How One Strategic Risk Changed My Life

I am celebrating this month.

November 27th, 2017 marks my two year New York Anniversary.

This anniversary means so much to me because it was the point in my life where I decided to put my happiness first. Two years ago I quit my corporate job without having another one lined up, sold my car and all of my furniture, packed up my belongings, boarded a one way flight to New York and never looked back.

At the time, I was living in Seattle and in a bad place mentally. I was dealing with major anxiety from work, suffering from frequent dizzy spells, not sleeping, and borderline depressed after losing my dog to cancer. I had come to the conclusion (with the help of a general practitioner) that I was significantly unhappy and needed to make a life change.

That following Monday, only three days after my doctor’s visit, I turned in my two week notice and bought a one way ticket to New York.

I decided to fly out to New York a week and a half prior to moving, in order to get an early start on interviewing. I was able to arrange nine different interviews in my two-day visit. Six days later, I received a job offer from a very prestigious company, yet decided to turn it down due to compensation and a potential lack of work life balance. Not only was I the crazy girl who quit her job without having another, I was now the crazy girl who quit her job without having another and then later rejected an official job offer.

Two days after permanently moving to New York, I received another job offer for my exact requested salary amount for a role I was really excited about.

This was anything but luck. It was the result of having faith, taking a risk and being strategic.

In The Life Lessons College Failed to Teach You, the book I’m so close in finishing, the importance of having faith is a reoccurring theme. If you’re not religious, think of faith as a state of mind.

You’ll never find your happiness if you don’t have faith and take risks in life. But even then, be strategic about the risks you take, i.e. the interviews I scheduled before moving. Additionally,  I had a free place to stay in New York until I secured my own apartment and got on my feet, thanks to my gracious aunt. 

So many people judged me for quitting a Fortune 500 company without having another job opportunity lined up, but it was my decision to make. They had no idea what I had been going through. I was tired of letting other people decide what was socially and not socially acceptable.

When you start living your life for you, and not for others around you, you will reach a new height of happiness you’ve never experienced before.

-B