07/28/2024
I’ve not shared this publicly before.
In 2017, I was laid off on a Friday by a company where I’d worked in an editorial capacity for almost 30 years. Even though I had been working part-time in my own massage therapy and coaching practice, massage for almost 20 years and coaching for 2 years, I felt a lot of fear about what was next.
I had tied my identity to that editorial job. When I’d meet people and they’d ask me what I did, I would answer with that job title.
The biggest surprise when I was laid off was the huge sense of relief not to have to work for them anymore! I had dreamed for so long about quitting to run my own business full-time, but I didn’t think working for myself was something I was ‘allowed’ to do. It wasn’t safe enough. There was no regular paycheck.
I didn’t give myself permission to do what lit me up.
The following Monday morning, I went to a FedEx store to ship back all my company equipment. When I walked out of that store, I felt a tremendous weight lift from my shoulders, and felt like I was venturing out into the great unknown, with a mixture of fear, courage, and excitement. It was such a beautiful day, and I still remember it vividly.
The next day, which happened to be Valentine’s Day, my husband and I went to see the movie Moana. I sobbed all the way through it; I felt like it was speaking directly to me.
I so identified with Moana’s struggles to be happy and find fulfillment in the role her family and society had planned for her, where all was ‘safe.’ And I knew too well her intense longing to break free from what was expected of her and find her true purpose, something she’d felt inklings of for as long as she could remember.
She built the courage to go out to sea, even though she didn’t know how to sail. It was a struggle, but she got past the reef and out into the open ocean, and she learned to accept and live the calling she felt inside her.
I opened an office and transitioned to a massage therapy and coaching private practice. But even though I enjoyed coaching so much, and loved getting clients life-changing results, I continued to hesitate to go past the reef.
I didn’t give myself permission to step fully into coaching, what lit me up.
Massage therapy felt safer because I’d been doing it so long and because everybody knows what it is. Talking about coaching felt like describing air, and so I would tell people about it only when they’d ask.
Many twists and turns later, I finally gave myself permission to do what lit me up.
More than anything, I wanted to help compassionate women find their direction and purpose and give themselves permission to do what lights them up.
I stepped fully into my calling to help the people I most love to work with: compassionate women facing retirement who are struggling with a loss of self-worth and a sense of aimlessness, seeking direction and purpose so they can live the rest of their lives in a deeply satisfying, meaningful way, in whatever form that may take.
I finally gave myself permission to shine my light, to be a beacon, a lighthouse, to safely guide my clients home to themselves.
Where in your life have you hidden your light?
Where in your life is it time for you to shine like a beacon for others?
Please let me know in the comments, and stay tuned for some exciting announcements in the coming days.
