A couple of years ago around this time I lost a big client. They gave me 1 days notice just before Christmas that the work (and income) was gone.
That was a time when I was still balancing being a freelance writer with my growing coaching practice. It was my last writing client but made up a lot of my monthly income. When you’re building a business like coaching there can be months of real leanness – and when they suddenly terminated that relationship I was already in one of them. So it was HARD.
Losing your job is hard – but can sometimes lead to better
Don’t get me wrong, it created huge financial challenges for me that could have been avoided if they’d done me the courtesy of even a month’s notice (after 7 years of working for them..). But, while I could see that wasn’t ok, something in my mind also said “Alex, it’s time.”
In the months that followed, as I tumbled into a financial hole and then had to build myself out of it, a clear truth emerged: if we don’t take decisions, sometimes circumstances (the universe, god, your unconscious, whatever you want to call it) take them for us.
Coaching is my passion
It’s what I do best. But I was behaving like a writer who coached on the side. The writing work was repetitive, poorly paid and the relationship was heavy with disrespect. But as long as I kept doing it, I didn’t have to face my fear of failure.
Because it was one thing to fail at something I moaned about (writing for them) – but to try and fail at my passion? I feared that would be heartbreaking. So I wasn’t really trying. Until I had no choice.
And now, at the end of 2024 I’ve had the best coaching year of my career. I’m so grateful to be free of that relationship and to have faced this fear. I can’t tell you how much less afraid of everything it’s made me.
I’d never wish the £ insecurity I experienced on anyone – it’s serious scary to be a single income household when a big portion of that income unexpectedly goes. Losing your job is a horrendous, powerless experience – especially losing your job at a time of year when everything is about to shut down for two weeks.
But I do hope everyone gets a chance to break through things like fear of failure and pursue what you really love.
Doing work you love is not just a nice to have. An extra. It’s you tapping into your strengths and talents in the most effective way. It can also be your route to the financial security and growth you might have believed could only come from something hard, boring and stressful.
Something to ponder over a mince pie if you KNOW that you’re destined for more than your current job.
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