I'm quitting corporate life!
And are you nervous to follow your heart too?
When your life doesn't look how you think it should by now, it can be hard to NOT make choices that are going to close the gap. To not save all your pennies for property or waive a 6-month sabbatical over ‘settling down’. Easier to ignore those whispers from your heart. Easier to doubt and worry that other choices and paths might be wrong.
I’m 37 and for those that know my story, I’ve been making alternative choices for most of my life! (And if you don’t, you can catch up with the 90 second version here!) But I don’t think my doubts and embedded beliefs of what life ’should’ look like for me by now will ever really go away. So please know you are not alone if this feeling of ’what’s wrong with me?’ resonates.
But I also bang on ALOT about making the most of this time in your life. How even though you might not feel like it’s anything to celebrate, how being single, childfree and with no mortgage around your neck, is the most freedom you’ll probably ever have in your adulting chapter. So to bloody just go and do all the things you’ve ever dreamt about doing!
And I'm excited to share that I'm doing it! I'm taking my own advice. I'm making a big and not so sensible shift in my life again very soon. My logical, excited brain is totally here for it but my body is not so silently freaking out! That little squidgy bit just below your rib cage, it's been niggling with anxiety all week. I’m struggling to focus and I don’t really want to eat. It's like when you’re queuing for a big rollercoaster and the closer you get, the more restless you start to feel. I’ve been here before though and I know that changes and choices like this will do that. Because it’s PART of the ride!
Ok, Ok, I'll tell you already! I’m leaving my corporate job for the foreseeable and taking myself to Paris for 2 months in March. To write. To learn French. To make new friends. To sit in cafés and people watch. Just spend more time in a city that I’m always so excited to land in and where I feel my stomach quietly sink when I leave.
On paper it sounds as indulgent as fu*k. It’s hardly realistic and like something out of a book or a Netflix series. Oh wait…there actually is! #emilyinparis.
I’m going to spend a ton of cash that should go on more important things and how crazy do I think I am right now giving up full time work? What reality am I living in?
Well…I’m living in my reality. Just like yours can be whatever YOU want it to be. As long as it makes sense to YOU. Because at the end of the day it’s your life and your choices. And you only get one!
As unrealistically romantic as spending 2 months in Paris is… and with no fixed plans or idea of what I’m going to do when my 2 months ends. I can. There is nothing stopping me except my own excuses as to why I can’t. Except for Jay dog of course but my wonderful parents are going to look after him whilst I’m gone.
And if it all goes horribly wrong and it doesn’t work out then I can just come back. I'm very grateful that my parents' door is always open and I'll just apply for another job. But something inside me knows that by taking this leap of faith. And that by following my heart. That it will lead me to somewhere and something bigger. Even though I have no idea what that might be yet.
Excited to be at least conversational in French before I leave Paris and if there's a ‘Gabrielle’ or ‘Alfie’ to practice on…I'll see that as an added bonus too!!
So now I’m going to ask YOU. Where does YOUR heart want to go or to see or to write or to dance?
And what excuses are you putting in your way to stop you?
Because any savings need to be used towards a house deposit? Well I ask you, what’s the rush?
Because you’ve been doing your job forever and it’s too late to change careers now or it doesn’t make sense to take that pay-cut. Too late says who? Can you survive with less money for a while to leave a role you hate?
Because it might not work out on the other side? How will you know if you don’t try?
I’m not saying you have to quit your job or travel the world. And if getting your own place excites you the most right now then please don't deviate from the plan. But maybe it’s that bucket list holiday you keep pushing back? Or treating yourself to that expensive restaurant you’ve dreamed of going to one day. Or taking your yoga teacher training in India? Whatever it is that makes your body light up and smile too.
Because NOW is the time to do it!!!!!!!!
There are so many shoulds and maybes and one days that come out of our mouths. Against this invisible pressure that we only ever place on ourselves. Because nobody else really gives a toss what you're doing with your life or your choices when they're too busy focusing on their own.
And I don’t want to look back when I'm 60 something on years I was wishing away from myself, rather than the amazing memories that I made with them instead.