“Nothing worth having comes easy”
“You get what you work for, not what you wish for”
“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No Excuses.”
These are the quotes that led the entirety of my adult life. I pushed myself to achieve, achieve, achieve and achieve I did!
I accomplished every goal I set my mind to in the hairstyling industry, from national awards, winning trips to Spain and New York, being chosen for elite positions, there was nothing that I turned my sights to that I didn’t see come to fruition. And yet I wasn’t satisfied.
Even more so, I was drained, both physically and mentally. Whenever I would come home from these trips, instead of feeling invigorated, I would need a weeks holidays. But holidays never came, I would feel pressure to make up for the time away from the salon so I would work for several days straight, mostly 10-12 hours straight.
It felt chaotic, I didn’t give myself the time to celebrate or to feel properly grateful.
It all came to a head 5 years ago, at the “pinnacle” of my career. I had bookings across Canada and was traveling every couple of weeks not giving myself any substantial time off for nearly 6 months! At the end of this “stint” I had the honour of facilitating at Canada’s #1 single manufacture hair show, Redken’s Fusion, and it was amazing! ✅ Career Goals
It was a wonderful experience with lots of learning and connection, I felt FULL and DONE. I was pumped to get home and spend a couple of days in bed reflecting...but life had other plans.
Unfortunately, without getting into too much detail, I got a phone call from my team leader that, through a miscommunication, a local salon owner thought I was going to do a private event at her salon...on my first full weekend off in 6 MONTHS!!!! And I was obligated to follow through 🤦♀️(maybe we’ll talk about what I learned about boundaries and standing firm in a future blog post)
When I was made aware of this, I broke down in uncontrolled sobs from emotional exhaustion and I kept repeating how tired I was and how I needed a BREAK.
Well...with so much desperation behind my cries, the universe answered with exactly what I asked for, a break!
The next day I shut my (very heavy) car door on my hand and broke it in two places requiring surgery and a titanium rod and I was off for the next 10 weeks. I got my vacation alright, but not how I hoped.
Although the real lesson didn’t come right away (perspective gets clearer with time), I gradually came to realize that this kind of goal getting, the push hard, sleep when you’re dead, go go go was not for me.
At first I was disappointed in myself for not having the “stamina” I should. That is until the world shut down last year and I got a Mother Nature imposed intervention (along with billions of others of course)
Old habits die hard and my over achieving mind told me I needed to fill my calendar. Somewhat by chance, what I chose to fill it with this time was multiple certificates in life coaching and mindfulness based stress reduction 🧘 and even reiki.
I believe it was divine intervention, but you can call it what’s suits you, either way, I learned the tools necessary to slow my brain down, lower my anxiety levels and, as a result, open up my creativity to levels I’d never experienced. I learned what it was to FLOW. I was even able to ween off of my anxiety medication completely, BIG WIN!
The mindset I’d had for nearly 20 years didn’t fit me anymore, the quotes that once fuelled me, made me feel exhausted just by reading them.
I now resonate with “just go with the flow”, “trust your intuition” and “trust the process” and I am getting the same results that I did with my previous mindset only it feels SO MUCH BETTER. I have more energy for all parts of my life, abundant inspiration and, because I choose more time for friends and family, I have greater connection.
I’m not saying I haven’t felt exhaustion (just last weekend I needed to do nothing and nap 😴) the difference is, I no longer “push through”, I listen ☺️. I now take the time I need to recoup and redirect the moment my body tells me to and, as result, I no longer feel like I’m “swimming upstream”.
IT FEELS WONDERFUL and I want it for you.
If you have similar story of how you’ve come to go with the flow, please share!
But if you feel like you’re still in the rat race, reach out, I want to help, we are all meant to live a life of more pleasure than pain, more ease than stress and more fun than grind.
As always, light and love to you always,
Stephanie
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