One week from today I am leaving my job of two years to pursue a whole new direction on my career. I’m excited to say the least, and so ready for a change. But this decision came to a surprise to some people, to which I got the question:

“how did you know you were ready for a change?”

To the person who asked me this, I can only assume that you are trying to figure out if it is a time for you to make a change somewhere in your life. The easiest answer I have to that?

If you are questioning whether or not it is time to make a change, then it is, without a doubt, TIME FOR A CHANGE!

But this isn’t about you, right? You want to know how I knew it was time for a change.

The short story?

I knew it deep in my bones.

The long story?

Two years ago I started my job, it was a new spin on what I had been doing in my career so far. I work in fitness and up until 2 years ago, I had worked as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor as my main gig for the first 4 years of my fitness career. Well, throw in a little bit of management at a small group ex studio too. It is what I knew for 4 years. Wake up, go to the gym bright as early, train a client (or get cancelled on) then teach a few classes, train a few more clients, and drive home. Was it glamorous? Not one bit. Did I love it? Most days, but not all. But it is what I knew, I was monotonous in my day to day. Move me here to North Carolina and all of a sudden I’m taking a new role, this time in corporate fitness. My responsibilities were to include managing an onsite fitness center for the employees of the bank (where I work) to workout at. I could go into more detail on what my day to day looked like, but that’s beside the point.

My first point?

Is that way back then, 2 years ago, I took on a BIG CHANGE. And even now, 2 years later, I’m taking on another big change. I knew back then that a change was needed, and I knew now that a big change was needed. How? Because I believe that change is an instrumental part of life. It is unavoidable, and if we can create the change ourselves, then we can be a lot more excited about it. 

And I was excited. Until I wasn’t.

The whole new exciting change of career slowly became something that I was no longer excited about. I felt underutilized in so many ways. I’m a busy-bee and go-getter by nature. So sitting in that gym, alone for many hours, because all of my members were working upstairs at their desks started to drain on me. Being bored in a job is one thing, but not having the ability to continuously tap into my potential to grow and learn, that got to me.

I knew I had more to offer, so I wanted to find a way to OFFER IT. That is how I knew I needed a change.

If you’re feeling stuck- in your job, relationship, etc.

If you know you have more to offer.

If you feel a new passion burning inside of you.

If you are going through the same motions day to day without any sparkle.

if you haven’t experienced a new change in awhile

If you’re questioning if it is time for a change.

Well friend, then it IS time for a change!

Chase the change. Embrace it. A don’t give up on it.

I knew I wanted a change, I knew I was ready for it (as ready as a person can be to flip their life upside down), and I knew that I deserved it. So when I got to my 70th application for a new job, and crickets were still chirping on that one plus all of the other 69 applications sent in prior, I wanted to give up. Oh believe me, I dreamed of quitting and moving to an island for a few months to recollect. But that’s not feasible. The only thing that had to happen, was for me to keep moving forward. One email, one click of the mouse, one new cover letter at a time. I didn’t give up. No matter how many frustrated tears I spent, or how many un-published blogs I wrote out of anger (and they never will be 😉 ), or how defeated I felt on some days, I kept charging forward. I didn’t give up. Because I knew I owed a lot more to myself than to give up.

Change is necessary. In fact, change is inevitable. Sometimes you need to chase it down, sometimes it will slap you in the face. Don’t ignore it, embrace it.

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One final food for thought.

Think of all of the change you’ve invited into your life so far. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we have done this before, and that we were able to handle it and grow stronger from it, and hopefully in most cases, become happier from it. Having trouble thinking of all of your change? Consider all of my change in the first 26 years of my life to help trigger your memory.

• 6 years old- moved to a new city
• 12 years old- tried out for cheerleading (a life changing move)
• 17 years old- got my first job
• 18 years old- went to community college
• 19 years old- moved 3.5 hours away from home to go to a D1 university
• 19 years old- met my now husband
• 19-20 years old- dabbled in being a sorority and then trying out for my college cheerleading squad
• 20 years old- began fitness career working as a personal trainer on campus
• 22 years old- graduated college
• 22 years old- got my first management position
• 22 years old- also got an internship at a hospital and met my lifelong best friend
• 22 years old- geeze a big year for me, adopted my first dog
• 23 years old- moved 1000 miles across country with my then boyfriend, now husband, and our 3 animals
• 23 years old- got a job at Orangetheory Fitness
• 24 years old- got my corporate fitness job
• 25 years old- bought a freaking beach condo (hello huge risk! but hey, embrace the change and the challenge)
• 26 years old- accepted the new job I’m beginning in a week and a half.

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Change is happening all around us. Don’t be blinded by it. See it, embrace it, take charge.

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In health,

Carly B