Not only is she a client, but she was a friend first! Sometimes working with people I love is challenging because we’re navigating multiple dimensions of a relationship simultaneously. I don’t typically work with friends and family, but when someone I care about comes to me in the midst of a major life challenge, I’m jumping in.
No one really knows this yet, but I was let go from my job…
It hit me like a ton of bricks, and for multiple reasons. First of all, she’s an incredible professional! No company in their right mind would terminate her! She’s amazing! Smart, task-oriented, goal/big picture driven, great communicator/team player/leader, dedicated, loyal, long hours, never says “can’t”, the list goes on and on.. But here she was. Shocked even more than I was, hurting and wondering what the hell she did to deserve this, and where she was going from here.
In the first meeting, a million options filled her mind as she navigated the emotions of wondering if she even deserved to be on her current career path. Maybe it was time to go do something completely different! It was the pain and confusion talking. She is so incredibly gifted in her craft. When I say she has a way, she indeed just has a way.
At the exact same time, in the very same life, she is an amazingly loving wife and Mother. To add another aspect, she is a community supporter and boots on the ground in many community organizations and functions. Her family is everything to her, and she has always done her best to level the field between work life, community life, and home life. With a high-end career and a family, it was never easy, yet her company demanded a lot from her and her family was her heart. She hustled, for sure, and she was tired often.
As a bit of time passed, she got to experience what it was like to live like a stay-at-home Mom. Time with her kids, events with family, community supporter, and helping others in her personal world each and every day. Things began to change inside of her. Yes, still the haunting of “I should be working”, but the nudges of how she loved her family time, became clearer and clearer.
“I have two job prospects, and I need to figure out which one to take”. She wasn’t even sitting down when the words started to come out.
Both were good options; good money, good benefits, etc,. but one allowed her something the other didn’t…to work from home. “It doesn’t pay quite as well, and I don’t know if it will keep me challenged. The other one is a long commute but it’s more money, and I know they’ll keep me challenged into the future and I could gain ground in that company”. We talked about the options, and the possibilities, Spirit gave insight into each organization and we talked about her kids, and the summer she’s had…and the answer flowed from the corners of her eyes.
“I got to actually look in their faces and see them”, tears flowed. “I’ve never had the time to really just sit and watch their faces, their expressions, the light in their eyes, the energy in their bodies. I’ve always had time for them, but never had time to be still with them, or observe them and feel into their bodies.”
She talked about time with her husband and neighbors, and how this break from work has given her so very much.
Her answer was suddenly clear.
Her Spirit made it clear that there will be a time to shift out of this new position, that it won’t challenge her for long, she’ll move on…in fact a couple of times and how she needs to think and feel about that, this new job is not her “then finally”, but it is perfect, “and then” for her life now.
If not for this thing that happened to her, she would never have had the chance to sit and recognize what at this point in her life (because it changes!) is most important for her to give herself to. Life ebbs and flows but when we live into what is truly most important to us when we live our alignment with our values, life begins to straighten itself out, and it begins to flow in some amazing, and oftentimes unexpected directions.
Forever the journey, Anne