Stay Curious

I often hear “How did you find your passion?” or “When did you know you were meant to be a yoga teacher?”  First of all, I am not sure I was seeking it as much as simply in a state of curiosity and openness.  

Many of you know me as former real estate marketer...turned copier sales gal...turned Habitat for Humanity fundraiser...turned pharmaceutical sales rep. And many of you only know me as Yoga Teacher/Life Coach.  

I ended up signing up for teacher training because I was excited to learn more about yoga; I had NO intentions of teaching, or flipping my lifestyle upside down with a 180 degree career move.

But my world was rocked the very first time I stood in front of the room for a practice teach session. I thought “uh oh.” It felt like a non-negotiable deal had been made with the universe and it was clear as day that teaching yoga was something I HAD to do. I had an uncontrollable bee in my bonnet!

6 months after my 200 hour teacher training graduation, I sat at the kitchen table with my husband mapping out our official plan to make “The Transition.” We agreed we would need to save $x over a year's time in order to make the smooth transition from pharma sales to yoga teacher.

Literally one week later I learned that my company would being going through layoffs. I was actually crushed when I found out I wasn’t “chosen.”

One week after that, and to my delight, our president offered a voluntary severance for those that may be leaving within a year so others could keep their role. With both hands raised loud and proud, I took the severance.  

It was exactly the same number we had planned on saving. The Universe followed through on her end of the deal.

In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert says, (school report style! ha!) “Curiosity is a milder, quieter, more welcoming, and more democratic entity. The stakes of curiosity are also far lower than the stakes of passion. Passion makes your get divorced and sell all your possessions and shave your head and move to Nepal. Curiosity doesn’t ask nearly so much of you. In, fact, curiosity only ever asks one question: Is there anything you are interested in?”

Moral of the story is: curiosity lead me to yoga, then to teacher training, and ultimately to my passion. I found that once passion shows up it will continue to guide and lead you if you let it.