(Note: This is based on one of the prompts from Robert S. Kaplan’s book What You’re Really Meant to Do.)

The title of this post isn’t exactly what’s been circling around my mind for the last year. A more accurate version would be “What’s keeping me from succeeding in my field?” But the answer to that has shifted over time.

For months after being let go from Voce I simply felt like I was failing. I wasn’t working hard enough at the job search, I wasn’t making myself available enough or wasn’t putting the right energy out there. Not only was I failing, but I was flailing.

Now, though, I feel like I *am* doing what I love. As I was discussing with my loving, supportive wife just the other day, this is working for me. The freelance work I’ve gotten allows me to write, provide social content strategy and do other things I enjoy, but without the pressures I felt in agency life. I’m on my own time and can adjust my schedule as necessary based on the project load I have and my family life. I can’t disappear for days, but I can take a break now and then to do something else.

Even outside of the peace I’m feeling right now (See me in a week when I may in the midst of a full-blown existential crisis), I feel like the barriers to doing what I love have been lowered. I’m hustling for freelance work, I’m slowly building up Cinematic Slant, I’m writing my novel, I’m taking time to run errands and be with my family and more. If I put my mind to it and use every 10 minute block of time I have available to get something else done, I can do anything. And I can do so on my terms, getting me to a point where I can provide for my family and enjoy the simple, non-flashy life we aspire to.

There’s nothing holding me back. There are no roadblocks. There are speed bumps, sure, that will need to be accounted for and which might slow me down from time to time. But barriers? To heck with them, they’re all in my mind. This is where I’m at right now.