By Heather Hayen Featured Rebel Inspired January 3, 2019

Start

before

You’re

Ready

ONE WOMAN’S STORY ABOUT
FOLLOWING HER DREAMS

November 2018 was one hell of a weird month. It started with my first weekend of training to be a Registered Yoga Buti Yoga® instructor, followed by my decision to resign from my “career”, which ended with me being fired from my fitness job (“I was not a good fit.”). So yeah, WTF happened? Perhaps more importantly, why was I inspired and not freaking out when I had less than $500 in the bank and minimal projected income?

Start before you’re ready

I’ve heard this a million times and I never really understood what it meant. What does it mean to “start before you are ready?” Isn’t it important to prepare? I wondered about that as I took the leap to leave my teaching career, which made me insanely miserable, physically and emotionally depleted, and with no energy left to pursue the things that drive my passion. I remain passionate about the value and importance of education, but after just three years of teaching I was SO over it.

My Low Point:

Everything I believed in about education had changed. I started to understand and respect parents who chose to home school their children. I started to hate the things I once loved and every day I became more and more frustrated with the entire educational system. Additionally, I was overworked, financially broke and in need of two or three jobs to supplement my income. Most importantly, I was miserable.

I left work every afternoon wanting to face-plant into my couch and do nothing. The urge to feel fulfilled by my life keep tugging at my heart.

Thankfully, I had my Buti Yoga® teaching schedule to bring some joy into my life and keep me off my couch. Fitness and health have always been two driving forces that interest and motivate me.

It’s ironic, given that my weight has always been a struggle for me and I can so easily slide into inactivity, that my strongest interest in life has become fitness and health.

Although perhaps it makes sense since often it seems that whatever we are obsessed about often correlates with our most distinct passions. The more I taught Buti Yoga™ and the more I explored health coaching, the more I wanted to spend my days in the Health and Wellness field. But my self-doubts and lack of confidence kept creeping into my head and holding me back.

When I started this new school year, I just felt sad every day going into my “career”. I had taken the job to be responsible, get health insurance and have paid vacations.

It was by definition “a secure career”, but it was still “just a job” and I wanted to LIVE LIFE.

My Turning Point

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to realize how time is finite. If there is only so much time and zero guarantee of it (“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”), I realized the value of making every damn day count! So, I decided to do just that! I found a job in the Health and Wellness industry, gave up my insurance and left my comfortable teaching position (with two weeks’ notice, of course!).

Where I Am Now

It is now two months later. I have been planning on writing this post about Starting Before You’re Ready and “creating the life you want” since I resigned, but I have been so busy studying for my yoga RYT and my personal training certification. I’ve also been trying to figure out ways to help people as a health coach and, if I am being honest, working at a very mediocre fitness job to make ends meet. I just didn’t have time until now, because that mediocre job fired me, and now I have time to write. And I’m okay with it.

Of course, I am in the scramble to find income sources, but I am happy with the choice to start before I was ready. If anything, I think I am being pushed even closer to what it is that I want to do. I’m not advising everyone to quit their jobs. However, I am recommending that you start before you’re ready.

Start doing whatever it is you love even if you don’t feel prepared for it. I believe you will be happier every day if you just start now.

For me, I quit my job before I was ready to work in fitness. I thought I had some securities (e.g. a job), but I hadn’t finished my RYT training, and I hadn’t passed my personal trainer certification. I haven’t even created my website yet! On paper, I was most definitely not ready. But in my heart I was ready. Every day I could feel the call to leave my job, so I could pursue my dream and be forced to push myself out of my comfort zone.

So here I am today, writing to you as I take a break from my studying. I teach yoga class later today and I just returned from a weekend in Cleveland of yoga training. And guess what, I feel amazing! I am also delighted to be part of the Yogi Yoga Wear team as an affiliate marketer! I see where it is that I want to be, and I am aggressively pursuing my goals. Yes, I may not be ready, but that isn’t going to stop me.

Your Call To Action

What is it that YOU’RE waiting to do? There’s no better time to take a leap and try something new than the beginning of a new year! What are you waiting for? You don’t have to be “ready” to start your next adventure!

In the Rochester MI area?
Be sure to check out Heather’s Classes at:

Retro Fitness in Rochester
637 N Main St, Rochester, MI 48307
Mon 9AM
Tues 5:15PM
Wed – 9AM + 5:30PM
Thurs – 4:30PM + 6:45PM

Or her Hot Buti Classes at
Oakland University Rec Center
33431 Harper Ave, Clinton Twp, MI 48035