How Many Lives Have You Lived?

There was an interesting "article" hopping around Facebook about how we in reality have many lives.  The idea is this:  It takes 7 years to master something, so if we live to be 88, that's 7 chances to do something useful and unique--a "life" if you will.  However, too many people get stuck in one life because they are afraid to die to it in order to be reborn.  As an example, someone graduates high school and goes to work in a factory, and never aspires to do anything else and is afraid to retire--or spends retirement wasting away because their purpose is gone.  Or someone who for some reason has lost a "life" and is paralyzed by the memory of what they had rather than seizing the opportunity to do something new.

One thing I'm enjoying about my husband, Rob, retiring is how he's embracing that opportunity to start something new.  He's even thinking in terms of multiple "lives":  "I'll do this until the kids are all on their own, then I want to try..."

It got me thinking, too, what my lives have been.  I will say I've master nothing, but I have done a lot:

1. Air Force Officer--1980-1993 (if you include ROTC)
2. Full time mom--1993-2018 (when Liam heads to college)
3. Homeschooling mother--1991-1997
4. Writer--1996-present
5. CWG Officer--2005-2013

One thing for me, at any rate, is that my lives run concurrently instead of sequentially.  However, that could be why I feel I mastered none of them as well.  And yet, thinking about each of these as a kind of life, it makes it easier to let go of those years with a feeling of completeness.

Right now, I don't feel the need to change anything until 2018.  If I have more lives, what would I do with them?  I'd like to learn to cook--really cook gourmet style.  After that, I just don't know.  The nice thing about writing is, each book is its own life.

IRONY ALERT!  I wrote this blog 2 weeks ago. (I try to do these in advance when I can.)  So, seriously, my biggest vision of "next life" was cooking.  Then, a recruiter for TechMedia found me on LinkedIn and offered me a full time job.

I was not looking for a job.  I have been increasing my freelance work, but a full-time, office job?  It'd have to fall out of the sky...or maybe into my in-box.  However, I am keenly aware that the best things in my life are the things that "happened" rather than I planned or pushed for--so when I was asked to apply, I went for it.

Long story short, I'll be writing reviews and website content for http://toptenreviews.com, full-time, at their Ogden office, with steady pay and a nice benefits package.  Today is my first day.

How about you?  What lives have you lived?  What might you do in your next "life"?  How open are you to the opportunities you never expected?