One of my major pivot points came over 6 years ago. I remember it well, I had just started my holidays — a few days prior to Christmas in 2014. Shopping the last few gifts in the hustle and bustle of the busyness that accompanies the festive season. It was in the car with my niece driving back that it all started. Opening one email that triggered a thought. It was an exciting email informing me as CEO that we had received a grant for three years. Ordinarily I would have been overjoyed at how I could make a difference with the money that it promised. Instead I had one fleeting thought. It is time…..
I spent most of the holiday contemplating what that thought meant to me. Very quickly I realised that this thought was at the epicenter of a new but very different journey. My first choice was to resign after 15 years at the helm and set a new course. Yet the sticking point was where to next — what did I want to do, more importantly how did I want my life to be moving forward.
You would not imagine that one simple email would set off a change of thinking that flung me into unchartered territory — into the unknown and in fact see me jumping off the proverbial cliff without a parachute. Yet it did. So I took the challenge one step at a time. I did not have a plan all I knew was the first step…. that was it. To resign. I constructed my resignation letter, sat down with the Chair of the Board, negotiated my date of departure and then proceeded to work my exit strategy. With 6 months to contemplate my next move I thought I was going to have it well and truly sorted. This timeframe, however, did not provide the impetus to make the choices as to ‘where to’ from here. In fact it prompted only further questions and less knowing than that pivotal day of making the very first choice. I tossed and turned between head and heart and I felt less ‘knowing’ than ever before. I felt the urge to run very quickly to what I knew — another job, yet something deep inside kept stopping me from even looking. I did jump off the cliff six months later. I departed with no job, no sense of my direction and no idea of what my life was going to look like. My only knowing was that it was going to be a journey; one that would traverse a path I had not explored before. On the very first day after my new journey began I remember feeling that I had made the right choice. A sense of calm washed over me bringing with it the desire to thrive — not just survive.
Well here I am six years later……… that pivot point, that simple email that was my trigger has taken me on a challenging, exciting, exhilarating, unchartered, inspiring (at times, scary), encouraging, amazing, satisfying, (at times, unnerving, unraveling, bewildering), uplifting, reflective journey in the search of my best life — one that provides me with a sense of wellbeing, joy and balance.
The path is still unfolding but I thank myself for igniting the pivot point and my inner guidance for making enough noise that I chose to listen.
Have you sensed a pivot point? How did you stop, listen, contemplate and discover? Do you have a roadmap to explore your pivot point?
If you find yourself with a trigger, or a nagging sense that you have a pivot point emerging then here are my three tips.
Trust you gut
Listen to that soft, inner, wise voice
Amplify that voice, connect, contemplate and take one step at a time.