If not now, when?

I have said, more than a few times since the start of this year, “the arrival of 2022 felt like stepping onto a moving sidewalk”.  Everything that had been on pause during the last two years of a pandemic world was suddenly available again and everything was moving quickly. Travel, education, career, and gathering were all possible again, and it seemed like it was all happening at once.

Time is marching on, my eldest is headed off to university, my career is transitioning and the world has re-opened. And I am being encouraged to contemplate the question, “If not now, when?”.

For the last ten years, I have made decisions about my career based on the needs of my family. I have blended being an educator, HR practitioner and leadership coach in a mosaic that met my need to do meaningful work, earn income and raise my two boys.  With the arrival of 2022 and the life transitions I mentioned earlier, I have the opportunity to offer more time and attention to my career than I have ever had before. 

Being self-employed is never something I had wanted for myself. I have always valued security and ironically I had never connected being self-employed with job security. Since 2012, I have always known that if there is something I am resisting doing or nervous of trying, it is the thing that I have to move towards. If I was finding that I was feeling nervous about being self-employed, then it was likely something that I had to try.  And 2022 presented me with an opportunity to do just that.

If not now, when?

Paid vacation time, paid sick days and medical benefits had provided me with what I was defining as security when these supports were what my life had needed.  But time is marching on and circumstances are changing. I can start to redefine security to mean betting on myself. Taking a leap of faith requires letting go of my need to control, getting more comfortable with uncertainty, and holding course when pulled by excitement for the future to arrive more quickly. It’s the feeling of wanting life to speed up and slow down at the same time.  Since January, the words patience and surrender have anchored me in the present when my mind was racing into the future or nervously retreating into the past. 

A few weeks ago, I courageously undid the final tether to being an employee and took the leap of faith to being fully self-employed. So far I’m enjoying the opportunities this change is offering. I still have moments of trepidation and nerves that I am managing by reminding myself about the future I am creating.  As always, I don’t know how this chapter of my life will unfold, but I know that I am being inspired by trying it out. 

If not now, when?

If there is something that you find yourself passionately thinking, talking or dreaming about wanting to do someday, ask yourself what is the first small step that you want to take toward making that someday your current reality. 

If not now, when?

By Adele Fraser, BA BED CPHR PCC IRG Associate Coach