Janée Douglas
May 31, 2022
Featured in the Crown Issue of Liveology Yoga Magazine.
If “take a leap of faith was a person,” they would be me. Yes, I left my six figure marketing career behind to become a Flight Attendant which does not pay close to half of my recent salary. I woke up one day and I decided I did not want to ever have to respond to another email, hop on a quick call, address the elephant in the room or hit the ground running, again!
The reason I decided to share this experience is because I know, someone, somewhere is questioning if they should leave a career for their own personal reasons. I am not here to share an exit plan or strategy. And while there may be some black and white instructions somewhere on how to make life changing transitions, I will admit that my approach to this is very gray. Thus, the journey that I have decided to embark on requires an open mind, faith, self-reflection, fearlessness and curiosity. It is a choice of liberation.
I believe in myself and trust in my journey so much that I am not afraid to release it all and restart. In life we are going to experience adversity whether we plan for it or not. Thus, reading books like “you’re a bad ass” by Jen Sincero and “the obstacle is the way” by Ryan Holiday have really helped me to muster up the audacity to leap. So, if you’re reading this to put things into perspective for your own personal journey, I highly recommend the practice of reading. Even if you only commit to 5 minutes daily, it can be life changing in how it shifts your mindset. If you lack confidence, read books that help with confidence. If you lack faith, read books that help with faith. Simple.
My marketing job was a very entrepreneurial type which gave me the liberty to work from anywhere in the world. I created my own schedule and the amount of money I earned was directly related to the amount of work I put in. Obtaining this job was a five plus year latter climbing process. Also, people with an educational background far more extensive than mine had high hopes for a job like it. So, who was I to have it and not find satisfaction in it was the question that lingered in my subconscious for almost three years.
I loved the entrepreneurial liberty this job offered. However, from my lens the most rewarding part of entrepreneurship was building something for myself, not someone else. Thus, my ‘outside of work’ goals were incessantly disrupted because the bulk of my energy was being used to support goals outside of my own. With this job, my work/home life constantly overlapped no matter how many boundaries I attempted to set.
It was a domino effect. I experienced a self identity crisis. It felt uncomfortable to completely be myself at work. No one directly told me that I could not fully be myself but subconsciously I felt pressure to conceal certain characteristics in order to be accepted in this environment.
I knew it was time for drastic change when I hardly wanted to get out of bed most days. I would put on a cute shirt and take my meetings from my retractable bed with a green screen teams background often. Every work and life related task felt exhausting. I would procrastinate, miss deadlines, miss meetings, make excuses and then use corporate jargon to cover my ass at work!
At the time, I was shifting levels of consciousness and I had no idea! Signs of consciousness shift include no longer feeling in harmony with your environment, relationships or job. The world around you feels different as if you stepped into a new reality.
There are 4 levels of consciousness:
1. Life happens to me.
2. Life happens by me.
3. Life happens through me.
4. Life happens as me.
I was shifting from 2, to 3 and 4, which were less about ego/ fear and more about trust/love.
Naturally, I was only motivated to do the things that I loved to do as opposed to what I was required to do. I felt easily motivated to do yoga, rest, read, lay in the sun, journal, explore/travel, eat and embrace creativity. My feminine energy was dominant, I loved to flow, I had no desire to force. I remember thinking to myself, it would be so cool if I could make a living out of only doing the things that I enjoy. This became a thought daily. Somedays I would jot down a list of things that I could do to sustain if I left my job.
I had quite a few moments during my marketing career where I fantasized about waitressing again. I always loved service jobs but I didn’t want to risk being micromanaged by some miserable person misusing their authority nor did I want to deal with typical job scheduling constraints. Hence, when I learned about an opportunity to apply for a flight attendant job I knew it would be the perfect job for me as it would create a separation in work vs home life. It would offer me a job in service without being micromanaged and my schedule could remain flexible. I would have the space to embrace my passions without disruption. Free travel was a nice perk too since I was spending majority of my income to travel anyway. So, it all balanced out. However, I feel much lighter now that I can embrace my most authentic self again!
As a life enthusiast, I am on my own unique path discovering all that makes me, me and fully embracing it. There is no separation between me, spirit and others. I operate from compassion and I am an extension of everything. That career will always be there if I want to take it back. My success is not contingent upon any job at any company. I am successful because of who I am at my core. There is purpose in all that I am being called to do and thriving to be.
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Peace & Pineapples!