You might want to read Part 1 first where I cover how to decide what path to take and how to get to a point of knowing what’s next. This post is for once you know what you want to do and covers some of my personal process and what I’ve learned in the last couple of years. 

Finances

Ugh, the big one, right? For most of us, this is the step that prevents us from following a new path or feeling trapped in a career that we don’t enjoy because it offers financial security (I’ve very much been there). Take some time to be really honest with yourself about your expenses, your lifestyle and how much money you realistically need. I’d worked in law for eight years before I changed course so I’d had a good financial grounding and definitely enjoyed some aspects of a lawyer salary! 

Money and finances are a really tough subject because we live in a society which isn’t open around money. One look at my favourite online reading material, Refinery 29 Money Diaries, shows how contentious conversations around money and spending can get. 

My first tip with finances would be to get organised before you make the leap. Two years before I left law firm life behind I started to up my savings and be realistic about what I really needed money-wise to be happy. It’s easier to explore this while you’re still on a higher salary than to tell yourself that you’ll cut back when you’ve already changed paths. Putting good practices in place while I still had a stable income gave me the space and time to really work though my relationship with money. I stopped buying fast fashion, paid off my debts and tightened up my budget for discretionary spending. 

I thought that this would be something I’d struggle with but as soon as I knew I wanted a different type of life, it became easier and sometimes a fun challenge to be more disciplined with my spending. I was no longer tempted by shoes, handbags and yet another lipstick when I had bigger goals. 

My second tip would be to explore your limiting beliefs around money. In my twenties I strongly believed that “money makes me happy” and that it was impossible to make money from something I enjoyed. I viewed money as a compensation prize for doing something I didn’t enjoy, rather than as an exchange of energy. My course with IIN covered financial literacy (from the viewpoint of a small business owner and as a tool for coaching clients) and finances are part of the school’s “circle of life” tool. Seeing money as part of a bigger picture and not my sole reason for being really helped tackle my own mindset about money. As did opening up my circle of friends and contacts and meeting a lot of people who did make money doing something they enjoy!

Networking 

Something I used to dread as a lawyer but something which I now absolutely love! Networking doesn’t stop once you start on your new path, but I promise it’s a lot more fun… 

Before making the leap I got to know as many yoga teachers as possible, getting a really good idea of what their lives were like. I’m really grateful that my teachers were so honest with me about the good and the bad and that they were so supportive. Now that I’m teaching I use networking to spread the word about what I’m doing and, of course, to find new students. When I lost my full time teaching job as a result of lockdown, I pushed myself to tell my network (both my real life friends and Instagram community) what I was doing with my online teaching and quite quickly I went from having one online student to twelve. 

Self promotion is still not something I’m comfortable with but I’ve never felt like I’ve had to be “sales-y” or really push what I’m offering. Just putting myself out there and sharing what I do has meant that I’ve attracted students without feeling like every post I make on Instagram has to say “hello please take a yoga class with me!”.

Evolving

We’re forever changing and yet we expect our ambitions and passions to stay the same. Using yoga as an example, I know plenty of people who embarked on a yoga teacher training wanting to teach yoga and actually decided that the teaching aspect wasn’t for them but that there was something else closely related that became their new path. Even those who I know who teach yoga full time have changed course in the last few years, especially after 2020… 

Know that it’s ok to change your mind, to explore different options and that the days of us taking a job at 22 and staying in that company and industry for 40 years are long, long behind us. I love the thought of a life spent trying different things and having many careers (this comic always makes me smile). I know I’ll always love teaching but I have so many other future dreams and visions too and maybe some I’ll get a chance to fully explore and others I’ll just dip a toe in here and there.

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I feel like each of these topics have been parts of small chats I’ve had with friends so it’s nice to draw everything together in one place. I hope that even one of these points gives you a little pause for thought or helps in some way. 

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