This is the very subject that drives my daily tasks, and also acts as fuel to the fire when I am unable to accomplish as much as I would have liked to on any given day.

Since I do not have children of my own, only the 4-legged kind, my inspiration comes in the form a hope and dream to be able to spend more time with my husband, enjoying life. Just something as simple as being able to go on vacation, or even a day trip at the drop of a hat without having to ensure that the time off has been approved and can be covered by available PTO.

The photo below was taken on our wedding day, back in August 2008, I was 29 in this photo, and it was the last time I remember truly being happy with the current state of our life as it was just before the potential for my career almost cam crashing down around me.

Since then I have faced the outsourcing of a co-workers jobs, as well as my own, the added stress of B.S. politics at hubby's job, not to mention the stress of one too many bills that can only be paid provided we both continue to bring a paycheck into the household. 

While I will not go into details, all this stress has begun to take a serious tole on my health in general. I have made countless complaints to my husband about how desperately I want to quit my job as I know it is the source for all my "issues" but I am unable to without finding a replacement source of income.

And that is what drives me to succeed in IM. After all that I have been through job wise, I have lost my drive and interest in pursuing IT any longer. Luckily my husband supports me in all this, but as for the rest of my family, I'm not so lucky.

My parents are from the old school, and still think its possible to get a good job with a pension that will cover you well into retirement, but their advice is based on knowledge, and not experience since they have been self employed for the last 30+ years.

I have heard the reasoning that "You can't make as much money in another field" but at this point I just don't care. My health is much more of a concern to me then whether or not I land the job that provides a 6-figure salary and I KNOW that the earning potential in IM is unlimited and is driven by the effort that I put into it.

I plan to make this my career and I know I will prove the nay-sayers wrong, I just need to get past the bumps in the road to finally make my dreams a reality!