Man, thinking back to July 2017, it feels like a lifetime ago, but also just yesterday. I remember sitting there, feeling all… well, Pisces about things. You know, a bit floaty, kinda lost, dreaming big but not really sure how to grab onto anything solid. My career back then, it just felt like I was treading water. Not drowning, but definitely not swimming anywhere exciting. This constant nagging feeling was buzzing in the back of my head: “You gotta do something, man. This ain’t it.”
I distinctly remember this one sweltering afternoon, just staring at my computer screen at work, and it just hit me. Like a ton of bricks. This job, it wasn’t going anywhere. My skills were stagnant, my passion was nonexistent. It was a dead end. I needed a pivot, but had no clue where to even start. That’s when I decided I needed to stop just thinking about it and actually do something. This whole situation became my personal practice project, a way to actually track myself climbing out of that rut.
Recognizing the Drag and What to Do About It
- First up, raw honesty. I grabbed a pen and paper – yeah, old school, I know – and just started jotting down everything that sucked about my current gig. No filter. The monotony, the lack of growth, the awful commute, the feeling of being completely uninspired. It was a long list, let me tell ya.
- Then, the flip side. What did I actually want? This was harder. I spent evenings just brainstorming. What did I love doing outside of work? What skills did I wish I had? I kept coming back to creating stuff, telling stories, and helping people figure things out. That pointed me towards something digital, something flexible.
- Research mode, activated. I started really digging into different paths. I wasn’t just aimlessly browsing; I was looking for tangible skills people were getting paid for, stuff I could learn online without going back to school. I checked out a bunch of different things like content writing, basic web design, even some social media management stuff.
Diving Headfirst into Learning (My “Practice Ground”)
After a good week or two of sifting through options, I settled on diving into online content creation and digital marketing. It felt like a good blend of creativity and practical skills. My “practice record” started right here, trying to build something from scratch.
- Scouring for resources. I didn’t want to spend a fortune, so I hit up free courses on platforms like Coursera and YouTube. I watched every tutorial I could find on blogging, SEO basics, and how to actually structure an article that people might actually want to read. I devoured blog posts about other folks who successfully pivoted.
- Setting up my own little corner. I decided the best way to learn was by doing. So, I grabbed a super cheap domain name and tried to set up a basic WordPress blog. Man, that was a headache. I mean, I watched the tutorials, but actually doing it? Installing themes, figuring out plugins, making sense of the dashboard – it felt like wrestling an octopus in a dark room. I probably messed it up three or four times before I got something even remotely functional.
- First attempts at writing. Oh boy. My first few articles were… rough. Like, really, really rough. I wrote about some random hobbies I had, trying to apply all the “tips” I’d learned – keyword research, compelling headlines, strong calls to action. It felt clunky, forced, and probably sounded like a robot wrote it. I showed one to my buddy, and he was like, “Uh, interesting. Very… informative?” Not exactly glowing praise.
- Hitting walls, big time. There were days I wanted to just throw my laptop out the window. I’d spend hours on an article, publish it, and then… crickets. No views, no comments, nothing. The motivation would just drain out of me. I thought, “What’s the point? I’m clearly not good at this.” It was July 2017, and the initial wave of enthusiasm was definitely wearing thin in that summer heat.
Pushing Through and Seeing Little Lights
But something in me just wouldn’t let me quit. Maybe it was that stubborn Pisces streak, or just the sheer desperation of not wanting to go back to feeling stagnant. So, I kept at it.
- Tweaking and re-learning. I started studying what successful blogs actually did. Not just the technical stuff, but the voice, the storytelling. I went back to my articles, ruthlessly editing them, trying to inject more personality. I experimented with different topics, different writing styles. I even learned some basic image editing to make my posts look a little less amateur.
- Finding my groove (a tiny bit). Slowly, agonizingly slowly, things started to click. I wrote an article about a weird little tech gadget I was obsessed with, and suddenly, I got a few comments. Real comments! People asking questions, saying they found it helpful. It was the smallest win, but it felt like a massive breakthrough. It showed me my “practice” wasn’t completely pointless.
- Networking (awkwardly). I even dipped my toes into some online communities, really just lurking at first, then awkwardly asking questions, trying to learn from others. It was tough putting myself out there, but invaluable. I started seeing how people connected, how they shared their work, and that gave me a whole new angle to think about.
This whole period, from recognizing I was stuck in July 2017 to actively building this little blog and trying to figure out digital marketing, it was a massive practice record for me. It wasn’t about the instant success; it was about the grind, the learning, the failing, and the getting back up. It taught me that even when you feel lost and floaty, putting one foot in front of the other, doing the practical work, that’s what gets you somewhere. It might not have been a fully formed career pivot right away, but it was the very first step onto a new path, and that journey, that slow, hard-won progress, became my real achievement.
