It’s never too late — or too early, for that matter — to make a career change, to be what you might have been. While no dream job is perfect, there should be one that suits you much better than the conventional job you presently have — particularly if it doesn’t inspire you just thinking about it.

Perhaps you have a hard time getting out of bed the days that you have to go to work. The first step in getting out of any hole is to stop digging — and start thinking. If you are not inspired by your job, if you are not learning something new and exciting every day, you must escape the corporate world before you become brain dead!

The least amount of silver lining in the cloud is the fact that millions of people are experiencing what you are. Indeed, there are many so-called successful people — engineers, lawyers, executives, and even doctors — in this sad and bleak situation who would like a more joyful career. Estimates vary, but some career experts say that up to 90 percent of educated Americans don’t like what they do for a living.

Suffice it to say that if you have given up most of your personal freedom and work strictly for money, you are, in fact, a wage slave. Money will never be sufficient compensation for years of your time and energy dedicated to work you love to hate, not to mention the freedom you must give up to work in a corporation.

Given that slaves are seldom, if ever, happy and fulfilled, the dark side of being a wage slave is that you will be unhappy and unfulfilled for at least the number of hours that you work each day. Perhaps you aren't ready to say goodbye to your job and start working on creative projects in a dream career.

Weird, no? Perverse as it may seem, some workers don't want to give up the same things that individuals who work at their dream job or operate their own profitable micro-business find distasteful. Here are some of them:

Aspects of Corporate Life That Some People Don’t Want to Give Up

• Low expectations for their accomplishments and productivity both from their supervisors and themselves

• Repetitive work

• Feeling like a martyr because they work more hours than most people do even though they have never produced anything creative or extraordinary

• Opportunity to brag to their friends how much they work and how much the company depends on them — even though this is far from the truth

• Annoying bosses and co-workers that they can complain about to their friends outside the workplace

• Work acquaintances that they have fooled themselves into believing are real friends

• Two or three weeks of imposed vacation schedules

• Regular, but limited paychecks

Clearly, these aspects of corporate life will not lead to a fulfilling dream career. Unless you work at something that is enjoyable, it can't lead to the best possible results for you — physically, emotionally, or financially. In the future, even if you do acquire a great deal of money, you will never be able to purchase enough pleasure and enjoyment that you missed by not enjoying your work.

If you want to be able to look back on your life and feel good that you lived it to the fullest, you will want to have worked at something that was exciting and satisfying. There are many career change resources on the market, including books, seminars, and career coaches, which can help you create your dream job.

By creating your own dream job, you don't have to accept the low standards — such as money, material possessions, or status — by which many people rate whether they are a success in life. Surely, you have the ability and the creative talent to transcend these standards and work at what is important to you.

The ideal is to have a dream job take up a good portion of your life instead of having your corporate job devour a good portion of your dream — along with your soul. By making that important career change, you can experience so much satisfaction that you actually look forward to getting out of bed in the morning — particularly on the days that you have to go to work!