Four months ago I woke up and felt the tinge of fear rise in my throat. I was about to make a huge decision. I was tired of being tired. I dressed that day hoping I was making the right decision.
I did it. I let it go. In March of this year, I walked away from a job I had for over a decade. What most people don’t know is while I’ve built UITAL (Up In The Air Life) over the past five years I had a full-time job as a Sales Engineer at a Fortune 500 company. There was lots of sacrifice over the years and my security and livelihood was provided by my job. As I tossed and turned that night, I crafted these words via email after working on our trip in Chile. I resign.
I laid in my bed and cried for hours. I cancelled the lease on my luxury apartment. Abruptly, I made a change. A change that would forever change everything.
Then, a huge calm came over me after I sent the email to cancel my lease. I knew I had made the right decision.I was leaving this job.
Leaving my apartment.
Leaving a life I built and thought I wanted.
Heading to Mexico.
To live as an ExPat. To build Up in the Air Life. And most importantly, to live out loud.
This process started a year before the day I made the decision. I was an executive leader of a Fortune 500 Company one day and the next day I wasn’t anymore. Here I was working on multi-million dollar deals, working 100% remote, presenting to C Level executives, but I was feeling tremendously undervalued and underutilized. It was very hard for me to get outta bed the last few months. How did that happen? How did I go from a great position in a great company to feeling like I was invisible? The feeling of invisibility was worse than a pink slip.
I slipped into my flip flops and rolled outta bed each day only to feel unappreciated and uncertain. I knew I was the shit, but I wasn’t feeling it these days. Things were shifting, and I was changing. I was changing each morning I woke and logged in.
Then, it hit me one day.
Claire, you have an amazing business you built from the ground up. You inspire others to travel the world and find peace on the beaches of international islands & joy on the cliffs of continental mountains. Why are you living this way? Why are you walking in here each day only to walk out with less joy? When are you going to make a change for YOU?
I realized I had built a company, a company I loved. It was my passion.
Why wasn’t I nurturing my passion and finding joy at the same time?
I was fighting the transformation. We all do it. We fight change. We want something grand for our lives, but we can’t have it until we chose to change. I was fighting myself. I was fighting the unknown.
I got out of my own way. I stopped overthinking. The metamorphosis is inevitable. Change is coming. Life is full of changes from career to relationships, and we have to be willing to make the decision. It’s time for you to do what you want to do, be who you want to be, and live the life you love.
