I did it! I quit my day job.
In the end it was sort of an easy decision – my bosses of 20 years had left the company, a flood of knowledge with them, my photography side-line enquiries were coming in, work was piling up and my ‘salaried’ job, whilst keeping me very busy, was going nowhere new.
I’d totally lost my professional ‘mojo’. I felt trapped, in a job that wasn’t a challenge, feeling creatively ‘dumbed down’, at the top of my pay band, in a role that no longer suited being a mum.
Could this leap into the unknown be the answer to changing all this …
Hell yeah! It was terrifying though, not just because I’d been in a senior management role on a decent whack with all the perks and employed by same company for most of my working life but because I felt it was who I ‘was’.
Inspired by freelancing colleagues in the creative world, urged on by my talented friend and now business partner – Meg. And knowing I had a proven business head on my shoulders.. it was time follow my passion.
So with the encouragement of my (self employed) husband and his words of support ringing in my ear ”You’ve made him a million, now make me one”.
Right there right then …. Mind, seriously, blown and made up!
No more working away, no more Sunday morning figure crunching, no more suits, grown up shoes and sensible hair!! ….There’s time for the good stuff again; collecting the boys from school, attending plays, walking my own dog, going to daytime yoga class, waking up at 3am with excitement rather than dread.
Three things I miss about my old life….
Leaving the well trained and personally mentored tea makers
The 4 hour daily commute - as now have no time for ‘audible’
And my house cleaner (as I convinced myself I’d do it myself now) ha!
On my last day there were no heartfelt goodbyes required … all my old work colleagues that were friends still are. I grew up in that team – from a naive and occasionally anarchistic 25-year-old, from promotion to promotion, from a lover, to a wife, mother, a colleague, a friend – though still, to be honest, now and again a bit of an anarchist.
You know it’s the right decision when you don’t look back – not once.
Now living the dream, expressing myself daily through my art, capturing raw emotion, telling peoples life story…. And getting paid for it!
A big thank you to you, readers, likers, haters, friends. You have quite literally changed my life, and I still can’t quite believe it…. I made it… the big leap.
