Big, scary, audacious leaps may cross your path from time to time but they can actually be pretty awesome. I did just that, and as the new year began so did a surprisingly new me.
A very good friend and colleague of mine (Megan Gallagher, you may know her brilliant work from this very site!) told me that as this was a leap year after all, why not do just that? Today’s post is about my leap, and my hope is it will resonate with you!
I was always the one who enjoyed independence in my work and something on my own terms. I would work full time and still go home and turn hobbies to profit at night and on the weekends. I reveled in those moments! But once I had explored the idea, sold product, developed the brand, and introduced it to customers, I would be ready to move on. Each new hobby turned business was going to be “the one”. I don’t even know what “the one” means! I always thought that when I got older the career I would love giving myself to would reveal itself. Well, I am older, and no such thing has ever happened.
This brings me to taking a leap lesson no. 1: be open to options! The moment I let go of the notion that my work would fit into my own version of “the one” I started having fun! I let myself sit back and observe.
I noticed a trend in myself—I truly loved starting a project, exploring the idea, and
developing the idea. I decided I could lend that creativity to other woman and help them develop their creative business brand from the ground up.
Taking a leap lesson no. 2: trust your life experiences. In addition to loving the creative life my educational background is in social work and counseling. With each client I met with I found myself pulling on old skills such as active listening, advocating for the self, and self-care.
The more my clients would open up to me the more I realized creative business is so
integrated with our lives. We pour ourselves into our work, we often dedicate space
in our home to our work, and we willingly give it more energy and time than most
professions require. I loved these personal conversations—and I was grateful that there was trust to go there.
Taking a leap lesson no. 3: be open to evolution. I have always separated my
counseling background and my creative self. Turns out they were more on the same
path than I ever knew. What a relief! I don’t have to choose because they are fluid.
My business consulting work was always present, about moving forward, and for the
better of my client’s whole self. Wanting to bring the best of me to my work I started
exploring more educational options and stumbled on a developing field called life
coaching. Thinking it would add that extra something to my business I enrolled in a
certificate course and let it just seep in.
Taking a leap lesson no. 4: just let what will be, be. Just a few weeks in and my world started to flip upside down. Maybe business coaching was not for me. Maybe I was always meant to work with people in many facets–people experiencing change, people ready to explore their purpose, and people who desired a fresh start.
Then I made a scary decision—the business I was SO SURE about, the business I took
a loan out to open, and the business that brought me to this moment was no longer a
good fit for me. But something funny came from this scary though—relief.
Taking a leap lesson no. 5: go where it feels good to be. I am the kind of person who loves to explore, and I probably will continue to explore my whole life. I am the kind of person who loves working with people. More so, I love watching people achieve something they were so stumped by previously.
I now work within a whole-self wellness and fitness studio. I split my time between
marketing our vision and coaching incredible women towards their best selves. I don’t
know what’s next. But this leap has finally taught me that whatever it is, I will just let it
be ok!
Here’s to your leap-
Andrea
Recent Comments