Last Sunday was the one year anniversary of me beginning my mid-life pause. One year ago was my last day of work at my 19+ year career with the same employer. I grew up there. I was challenged there. I did meaningful (to me) work in a very meaningful and necessary field. I met lifelong friends there. When you work somewhere for that long, you definitely reach plateaus; comfort zones of sorts. And, hopefully, you are given or find chances along the way to grow and stretch and try things that are out of your comfort zone. I was fortunate enough to have those different opportunities along the way. But, even though I experienced growth and times that I was outside of my comfort zone, by staying with the same company/industry, I never left the comfort zone of that.
When I began my pause, I didn’t know what I wanted to embark upon next. I just knew that I needed some rest and that I would be creating Ali 2.0 – the updated version of myself 🙂 So, I rested. And I visited with people and slept in and went to workout class in the middle of the day (say what?!) and had lots of lunches and drove my kids to and from school and was around when my teenagers were around so as to be available should they get to a point that they needed parental connection (spoiler alert – they WILL get to this point if you stick around long enough being present in their background!). I was able to have so many of the experiences that I had LONGED to have when I was a working mom. Then, in October of 2019, I started training to become a Coach. I wasn’t ready to say that I was going to actually become a Coach at that time, but I knew that the training would be helpful to me personally and may also be helpful on a professional level in the future.
January of 2020 rolled around and I decided that it was time to start looking for a job more seriously. I ended up getting something lined up at another software company and was planning to start that job in early April. However, COVID-19 had other plans. Once business traveling came to a screeching halt, my pseudo offer was on hold indefinitely. Then a light bulb went off in my head (after freaking out about ALL of the other things pandemic related): why wouldn’t I at least TRY giving this Coaching thing a go? I had been training for it this whole time and we were at the point in our training when we could start to see clients. So, lo and behold, here I am seeing clients and finishing up my training almost exactly a year from my last day at my previous job!
It took a pandemic, but I finally…
…embarked on a new career and path for my life. Ali 2.0 is officially in the house!! I’m so excited for this ride y’all!!
How do you want to finish this sentence? What’s getting in your way?
(originally published on June 30, 2020)
