Taking the Plunge Gets Real

I wanna get real with you guys about this whole career switch. I don't know how others have felt going through a transition like this, but for me, its exciting, empowering, and absolutely terrifying all at the same time...

I want to share my real feelings about it all in the hopes that someone else who's terrified to follow their dreams might feel like they can despite the fear... and to remind myself of that fact as well! Hopefully I'll look back on this post one day when I'm all settled into a career and and be able to proudly say, "I made it!"

Why is this on my mind right now, you ask?  Last week, I finally gave notice at my engineering job to pursue design full time.  I have one more week, only ONE MORE WEEK! Yay!  That's just thrilling.  From then on I will no longer be "part-time engineering/part-time design assistant," I'll just be an interior designer! Technically, a freelance interior design assistant, but I have some prospects on the horizon, so there's a possibility that I'll have some work of my own.

This is all such great news! And sometimes I think... "I can do this! I'm going to be awesome!" and then I start thinking of all the little things I'll have to do to get a professional business up and running, and my lack of experience in real-life design, and the fact that I've just started school again  which is also a lot of work and, and, and... and I totally get down on myself and feel incompetent. I'm guessing I'm not the only one with feelings like this. So I'm giving myself positive reminders to keep me going.  Here's a great one my mom told me about recently...

My mom saw Sara Blakely, inventor of Spanx, speak a while back and told me that she largely attributed her success to a philosophy of failure that her father instilled in her at a young age. She said her father would often ask her each what she failed at that day, which changed her perspective to view failure as a positive thing because that meant you'd tried.

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I'm usually so afraid of failure so this is a new and amazing concept for me.  What a great thing to keep in mind when trying something new. So if I fail, I'll buy myself an ice cream cone, pat myself of the back and say "good for trying, Genevieve! No get up and try again, so we can have more celebratory ice cream!"

Source: Dear Lizzy