The last time I wrote something more substantial than an IG caption, the words“face mask” only described something you do at the spa. In other words, it’s been a long ass time. I’d be lying if I said this was coming easy to me. But, hey! We all have to start where we are.
Last night I wrote a draft of a new post about “writing a new story” but I awoke in the middle of the night with a thought: the story I want to share isn’t about writing a new story, it’s actually about how long it has taken me to see and express how my story has evolved.
Now, if you’ve been around me or The Fab Life Project for any amount of time, you know I talk a big game about “moving forward.” Telling people to let go and keep it moving is one of my things, so imagine how I felt when I realized that I have not extended the same grace to myself.
How It Started
When I first started TFLP, I was 25 years old and deep in that post-college angst that has you ready to kick someone’s ass for lying to you about life. I remember spending days pondering in my cubicle wondering how the heck “adults” did this whole, “go to work and spend what little time I have zoned the eff out” for forty years straight-thing.
The shock of it all inspired me to do some research, to see if anyone else had a problem with this, and that is when I first discovered “lifestyle design” or the art of defining how you wanted to live based on your desires, not on the prescriptiveness of the status quo.
This was my first woke moment. I learned that life didn’t have to mean working until you were damn near dead or only striving for suburban life. It didn’t have to mean staying in a job you hated, or making money to spend on crap just to abate the misery you felt.
Defining “happiness and success” on your terms and eschewing the status quo became my rallying cry and my call to action.
But It Shifted
For years, I dug in. I wrote this classic post about “being replaceable” and I lamented the lie that is the “status quo” with everyone that I knew. I used the phrase “miserable job” in damn near every post that I wrote.
For a long time, it worked for me and reflected where I was in my life.
I was 30 before I felt some semblance of control over my career, but that was followed up by me realizing that I wasn’t living my life according to the true vision that I had for it.
If you don’t know the story of me epically losing my job the night before I signed a new lease (yes, in expensive-ass NYC!) then read it here. It was crazy at the time, but that moment and the decision to take a travel break changed my life.
I came back from my journey with a different mindset. There’s something about lugging a 30-pound backpack around that just changes you.
I became very clear on what was important to me, and how I wanted to live my life. I spent the pandemic in Tennessee really getting a chance to ground myself in a way that living in New York had never afforded me. I was eating healthy, exercising, and coming into my own as a creative leader at work who sets the vision for my team and department.
That 25-year-old girl in the cubicle? Well, she has blossomed into a woman who is even more serious about defining happiness and success on her own terms.
But I had not given myself permission to dive into the fullness of what that meant for the type of content I want to create. I hadn’t given myself the space to explore how where I am now can impact what I write and talk about.
Well, until now.
Yes, I still lament the B.S. that is the status quo, and if you’re sitting in a miserable job that you hate, I have no issue with reminding you that you are replaceable, and should move on as soon as you can, but….
BUT!
I want to write and create content that reflects where we are as a generation: standing on the edge of reimagining EVERYTHING.
How I’m Moving Forward (And Taking You With Me!)
This moment that we are in? This one in which workers everywhere are standing up for their right to work from anywhere, this moment in which we’re talking about “boundaries” and “inclusion” and recognizing that grind culture was killing us?
Oh, my god, it has beckoned to me! Called me over, brought me back in, demanded that I get myself together to get back into the arena because, baby, this is it!
Our sense of “normalcy” has been broken down, and pushed off a cliff into the abyss. Our sense of possibility has been cracked wide open. And, despite all the things (of which there have been many) I truly believe we are so lucky to be experiencing life right now.
We have the technology that can allow us to build new careers and jobs for ourselves. We can be in control of our finances and the way we make money in new ways. We are conscious of our humanity and live with a deep desire to really make the world a better place.
We aren’t stuck talking about it, because we’re living in a time where we can be about it.
I want to be about it. I don’t want to waste time complaining, I want to use my energy to help us move forward. I want to write about it, speak about it, and have discussions as we rebuild, and reimagine what is next.
Evolution unleashed.
