My office in 2009
Let me tell you a secret that I've held on to for two years...Promise you won't tell?
Well...I gave-up my full-time office, full-time, staff, and full-time everything in 2011. Ya' didn't know it, right?
Truth be told, I felt kinda funny about it...rather, I felt like a big time looser.
Here I am, a newlywed, laying in bed with zero energy and the paralyzing fear that I may have lupus.
The timing couldn't be better: a couple of my work contracts were ending and my office lease was up for renewal.
My career, something I had worked so hard to build, was pushing me to change. I could no longer maintain a 60-80 work week or travel half of the month.
Money aside, in that quest I got sick. Very.
I felt as if my world was crumbling around me. But I couldn't tell anyone...other than few close friends and my family.
I will never forget the day I gave notice to the building management where I leased my office. It was bittersweet. I had reached the goal I set myself to do: Have an office in a hi-rise building with full-time staff, working with Fortune 500 clients...and I was giving it up.
To work from home. On a smaller scale.
Even with that major change and a weak body, my brain and creativity never faltered. I had several conversations about the evolution of PR, the growth of social media, and the influence of bloggers with my staff and colleagues.
My staff, downsized to a couple of loyal and eager professionals, held meetings at my dining room, while I was in bed. My husband, still working a night shift, was accustomed to strategy sessions being held late at night - the only time I had energy.
In transition, I kept a couple of large clients and a couple of small clients, found a co-working office space where I could still hold meetings, and when I had more energy, work with my team. It was during this time that I had several conversations with bloggers, colleagues and friends to start a Latina Lifestyle Blogger Group.
You know the rest...
It wasn't always easy. I battled additional health issues, but most importantly, a debilitating fear that I would fail.
I was doubtful in every step I took because my road, my career, my life, had taken a different road...and when I was almost ready to give-up because I felt I had walls built all around me, I won the Count Me In Urban Rebound program...my life would never be the same.
Damn it for "a-ha" moments. 'Cuz I got a few in the nine months I went through the coaching portion of the program.
It was then that I figured out that it wasn't awful that I transitioned in my career. Actually, it was quite good that I did.
It also isn't horrible to want to spend more time with your husband and family, and less time traveling or in a corporate job.
I wasn't failing, I wasn't loosing everything I built, but I was too scared to see the obvious: My business and my personal life were evolving.
Which takes me back to my pseudo-corporate office...in my home. It wasn't working.
I won't go into the details, but trust me when I tell you, it wasn't working.
Then one day I woke-up and realized that people are fighting to have the opportunity to telecommute while I am dreading having to walk the 25 feet, the distance it takes to walk from my bedroom to my home office.
How stupid was I?
I then looked around my home office and realized that if I wanted things to continue to evolve and go down the new path I was building for myself, I needed my space to change. Pronto!
And, it did.
I started with a desk lamp...a lamp that not only lit-up my space, but also brightened my soul! I then threw away any reminders of corporate space, and added touches and colors that inspire me.
Yes, it's pink, it's French, it's shabby chic...and it's all me!
God, it feels good to move on!
Here's to transitions, evolutions and reinventing oneself!
