Years ago, I was paralyzed making a HUGE decision in my life. I had been consulting in San Diego and traveling there for the past year and a half from Chicago. I had fallen in love with EVERYTHING San Diego – the beach, the biking, the slower pace, and so much more!
The project I was working on in San Diego came to a completion. The CIO said he no longer had the budget for me to be a consultant though he would love to take me on full time. The choice was to stay in Chicago as a consultant or take a corporate position San Diego.
Often people weigh the pros and cons of the choices in front of them.
The first choice of Chicago came with pros such as a consulting job that paid well, clients lined up for years, the freedom of working for myself, I had just redone my condo and the new furniture had literally just arrived (which is a whole different story), and lots of friends since I had been living there for years. The cons were Chicago winters and it never felt like home.
The second choice of San Diego came with pros such as sunshine, easier access to nature, and it felt like home the minute I walked off the plane a year and a half earlier to see the harbor lined with sailboats and palm trees with a backdrop of crystal clear blue sky. The cons were that I had to build a new community, a 50% pay cut, a cost of living increase of a conservative 30%, and I had vowed never to go back to the corporate life.
The CIO was gracious enough to give me time to think it through and I wrestled with the decision for months. I made lists of pros and cons. I talked with people who knew me best. I made more lists. I had more conversations. Yet the answer was still not clear.
With much trepidation, I finally decided to take the corporate job and move to San Diego.
I now see what I did not see back then. More choices. I was focused on the two choices that were given to me rather than creating my own choice and path. There was a third choice that blended everything I loved such as being a consultant in San Diego. I was limited in my thinking. No wonder it was such a hard choice! Neither choice was what I really wanted.
I do see how blessed I am that I was wrestling between these two choices as opposed to ones that are more challenging or traumatic. The purpose though is to illustrate to you where you may be limited in your thinking. The purpose is to help you use a little creativity to design something more aligned with your heart.
Where are you struggling to make a choice?
Is there a third choice that may make the decision a SHELL YES?
It is easy for us to get stuck in our thinking unless we challenge ourselves to think differently. My invitation to you is to find new possibilities. When you look for possibilities, that is exactly what you will find.
If you would like support in the process, let me know. I am launching my next coaching group this April that will be a community of like-minded people creating new possibilities in life. The results have been wild with people writing books, moving across country, and finding more love for themselves right where they are. Click here to learn more:
Ultimately, I believe life happened just as it was supposed to for me. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my life in San Diego. I used the corporate position as a stepping stone to where I am today in a career that is so meaningful and rewarding. I also believe I had to go through that so I could be who I am, and be where I am, today. I have no regrets. I will, though, always be curious how much faster I might have gotten to this place of peace and joy had I known back then about the third choice…