For some, leaving a job and starting their own business would be enough change for an entire year...
But for me, this huge leap is just the beginning! In fact, I'm about to basically change my whole entire life all at once. And it all started with selling my townhouse.
OMG, I sold my townhouse!
(even though the tarot reader told me not to!)
Two weeks ago, I traveled back to Atlanta to close on the townhouse I'd owned for over 14 years. It was bittersweet but also a HUGE relief.
While I have some wonderful memories of the years I lived there, renting it out when I moved away and becoming a landlord was SUPER stressful. I hated it.
But even though I didn't want to keep it, I almost didn't sell it...
This past July, I was gifted a free session with a really well-known and well-respected tarot reader. Since my current tenants at the time had just given their 60-day notice, I decided to ask about what I should do with the townhouse.
Keep renting it? Or try to sell it?
Her answer was clear: keep renting it - a great tenant would come along. Sell it in a few years when the profit would be much greater.
So even though I desperately wanted to be rid of the burden, I decided to try to rent it out for another few years. While my decision wasn't based on the tarot reading alone, it felt risky to pursue selling it - so I didn't.
Instead I waited. And waited. And then waited some more.
Three months passed by with no new tenants. Meanwhile, I had already given notice to my job that I would be leaving in a few months to pursue my coaching business full-time.
My days of steady paychecks were numbered. And each month I was losing $1,300 on a vacant unit.
Rent or sell?! No answer seemed like a sure thing anymore and after putting $5,000 into improvements in the home, I was watching my dwindling bank account with a growing sense of unease (i.e. panic).
So I decided to do a crazy thing. A thing that logically didn't make a lot of sense. A thing that an "expert" had warned me NOT to do.
But...
It was also the thing I REALLY wanted to do. It was the thing that felt like freedom and not like fear.
So I changed course and listed my house for sale.
One week before Thanksgiving.
And just weeks before the Christmas / New Years holiday season.
Even though the tarot reader told me not.
Even though the housing market wasn't great.
Even though my real estate agent was apprehensive (another expert who I thought should just rent instead).
And against the odds, I sold my townhouse.
There were some false starts, offers that fell through and a crapload of stress, but by early January I received an offer that was set to close just 7 days before my last day on the job. Seriously.
Right as my steady paychecks were ending, a sizable sum of money landed in my bank account. Like magic.
Maybe I could have "made more" if I had held it a few more years. But in the end I realized, I got exactly what I needed right when I needed it. How can you ask for more than that?
Now, I can say "yes" to so many things that I couldn't have otherwise. And having that money means I can serve my clients and my business for at least a year without worrying about how I'll get by.
I walked away from something that was no longer serving me, even though I was afraid to let it go. And even though "experts" told me it was a bad idea.
And my life is so much better for it.
Is there something you desperately wish YOU could walk away from?
Maybe it's no longer serving you?
Maybe it causes you too much stress?
Maybe you want something better, something different?
Maybe an "expert" has told you it would be a mistake. Something you would regret years down the road.
That can make the change even scarier. I get it.
BUT
YOU are the only expert of your own life.
Maybe it's time to look for a new job. Take that career break of your dreams. Move across the country and start your next chapter.
Advice can be great. Research can be helpful. But sometimes you have to get some courage, have some faith and follow your own intuition.
YOUR life will be so much better for it.