by Nathalie Molina
Last summer I decided to move to New York City. To say that my family and friends were surprised would be horribly inadequate. And in fairness, they had good reason for a little dismay. I had a beautiful life, a career, a home and a chosen family I’d painstakingly built over a decade. Whereas in my decision to move to Manhattan, I had little more than a strong conviction that something was waiting for me and a sense that I needed un cambio.
Before the move, a friend gave me the book U-Turn, countless people sent me articles about life changes, executive coaches and recommendations for books like What Color is your Parachute. It seems I had become that gringa loca, you know the one, the one that quits their job and goes to live in an ashram somewhere, eliciting both wonder (in friends) and confusion (in family) for having the courage (or insanity) to quit the rat race.
But I didn’t quit.
All I did was turn up the volume. In fact, I would argue that few of us really take “U-turns” in life. I suspect that if you look a little closer, people are more consistent than they appear. While outwardly, she who escapes to the ashram or up and moves to Manhattan appears to be taking an impetuous leap of faith, I’d posit that most of us are just doing a little course correction. In my case it was a realization that somewhere along the line, I’d veered away from my strengths and into the uninspired.
I’m in international business, a long-time veteran of the globalization trenches. But if you look a little closer, you’ll see I’ve spent my life and my career telling stories. I’ve worked daily with people from every continent and my successes have come from using stories to build cultural bridges and translate ideas (likewise my failures, from when I didn’t). So when I made a change, it involved removing the unnecessary and turning up the volume on things I care about most, especially the business of telling stories. That required getting clear on what really matters, which ultimately meant selling everything, moving to NYC, pitching my story to Columbia University and as of this month, becoming a Theatre student.
I’ll always be a business person. But to grow and develop my skills I needed to go where the masters go, and it didn’t take long to see that my storytelling gurus don’t live in the business world. What may look like a crazy U-turn is actually a perfectly logical continuation of a life’s work. It just requires you look deeper and let go of your preconceived images of what life is supposed to look like.
What’s your life’s work?
Whatever it is, here’s my advice, share it. Trust me, ideas and stories develop when you set them free.
To learn more about Nathalie, visit Global Misfit.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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Adelante Mujer!
