New Years Resolution: Invest in Yourself

Hello!

I am Cameo Wells from Barre, Vermont and in 2021 I made a New Year's resolution to start investing in myself. This decision quite literally changed my life.

I have struggled since graduating in 2015 with my Bachelor of Science in Communication to find my niche in the world, let alone in the career field I chose. Being a single mom so young meant I had to focus more on bringing in an income than actually figuring out what my professional goals are. Because of this, I had gone from job to job due to staffing issues, better pay, etc. which let me explore different fields but, had not set me up for a career.

Eventually, I took the leap to take on a marketing position. This did not work out the way I thought it would. I was hired to bring in fresh ideas and replace the current marketing person who was phasing out. While the income was less than what I made at my previous position, I was told I would be guaranteed a certain number of overtime hours which would have had me making more, but that was not honored once I signed the contract. There was a lot that went wrong with that position, but my employer started going to the person I was replacing instead of me with projects which validated my doubts in myself. I still had goals that I dreamed of, but they seemed farther away than ever at that point. After only nine months I left that position feeling defeated.

In 2020, I started working two full-time jobs at a time to bring in some extra money. I was working 40-hour weeks Monday to Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM as a Behavior Interventions and then from Wednesday to Saturday morning (Sunday morning every other week) I would work from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM in a manufacturing fab. Eventually, I switched to solely the 12-hour shift job after building a nice pocket of money amidst the pandemic.

During my time in this particular position, I took the time to think back on everything I had done to that point. Since graduating I had gotten married, bought a house, built a family, and yet I wasn't happy. I was still living on a tight budget and I felt like I hadn't accomplished anything with my degree which I had worked so hard towards.

My husband and I were talking about what our resolutions were for the upcoming 2021 year. I had always made resolutions that I never had any intention of keeping like losing 50 pounds, traveling more, keeping a daily diary, and more. I decided to not make something so specific and wanted to focus on what I wanted to accomplish or start during that year. So, during one of my overnight shifts, I sat down and wrote out exactly what, in a perfect world I would want to accomplish. After some self-reflection I decided to invest in myself, but what did that mean?

My goal was to create a career with a company rather than a career with my skills and education. Instead of finding a job that could work with my skills, I decided to adapt my skills to my current employer so I could have the opportunity to move up. I took advantage of the tuition discount my employer got from a local college and went back to school for Cybersecurity because there was a big need for positions with that degree. I was working on an assignment where we had to produce a hardware proposal for a company to fix its technological problems. During this assignment, I got sidetracked with creating a logo for my fake company and formatting my proposal so everything visually blended. It wasn’t until I did this that it felt like something had awoken inside of me, like a sense of familiarity that I had long missed.

Coincidently, that same week my husband and I were discussing his career/educational goals and he had asked me what my goals were, which no one had ever done before. So, I talked about several ideas I had like creating a marketing firm that worked primarily with alternative businesses (photographers, tattoo artists/shops, cosplayers, etc.), building a marketing subscription box for small businesses who wanted to learn how to market themselves instead of paying a firm and working in marketing/communications for Coca-Cola. We also discussed how I wanted to start a fund for the educational program that helped me with finishing high school on time when I was a single teen mom as a way to give back. I talked about how I wanted to help that program increase its possibilities by looking into a technical school/college program to help with life after graduation and an onsite live-in community quarters.

It was during this discussion that I realized Cybersecurity had nothing to do with any of my goals. I emailed my advisor that day to withdraw from the program and applied to Full Sail University. Luckily, I stopped at the Full Sail table during Van’s Warped Tour a couple of years ago and discovered this amazing school. My life so far could have easily written the third concept of “Avoid the false path” from the Keys to Mastery. (Greene, 2013, p. 36-40) I would just take whatever new opportunity arose job-wise because I was thinking of a future with better finances or working hours vs expanding on my knowledge and skills I already had with a future payoff of better finances and improved working hours.

Fast forward two years from making that resolution and I am currently working on my Master of Arts in Public Relations which will be my second graduate degree. I moved on from that position to pursue a higher education salary position that has regularly scheduled hours with full benefits. I was promoted by my one-year mark and am already up for another one. I can see my son and not miss out on anything in his life anymore. I have gained confidence in my skills and am actively working towards bettering myself every day. I have started making calculated decisions about my future and thinking ahead rather than "winging it". I'm planning my second out of country trip. I am living life to the fullest.

Making the resolution to invest in myself was single handedly the best decision I have ever made. I put my all into investing both my time and finances into my future to help me get to where I am today. My 2023 resolution is still going along with the investing theme, but it is to invest in reconnecting with myself. So I'll be spending this year learning to love myself and exploring what I like to do again. Maybe that's reading a new book every month, or re-learning how to apply eyeliner, or rediscovering my love of softball. Whatever it is, I'm excited for the journey.

Reference

Greene, R. (2013). Mastery [5]. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from Amazon