Drum roll please…It’s official, today is my last day working at my current job. I definitely learned a lot over the past couple of years about business and myself, as well as made some great friends. However, as most people do, I was facing roadblocks and obstacles that I no longer had the energy to play the game with. I put a lot of thought into my decision and have had a lot of support from my family and close friends. They have supported me and asked me the questions that I sometimes did not necessarily want to hear (thank you, thank you, thank you).

To say the least, there have been a lot of emotions, highs and lows as I made this final decision. The best way I can describe how I have felt over the past couple of months is a recent experience. A couple weeks ago I was sitting at work listening to my iPod and Katy Perry’s  “Firework” came on.  I had heard this song so many times before and to be quite honest I thought the song was just OK. However, like a lot of things in life, sometimes you just need to take a second look, open your eyes, and really listen. Well, as I was sitting at my desk, the wax in my ears dissolved and I actually started listening to the lyrics, not just the catchy “baby you are a firework” refrain. And of course tears started to well up in my eyes…

“…Maybe your reason why reason why all the doors are closed, so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road, like a lightning bolt your heart will blow, and when it is time you will know…”

Fast forward a couple weeks and continuous roadblocks later, I decided it was time to start playing another game. Several wise people have told me in one way or another that in life sometimes you need to take risks and follow your heart. Well, it just so happens that I was in training for work a couple days before I made this decision, and of course the instructor included the following quotes in his lesson:

“You must be able to take calculated risks and not be afraid to fail”

“Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run — in the long-run, I say! — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.” – Viktor E. Frankl

Like I mentioned in some of my prior posts and above, when you are ready to listen, the sun will burn off the fog and you will be open to receive.

So what is it that I am going to be doing then?!?! Well, that is an adventure that I will have to tell you as it unfolds (first stop is moving out of NYC)! Butttttt, I will leave y’all with this great graphic from an article in NY Mag as to why a good number of bankers are leaving their Wall St jobs  (yes, I worked at a “Bank”). I would like to think that I am an individual, but this summary is just too great not to share! Ha, take note of the “Surfing, trekking and a VW van” graphic!

Stay tuned kiddies!!

XOs

Kristen