#43 Signs It's Time to Make a Life Change w/ Janice Laurente
Think about a big change that happened in your life. It could be anything: quitting a job, getting married, choosing to have (or not have) children.
How did you know these were the right choices to make? And when did you know it was the right time?
A couple of weeks ago I sent an email sharing how I ended up moving to Bali. It seemed easy and spontaneous: I took a trip and my flight got cancelled, so I ended up staying.
That was the short version. The tip of the iceberg. What I didn’t share with you was all of the stuff underneath that prompted me to reach a quick decision.
During my 10 years in tech, I made a lot of smaller changes before deciding to leave the career altogether. When I started feeling stagnant I changed jobs within my company. Then I moved to Utah, which was my first time living away from family and friends. A few months later, I quit the company I’d spent 5 years with and moved to a new one. And despite making all of these transitions, I ended up in the same place; feeling unsatisfied with my career and like I didn’t belong.
It was then I realized I needed a bigger change, more substantial than changing jobs, companies or living out of state. Something radical and different because those other things I tried didn’t seem to work.
So I opened myself up to it. I hired a coach, started reading a lot of books, took workshops and learned more about myself and the world around me. I invited in new opportunities outside of my tech bubble in Silicon Valley.
My frame of reference grew bigger and the stories I believed about myself began to shift. I reprogrammed my mind to let in a new narrative: that I deserved way more. And I really envisioned myself living in a tropical paradise (I just didn’t know it was Bali yet).
So when the opportunity came to actually live the island life of my dreams, I jumped on it quickly. It seemed spontaneous, but in reality it was carefully calculated.
In my conversation with Janice Laurente, Communications Strategist and diplomat for the US government, she shares her personal and professional experience with making big changes multiple times in her life: from providing disaster relief in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, to moving back to the US to manifest her dream relationship after living in Indonesia for 6 years, and relocating to South Africa where she now lives with her life partner.
Janice gives us her expert advice on how and when it’s time to make a change on The Undercurrent Podcast.
My two cents on making a life change? Start small. And with each shift you make, feel into them and notice if your actions serve you. Stay put if you feel good and satisfied. If not, spend time contemplating your next move.
One way you can start small is by downloading my FREE guide: 75 Questions to Change your life. It’s a pdf with a long list of reflection questions that will help you gain awareness and clarity around where you are in life right now and where you might want to go in the future.
It’s right on my webpage, scroll down and you’ll find the link to download.
Are you past the stage of thinking and ready to take action? Reach out to me and let’s connect 1:1 to explore the changes you want to make happen in your life.