2 Years Since Full-Time Employment.
The other day it dawned on me that it had been full years since my last day of full-time employment. I was on a drive to present my culture videos to a rapid-growth startup.
At the 71 interchange, the sunrise exploded through the clouds and I saw Ohio’s crown chakra. God bathed everything in light, every bit as gorgeous as my beloved California.
Then it further dawned on me…
Vocation comes up for just about every coaching client (so pay attention).
When you’re navigating personal transformation, it’s not enough to want circumstances to change. It’s also not enough to push against, or resent your current circumstances. You have to find the love and acceptance in embracing what YOU chose. I only ever loved and respected my corporate employers.
My last gig at Centro found me saying on an almost daily basis: “I can’t improve on working for Shawn Riegsecker, and within (Centro’s) amazing culture. So from here on in, I’m working for myself in the service of all organizations.”
You need a blazing vision to pull you toward it, versus the delusion that you can outrun some demon you keep watching over your shoulder. Nothing and no one is holding you back but your mindset. Your “toward” vision needs to outshine your “away from.”
None of what I practiced in exiting the corporate chapter of my career was bullshit. Ask anyone: I believed this stuff until I emanated it.
If you want to bend time, influence, or bend the entire universe to your will, it’s not gonna happen through resistance. You will drag what you hate around like an anchor on an anklet. You’ve gotta LOVE and EMBRACE the bridge you are on. (And all of us are always on a bridge of our making).
You want to write books? Teach and consult? Lead retreats? Be healthier at 40 than you were at 20? Get paid to meditate and run the trails? Break up your workday/playdate with cannonballs and wear wet trunks on coaching calls?
You need to achieve Escape Velocity.
I don’t buy into the need to escape any current, oppressive circumstances that were of our own making. I’m talking about creating a strong current of goodwill, and undeniable bodies of proof, and work.
Call it a side hustle, but in my experience it’s only ever been about being Who You Are Wherever You Are. Create the content of your life and work until it’s so deeply integrated, your employers and clients can’t tell where your work ends, and where you begin. Until you become The Content. Pretty soon all circumstances lovingly shuffle you onward, upward, outward cuz homie, you don’t belong here.
The only clock that’s driving you crazy is in your head. Chill out and enjoy the process of becoming. Try your best to overserve, and love everyone while you wait.
Exit 186 off 71 South, just past Grandpa’s Cheesebarn, is my former “office.” I’d stop at this “Goasis” religiously on my biweekly trip to Columbus or Cincinnati. I’ve brought many coworkers here. Closed many media deals at this Starbucks, ate far too many shameful tacos at this Taco Bell. Many laughs, many stressful client calls, always fighting the clock.
Today I’m well aware how far I’ve traveled since I last worked here.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
What bridge could you be standing on right now?
