A New Adventure - Part 2 - Life Changing
When you decide to completely uproot & change your life & give up all the things that make you appear successful in life, it is possible you may be judged by many.
In my first post, I stated that I was planning to do just this & there were going to be many people to share this huge life decision with. I would have to notify all my clients that came to me religiously to get their hair done, it was going to be like breaking up with each & everyone of them & that did not feel good. I would have to sever ties with all my networks. With all the professional contacts I had and the great reputation I had built, how would I tell them I was giving it all up? That would be daunting but also felt like it would be a relief. And then there was my family..... they were all so proud of me & everything I had accomplished & I was certain they would think I was flushing my life & career right down the drain. Oh how I was not looking forward to that! They had already seen me give up a lot when I went through my divorce & I must say they were not so sure I was making the right decision when I had done that. Most of all I would miss my sister & my son whom I spent the most time with & whom I couldn't imagine not being able to see them whenever I wanted.
How would I ever tell them?
I decided to start with my sister. I would gauge all my other conversations off how she would react or respond. My son would respect or relate to whatever her response was & my parents would just have to deal. I did have a plan, that would make all of this a little more palatable to everyone. I knew I had several very close friends who were also clients, that I knew they would likely be nearly devastated if I wasn't going to be doing their hair anymore. If I told them I would return every 6 weeks to do their hair, (make enough money to travel back & forth) I would also be able to visit my son & family & this all wouldn't seem like a severing of all ties & ability to see one another.
I invited my sister over for dinner. I had a couple glasses of wine before I started tip toeing into the words I needed to say. I told her I had made a big life decision & that I needed her input & opinion, because what she thought matters to me. I am the "big sister" 10 years older than her. She has always said how she can look at my life & see how things can be 10 years into the future. I told her I felt my soul had been talking to me & I was having to listen. Truth be told, on my second visit to Arizona, I had an experience as I was packing to come home. I was alone in the bedroom & sadly putting my things into my suitcase & I heard a voice. It said, "You know you're going to end up here." It was like there was someone else in the room, like I heard it out loud, but it was my voice & I hadn't said anything. I came to believe this was my higher self telling me what I needed to know. So I told my sister of this strange experience I had.
I also told her of the peace I felt when I visited Arizona, how everything else just fell away & I could just be "me" & not this public icon I had created for the world to see. I said I felt a connection with the country life & I liked that when I went to the store, I didn't feel like I had to be in full hair & makeup or that someone would recognize me. I told her how I had dreamed a year before of running away & escaping so that I could write or just do nothing. I was so tired of having so many expectations on me. She was nodding as if she knew where this might be going. I said, "As much as I've created & as much as I have done, none of it is making me wealthy or even to the point where I could feel totally secure about my future financially. I reminded her of earlier that year how I had fallen & broken my hand. How I had freaked out that I couldn't work for over a month, and that I couldn't survive unless I continued being the work horse that I had been for 20 years. What kind of accomplishment was that?
I had leveraged everything to open a new salon & move to the city from the suburbs 3 years before, so I could start over after my divorce. And in true Tami Scott fashion I needed to reinvent my brand & image to make it look to everyone personally & professionally that I hadn't just made the hugest mistake of my life. It wasn't the hugest mistake of my life. It was definitely part of my journey. It had been awesome, but I was in debt. Not that I couldn't handle my bills, but I wasn't chipping away at them either. And every employee I ever tried to bring in to add to revenue, ended up disappointing me. Unless I could clone myself, and I had nearly tried, my business wasn't going to get any bigger.
I told her of my plan to talk to several friends & see if I could come back every month & an half to make a little money & visit, so it wouldn't be like it would be months between seeing each other. I rambled on trying to create a cushion around all my words & she finally said, "I say GO FOR IT! If I had the opportunity to run away & start over, I would too! Do it, go live a new dream. If you say your soul is telling you to... trust that!" Oh, how it was so good to hear that response from her. My first person to collaborate that I was not being completely insane. I knew she didn't really know any more than I did about what this huge life changing decision would bring, but it comforted me that I had been able to tell her & it hadn't been a terrible experience & that she was in support.
Now... to tell everyone else.
