For the past 8 years I have been thriving as a “doer” in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, learning as much as I could about product development, manufacturing, and commercialization.
I started at the absolute bottom right out of college (which I later learned is the most important job in the company, so I am very thankful for that experience) and have grown every year with increasing responsibility and levels. I have always been proud to work for my company; I gave a lot and worked hard, but they also provided me with every opportunity I ever wanted. I felt bonded to my company and many times, I sacrificed my family time and personal well-being to work extra hours for not only problem-solving but also to build a positive culture among my colleagues. It got to the point that my husband actually called me Mrs. “Insert Company Name.” Life was good–I felt respected, appreciated, needed and wanted at work.
My home life has been pretty amazing too, and I am so grateful for that. I have a wonderful family with two happy and healthy boys and a husband I am madly in love with. We just bought a small farm, and we’re enjoying the new lifestyle. I was making very good money and hit my goal of making six figures by 30, well BEFORE 30. I had also just completed a community leadership program, and I was applying my education to give back to my community on a regular basis as a board member. I just came off a year of which in my head I was thinking, “Wow, this is what success is, I think I have achieved it.”
Then on March 15th of 2018, the bad news came slamming down from the top of the company: ~90 jobs would be relocated to another state. From a business perspective, I understood and agreed with the strategic decision, but it was in direct conflict with my personal situation. My job was one of the jobs that required relocation. At first, I was thankful my job was not eliminated altogether, and I had an option to stay with the company if I wanted to, but slowly I began to spiral through the change curve and took it very hard. I quickly came to the conclusion that no matter what happened, I was either going to have to sacrifice my career goals by taking a lesser job to stay, or sacrifice my family’s happiness by moving them to a new area where they didn’t want to be, or I would have to commute and be away from them at least three days a week. I became angry and stressed, I gained close to 20 pounds eating my face off just trying to deal with all this stress…I was in a pickle, and it was time for some deep thought and self-evaluation.
Then on March 15th of 2018, the bad news came slamming down from the top of the company, ~90 jobs would be relocated to another state. From a business perspective I understood and agreed with the strategic decision but it was in direct conflict with my personal situation. My job was one of the jobs required to relocate.
Self-evaluation journey:
Talking to friends and family
Several deep discussions with my husband
Pros and cons lists (several iterations)
Updated resume (actually took classes for this)
Evaluate what job I really wanted, what would be next
Journaling
Reading any self-help book I could get my hands on
One of the friends I confided in as part of this evaluation was Lisa Sears, life couch and business owner of Brass Rings. I didn’t even know at the time that she was a life coach; I just always heard her talking about how her coach helped her. I was interested in learning more about it and getting to know her as a person because we seem to hit it off. We were always on the same page in board meetings, so I asked her to coffee and we started talking. After about an hour (which felt like 10 minutes), I had told her my whole life story. I don’t usually do that; it takes me years of a trusting friendship to share my story, but Lisa made me feel comfortable; there was no judgment, just understanding, valuable observations, and guidance. After the conversation with her, I felt energized and free with more of an understanding of what I was struggling with. At the end, she gave me a life planner called Law of Attraction; I didn’t know it at the time but this would soon change my life in ways I would never imagine (but that will be a whole different post).
Lisa and I stayed in contact because we were working on a project together for the board, and she would check in to see how I was doing and what progress I made in filling out the planner. When I finally made the decision that I would stay with my company and take a role to stay in Syracuse, I talked to Lisa about it. The decision I made was for my family and I was happy with it, but I also promised myself when I had more time in this role, I would focus on myself and achieving the next level excellence and grow as much as I could.
As the new year was coming up, I always take a couple weeks off from work and spend time with my family and take an extra look at myself to prepare for a successful year. While I was off, I had time to make it through the Law of Attraction planner and answer of the big life questions; I was ready to maximize the year and achieve all my goals. In just two weeks, I felt great and I could see the difference in my performance at work as well as in my personal life. I shared my experience with Lisa, and she asked me if I would like to join a session she was putting together with a few other women in the area with similar goals. I joined the session to listen to what it was all about–again I felt energized, motivated, and inspired. I signed up right away, eager to feed off this energy to achieve my goals and build a strong network.
We had our first mastermind group coffee meet up, and I immediately felt and understood the value; it was something like a magical formulation of personalities, complementary strengths, and business ideas. As we each shared our stories, connections were made and resources shared to help remove the obstacles we were facing. Wow, I thought, this is going to be an interesting and fast ride full of support, trust, accountability, and action.
The reason why I reached out to a life coach and joined a mastermind group was because I had two major life events (job relocation and turning 30) occur in a short period of time. I was ready to focus on what I can control to make positive change in my life and achieve what I am calling the next level of excellence, and I wanted a strong like-minded support system! So, throughout this year I will be sharing my experience working with Lisa, Lyndsey’s mastermind group, and the journey to self-next level excellence, and I hope you will join me by reading my stories and sharing your thoughts, experiences, suggestions and advice with me and our group.