I was flipping through Facebook the other day and clicked on one of its better (IMO) features, which is the “On this day…” that takes you back to an entry you made some years before. It was crazy to see entries that were from a couple years ago, five years ago, TEN years ago…wow.
It was the five years ago update that really snuck up on me. Five years before, I had posted the picture below and this text:
Thank you for the 12 years of challenges, lessons and unbreakable friendships that nurtured me until I was ready to fly. I was lucky to find a career I really really liked and today I leave to build a life I love. Thank you for everything. Blue skies ahead.
July 1, 2016, was my last day at my corporate job, which I left to start my own business doing what I do now. I had been at that job for nearly 12 years, the sum total of my adult working life. I had left, and returned, once before but this time I knew I wouldn’t be returning, and it was both terrifying and scintillating at the same time.
I have no idea how five years have already passed, but I realize that even though it feels like no time at all (and also like my last chapter was a million years ago), a lot of learning and living has happened. These five years have been deliciously, and occasionally bitterly, full.
So today I am celebrating these five years and the things I’ve lived, loved, and learned in that time:
Get going because invariably you will change your mind or deviate, but you won’t figure these things out in the planning phase. I started out thinking I would be a coach and have 1:1 clients (as my whole business) until I realized my jam is having a variety of types of work and types of clients.
Similarly – it never goes how you think it will. I figured I’d hang my shingle and be off and running. Spoiler alert: it took a little longer than that.
The only thing holding you back is a story (or many stories). Shake those off, pick new stories, and get going.
Find your people and let go of the ones who are not yours. Changing your life will change who’s around you – keep the ones who support you, feed you (figuratively speaking, but literally is good too), and are willing to be there for the tough parts as well as the good ones. It can be hard to let go of ones you once clung to tightly, but you’ll be OK.
What are you celebrating today?
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