about, but also utilise my own key qualities. I would say that I am a practical person (pretty important seeing as I have been a PE teacher for the last 20 years) but I am also fairly artistic. I have always been a huge animal lover and in particular of dogs. So this is where I started my research. Like most people in their forties I have a huge mortgage and children to think about. Sadly I do not have a ridiculously rich husband where I can just give up work and start something new on a whim. Therefore, it had to be financially viable too. This is when I set my sights on becoming a dog groomer. Officially there are no laws stating that you have to be trained, with dog grooming being completely unregulated. To be honest, I had no idea how to properly groom a dog and I am quite an anal person when it comes to my creative side, so there was no way that I would be starting a new career without any training. How could I expect anyone who loves their dog to bring them to me wielding super sharp scissors completely clueless in how to use them? So, I got to work with my classic google search ‘best dog grooming course’? As I have mentioned before, I do not do things by halves, therefore I decided to complete a level 3 Diploma once I got over the shock of the cost (not a lot of change from £5000)! I feel I should officially thank my good mother here as she funded me on this one (Viv - you bloody legend)!

Next came the realisation of where exactly I would do the said grooming? Obviously the main plan was job satisfaction but I really wanted to become financially better off too. If you go and work for for someone else’s grooming business, the pay is pretty poor. The other options were mobile, renting a table at an established groomers, opening my own high street salon or setting up from home. I did seriously think about the mobile grooming as it seemed possibly the most affordable (although not cheap) but I came to the conclusion that with petrol costs being extortionate, the amount of space it would take up on the drive and the fact I had my own dog and did not want to leave him on his own all day, this was a non starter. I then started to look at possible locations to rent a building but the cost of this with all the overheads were just out of the question. I really started to like the idea of running my own business, so plans went into motion for setting up from home.

So, here it is. This is how I overcame my fear to make a start on what will be, I am absolutely sure, a very bumpy road to quite possibly delusions of becoming a successful dog groomer. Wish me luck!