The courage to change

Saying goodbye is never easy - and a new view is exciting.

Leaving a cushy corporate job with ALL the benefits wasn't an easy decision to make. When the economy slowed, the company I worked for offered a voluntary separation package. Quitting my comfortable job of 13 years wasn't on my radar, and it was tempting.

Too many zeros to say no.

"Stay in one place too long, and it doesn't look good on your resume," or so I read. "Well, you know, after 40, the opportunities will dry up. You should be happy you have a job at all," was a hot take from a company lunch table when the topic of taking the VSP came up. But the decision was mine to make with my family. After a pro/con list, advisement from anyone I knew who did something brave and looking at all the zeros on the payout, it made sense for us. And it was daunting.

I took a leap.

And I landed with both feet into consulting. Hourly work had a new connotation now. Being in the "know" was a luxury. I ran into new faces daily with new problems to solve and new ways to think about them. It was exciting. Then the pandemic hit us.

What's working from home?

Three years later, the lady who said she could NEVER work from home is doing just that and doing it effectively. For a perfectionist, some boundaries on working hours had to be established and enforced.

The switching off my mom hat and worker hat happens at different frequencies throughout the day than before in my traditional work structure. And I can't imagine losing two hours of my life in traffic each day for a commute.

Growth can be really scary. Leaving the comfort of what you know to take a risk that might not work out is the stuff nightmares are made of. If I didn't risk being new, bet on myself, step up, and then do it, I would have missed out on meeting great people. Having some wild experiences I had never imagined. Or figure out how a team of two can move a mountain. And at the peak, it's quite a view.