Here is a question for you: What did you want to be as a child? When you would sit back and dream, or run outside and play pretend, what were you pretending to be?
Whether is was an astronaut, a teacher, a doctor or a chef, nothing seemed out of reach as a child. You would dream and pretend to be anything you wanted and it all seemed absolutely reasonable. Somewhere along the way, though, you may have been told to chose one, stick with it, don’t change your mind, be happy with your choice, make more money, and don’t ask questions.
Sometimes that works. There are plenty of people who are happy to go to work, doing whatever the work might be, and make enough to get through the day. This didn’t work for me though and this is exactly what led me to start The House of Healthy, become a Health Coach and yoga teacher, write a book and create wellness programs.
Most of my life, I would tell people I wanted to be a teacher and a writer. I started telling people that answer when I was in 1st grade, and continued in to college, starting with a major in Education. Truthfully though, I didn’t want to do it. I was bored in my classes, dreaded volunteering in the schools and felt very uninspired to go to class. I realized I didn’t want to be a teacher, but it was all that I knew.
Eventually, I decided to make a change. I changed my major to something similar, but with more options. In my classes, I learned my new major also worked with people in the medical field, and I decided that was where I needed to be. I could make money, work in different settings, and help people get healthy.
I continued on to graduate school for the same major, graduating with my Masters degree 2 years later. In my first year in the program, however, I realized I wasn’t as in love with my career path as I had thought. After getting a little more hands on in the actual field, I realized that I might not actually like my major. The consensus was to stick it out though, since I had dedicated so much time and money in it, and things would be a different once I was actually out working in the field.
It was during this time that I started to become interested in nutrition and holistic health. A year before graduate school, I developed difficulty with my digestive tract, specifically with lactose and dairy, which led me to try alternatives. From here, I researched more into alternative health, including nutrition, fitness and yoga. i would spend all the free time I had (which wasn’t much) reading articles, diving into websites and watching program and videos about these fields.
When I graduated, I started working in my field. I worked in a few different settings, trying to find the one that was right for me. Each time, I felt excited at first, but then realized I wasn’t thrilled with the actual job, just the change of setting at first. After awhile, it started to affect my health. I had panic attacks at home, was grumpy and moody, felt tired, and was left impassioned and stuck in a rut. I knew deep down that I didn’t like what I was doing. I didn’t feel that I was really helping people in the way I was meant to. I was helping people after they became sick, when I really wanted to help prevent illness in the first place.
After a few years, I decided to make a few small changes. I signed up for Yoga Teacher training, picked up a few classes and eventually began to build it into a career. I started this blog, became a certified Health Coach and eventually led programs and wrote books. While it isn’t always easy, it is finally a “job” that I feel great about each and every day.
So what does that mean for you? It means you can take what I learned and run with it.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is this: the most important work you can do is to live and work with your purpose, whatever it may be. When you are out of tune with your purpose, or doing work that doesn’t make you feel excited and inspired, you stop being you. The energy it takes to do work that you don’t believe in, day after day, starts to drain you. You might see this show up as being a little more negative in your outlook, always feeling sick or feeling absolutely overwhelmed with stress. On the flip side, when you love what you do, you are less stressed, you treat yourself and the people in your life well and your overall health improves. It is one of the keys to true lifelong health.
As a Health Coach, this is one of the things I often find myself working with when I’m with clients. We start off talking about food and exercise, and eventually the conversation turns to jobs, careers and finances and how they are distracting the client from their health goals. It is something that almost everyone has dealt with or is currently dealing with. If you are ready to take the next step and get better health and more enjoyment in life, consider finding a coach that works for you. You can download the “Find the Right Coach” guide and checklist by clicking below.
Do you love what you do? Leave a comment below and we can discuss.
Much Love,
