Friday Fav - Learning Your Limits

Happy Friday! I was worried that with a month of not blogging I wasn't sure when I'd return, but I was hopeful it wouldn't last too long. Today, I finally feel like I'm ready to get back in the saddle, ready to share some updates, and most of all ready to write.

To say this last month was a whirlwind is an understatement. A month ago, I did something I didn't think I'd ever do - I quit my job. Yup, I had a great gig and I loved it, but there was a part of me that was looking for something more. Having no clue what I wanted to do outside of the nonprofit field, I applied and was offered a job to sale and market apartments. You're probably scratching your head right now thinking, "wait what did she just type?" Yup, I was ready for a drastic change and I dove head in. Saying goodbye to a job I had for 3 years was tough. This was the place where I established some amazing friendships, and knew at the end of each day I did something bigger and hopefully better for the community. Why on Earth would I then want to go into apartment leasing ... I love sales, I love people, and about 9 years ago I had big goals of becoming an Interior Decorator and thought I could re-live this goal through helping a resident dream up and decorate their home.

So transiting into this new job was a nightmare. I understand you get to work with new people, learn a new software system or eight, and conquer a new learning curve, but what I didn't get was the part that I wasn't being set up to succeed, I didn't have a structure in place that would allow me to do this job, and at the end of the day I quickly found out that leasing was probably the last thing I wanted to do.

Friday Fav - Learning Your Limits

After only a few weeks of giving this job a go, I wasn't sure I could make it or even had the desire to make it. During this whole storm, my Mom and Brother came to visit me! During one of our conversations, my Mom said "Just quit. That's all there is to it. I had a job very similar to this where I knew it wasn't the best fit. I went out to lunch, called my supervisor and said I'm not coming back. If you're at that point, and you'll know if you are, then just quit." Now here I was having just left one job for an exciting new opportunity only to hear the words, "just quit." There is something about a mom's advice that you can't close off. So I slept on these words and decided we're only given so many days to live our life. We all have limits of how far we'll go for something, or how much we'll take.

I decided then and there to just quit. 

Now of course I can't be unemployed forever or fantasize about my dream job (owning a farm and rescuing all the animals I can) without much money to my name, so I had to act fast. This is where the conclusion to this post comes into play, life might throw you a curve ball when you least expect it, but life also throws a glimmer of hope when you might not be looking. Mike was passed along a job through another colleague asking if he knew anyone looking for employment. Now he had heard my frustrations night after night so he forwarded along this email. I quickly applied, I got an interview, and come Monday I will be preparing myself for a new adventure and of course another new learning curve! 

What I've learned over this last month that has really hit home, thank you Mom, is that we all go through life taking different roads and unexpectedly a few detours are placed in front of us. What matters the most is how you react to the road that lies ahead. It will have its ups and downs, it will have icy patches and warning signs, but it will also have a path that gets you to where you want to go. Knowing and learning our own limits of how much we can take or give up is up to us. And when we reach this point, we're one mile closer to where we want to be.

Have a great weekend!