I’ve been there and done that when it comes to college and jobs. Every single one of my choices was governed by the influence of others and their ideas. I experienced a lot of student loans and a lot of unhappy mornings getting ready for an unhappy day at my job. It wasn’t until I made my own choice and did something that no one agreed with or understood that I became enormously happy and fulfilled in my everyday life. The lesson I learned the hard way was to choose the career that made me happy instead of the one that made everyone else happy.

Everyone on this planet is unique and has different interests and beliefs but we can be influenced by the majority’s beliefs about our lives and our career is no exception.

Most people think that working a 9-5 job is the only way to have a career but there are many other avenues to have a career such as a home based business, internet business, and more unconventional ways of living.

The majority of society will put down these jobs says that they are not viable choices to make when it comes to your career but most of their opinions come from their beliefs and their beliefs come from what they know, what they have experienced, and what others tell them. This does not make for a credible reason to avoid these career paths but instead a fear of the unknown reason on their part.

When you listen to people talking in your ear about what works and what doesn’t work and what you should do to make your life work then you are listening to their fear based beliefs and thoughts.

They probably came to these conclusions because they were told the same thing by their peers or family and never tried to test the waters to see if it was true. Or maybe they did test the waters but it proved to be harder than the regular 9-5 job so they gave up before they even started from fear of failure. Or maybe they pushed the envelope for a while but failed and didn’t learn from their failure to become really successful. Whatever the reason is, the fact is they haven't really tried to make another type of life work for them because of fear and since you are not them it does not apply to you.

It is extremely easy to go with the majority of people and agree that working 9-5 is the only way to guarantee yourself a stable career with a stable income. But even that point of view is starting to get hazy to the majority of people with layoffs and cutbacks.

The real reason to choose the career path that makes you happy instead of others is that if you live by other people’s opinions and beliefs then you are not being true to yourself and your needs and desires.

Being untrue to yourself is extremely unsatisfying, and the feeling that comes from doing a fulfilling job for yourself day in and day out may never be known. That’s a sad prospect of a life and it should be a huge reason to get out there and do what you love!

So stop listening to others and do what you love. If you love what you do it will come easily to you and add joy to your life.

Kari is the owner of Choose to Make Money Online at www.choosetomakemoneyonline.com, a website that talks about various ways to make money online.