By Paula Robbins
When I shared last week about my big career change year, 2007, there were so many other memories of that time that came to me.
I thought about the amazing synchronicities that made it so very clear I was going in the right direction. I thought about my name change. I thought about the fear of change and how my thoughts have so often created my reality…
Synchronicities are fun. So, let’s start with the ones that confirmed this big change as there were SO many…
First, there was the hypnotherapist I went to see, Debra Berndt Maldanado. I had gone to see her for weight loss (which is a completely different story for another day). I had no intention of discussing my thoughts of career change that I’d been praying about for over two years. She had come from a similar background in Corporate America and was now helping people as a successful and empowered entrepreneur. I had not even done one session of hypnotherapy, only the intake consultation, and I KNEW this was what I was going to do. In fact, the second I left her office, I began telling others that I had found my next career.
Then, there was the local school that had a new hypnotherapy training course beginning in just a few months, plenty of time to prepare mentally and financially for a very busy schedule.
Then, there was the money! I don’t know how many times I calculated it, but I could never figure out how there was the full amount of my tuition (and…some career change cushion) available in my bank account!
Let me not forget the owner of the physical therapy clinic I'd been working with for my ACL recovery, that had an open room, which he offered me to use at no cost as an office, while I was working with his team and also practicing with hypnotherapy client volunteers. I had FREE office space for almost two years!
These are amazing enough, but my favorite synchronicity story about my career transition came just as I’d completed most of my training. I had a legitimate legal business name and status in the State of Colorado. I had a few paying clients that I saw regularly on evenings and weekends, and it was time to take the leap and give notice.
I had barely hit send on my resignation email to my VP and my cell phone rang.
On the other end of the line was my dear friend, Joline Lenz. She was my boss many years prior and we hadn’t spoken in a long while. She was so excited that I answered, “Paula, I can’t believe I just dialed your number from memory, and I got it right!”
To give the depth of this moment, I have to share that I had known that leaving my job cold turkey was going to make for a really tough financial situation. I knew that I needed to find something part-time to manage the financial transition of leaving a very stable and sound income with benefits, to a state of the unknown. I trusted it, but knew, there had to be a cushion.
It was exciting to hear from Jo. Years prior, she had poked a little fun, and sometimes sincerely questioned, my spiritual and metaphysical ways. Often questioning if some of my ideas and thoughts had the place I'd so often given them in my career in Corporate America. And here she was sharing that she too has had some amazing spiritual insights and is starting her own new business!
And guess what she said next?
“You won't believe this, but I really need a part-time consultant.”
Seriously. This really happened… We both tell this story to people all the time as it was the perfect transition. I worked with someone that knew my work ethic and industry knowledge, and she only needed me for a year. And I only needed the gig for a year.
Talk about the path unfolding before you…
So, while the beginnings of this transition were full of challenges, the synchronicities were what made it possible to pass every test, to keep believing I was walking right. Some things happen that make you simply stop questioning things and just keep allowing the snowball effect to take place…
Now, about my name change. The short version is that I was divorced, still carrying my ex-husband’s name for my girls, my maiden name belongs to a man I don’t know, and the family name of the woman that loved me more than anyone else in my life belonged to my Grandmother, Dorothy Robbins. So, I changed my last name to Robbins in her honor and for the sake of feeling like I had a name that truly suited and belonged to me.
As for the fear… Just one more story…
It was December of 2009 and I’d just signed a contract for my first paid office space. It was a one-year agreement and I had very few regular clients. As I left the contract signing meeting, one of my dear friends that had been walking closely with me as I was making these changes, called me. She called to congratulate me on this big step and asked me how I felt having an official office space that was all my own.
I was overwhelmed and honestly, really freaked out, “I’m terrified!” I told her. “I have next to no clients, a new huge bill to pay, and no idea how I’m going to make this fly.”
And I loved her response. It was as eye opening as they get… “Excuse me, who is this!? Is this Paula Robbins that I’m speaking to?” It caught me off guard, as she knew who it was, she called me!
But she went on… “Who is this stranger focusing on lack?!” I understood now… “The Paula Robbins I know focuses on what is right in the world and she is manifesting amazing things.”
Two things happened in that moment. First, I realized that she was right, I was focusing on lack and this hadn’t been my nature for a long time. Secondly, it was a beautiful wake up call to remind me that if I focused on abundance, on what is possible and on how to really use this new space, I was going to be very busy!!
I had a blessing ceremony right away and spent my first few weeks in that space with very specific visualizations and meditations of seeing a golden rainbow around my office door, seeing several clients walk in, seeing them heal and transform from the inside out. I visualized how we were to shake hands and hug one another because of that healing. I saw my calendar just filled with appointments and meetings and collaborations, and so it was, it has been and it is…
I’ll leave you with this.
Transforming your life isn’t easy. There is a requirement to make many changes. You have to outstretch your comfort zone and find faith in a “new world”. And if you find that new world calling you, those whispers of the what-could-be drawing you in, follow them. Find the trust and faith in the unfolding of things, and in yourself, and more than anything, allow it.
I promise you will be amazed before you are halfway through…
