We all at some point asked ourselves if we were in over our head with something. There was a large period of my life where I was working at a restaurant. I had the reverence of a company man for this family owned restaurant that only did organics. I felt I wanted to cook as I loved it but doing the job for money took the fun out of it, it took the desire I had to better myself out. It quickly became difficult for me to have motivation and after a conversation with my grandfather we determined I should join the US Navy. The job had me in large split shifts and wasn’t lining up with my new schedule, the pay was lacking, and I was tired from the large split shifts and responsibilities laid upon me at the restaurant to step into higher positions.
This is when I knew my needs were no longer being met by this job. I applied for new ones and did the math. I took lower pay with more hours to even it out, my motivation to learn was stifled by long days and new aspirations. My needs had changed when looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. My self-actualization set in that if I worked one large shift that the splits wouldn’t eat up my day, that also met my psychological needs to sleep and be fed. Despite it hitting my esteem slightly I took a job at a deli to meet my safety needs with my new job, it later led to me having better health before enlisting. At the end I was able to get that feeling of love and belonging as I said goodbye to my family before embarking on a new scary adventure.