This is a guest post from Aaron Morris aka Sir Scrapalot, who shares tips for scrapbooking productivity with Simple Scrapper readers once a month!
It’s been a little over  a month since I decided to retire as a digital scrapbook designer, and focus on growing some other areas that interest me. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, I had been designing for over three years. I felt like a quitter, like I hadn’t gone the distance. However, over the last month, I’ve come to learn that this is far from the truth. In fact, in taking that leap, there’s a few things I’ve learned for sure.
Sometimes, you have to shake things up.
We have so many excuses as to why we keep doing things the same way. It’s too hard to change, I am afraid of what will happen, I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do – these are all things that I’ve said to myself. The thing is, if you keep doing things the same way, you’ll keep getting the same results. If you want a different result, you need to make a change.
Know what you’re good at and what you want to do.
Once I started teaching digital scrapbooking classes, I knew that I was onto something that I not only like, but that I was good at. It was a natural progression, being a teacher in real life, but for so long those skills laid dormant in my mind. Once I gave myself permission to enjoy teaching, and accept that I was good at it, I was able to make decisions that better reflected where I wanted my life to be heading.
Trust that if your heart is telling you to do it, it is the right decision.
For the brief second that I second guessed my decision to retire, I had to take solace in knowing that my heart would not lead me astray. If I was confident in my heart that I was doing the right thing, it would all eventually work out. I remember my grandmother, who has since passed, gave me that advice when I was contemplating getting married. Since then, I’ve let that advice guide me.
On that Sunday morning, when I sat with my wife making the final decision to retire, I never thought I would learn so much from that decision. These lessons have helped me grow as a person, and that is more than I had expected to come from it.
How can you shake up your life? What things are you looking to change?
Thanks, I really needed that inspiration to shake it up and make some decisions I’ve been avoiding.