The Golden Sparkly Handcuffs

You can’t make money being a yoga teacher.
 
How are you really going to get clients?
 
You’re gonna be a yoga teacher, isn’t that like the new “I am an actress”?
 
What about your 401k?
 
You’re not just going to be able to buy what you want when you want.
 
You can’t actually make a living doing that.
 
But you are going to have to work on the weekends.
 
What about insurance?
 
The market is soooo oversaturated.
 
You know this means no more fancy vacations.
 
And Brian is cool with this?
 
I thought you liked your job!
 
But aren’t you making really good money doing pharma sales?
 
Are you sure this isn’t just a phase?
 
These are the voices of well meaning humans and the voices running through my head disguising themselves as smart and innocent and right as I grapple with my golden handcuffs. Actually mine are more like sparkly, rhine-stoney, multicolored handcuffs and they were on tight.
 
I felt chained to a career that was “acceptable”, one that was a clear path to the “american dream”, one that people responded with “ooohs and ahhhhs and oh yeah I heard that is very lucrative, good for you”.  I was cuffed to a job that I was really good at, that wasn’t really that bad but that wasn’t what I was meant to do. It was definitely not my purpose or dharma or calling or passion.
 
So after too many mornings waking up unfulfilled, too many days pretending that I was making a real contribution, and too many nights denying the one voice that really mattered, I decided to stop listening to the ‘other’ voices.
 
Slowly but surely and on MAJOR PURPOSE my handcuffs began to loosen as I listened to the voices that said, “yes you can make money, who cares if they say it is oversaturated, this is your dream, your calling, your purpose - go get it baby!!”  
 
I deliberately chose to only and exclusively listen to the supporters and the cheerleaders around me and ignored the naysayers over and over and over again until I believed in my bones that this was the right choice and only choice.  I believed so wholeheartedly that this was my path. Getting here wasn’t a cakewalk and was super uncomfortable sometimes (I can still remember sobbing to my mom in the middle of the Trader Joe’s dried fruit aisle).
 
But continually, consciously, choosing to believe a new belief (even when my brain was really holding on to the ‘other voices’) led me to from golden handcuffs to the pot of gold. So ultimately when I had my new life plan ready to go and it came time to say my goodbyes to the corporate car and bonuses and presidents’ clubs it was as if the golden handcuffs slid right off.