Hello Reader,

Wheeew.

What an absolute start to the year. To say it’s been a roller coaster ride would be an understatement.

A few weeks ago, I got laid off from my job due to cost-cutting. And while it shocked me, it also confirmed something I’ve quietly known for months.

When I took that role, I already had passing thoughts I tried to brush away – a nagging feeling that I was delaying a deeper call. That maybe I was meant to jump fully into entrepreneurship… but I thought I wasn’t ready yet. So I stayed.

The feeling didn’t disappear. It just showed up as fear — fear of the unknown, fear of starting over, fear of failure. Those different forms of fear were oddly wrapped in a sense of okay-ness… like, if this happens, I’ll know this is the sign. And somehow, that felt like relief.

Still, I was hoping it would happen in my own time, in my own beautifully visualized way of exit 😂.

So today, I am not going to pretend I’ve figured it all out, but I want to share a few things I’m learning in real time.

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Our fears aren’t always wrong or working against us.

Some fears that creep up are gentle nudges to our soul, telling us to get the heck out of our comfort zone.

Our bodies seem to understand something our minds are still negotiating with.

And as I’ve been telling my coaching clients and as I’ve seen in this same situation: Fear is not the enemy — it’s a friend pointing us toward something waiting to be met with love, bravery, and acceptance.

Fear and excitement are the same thing sitting on the different ends of the spectrum. If we don’t feel any fear when doing something… maybe it’s not worth doing at all.

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The myth of stability (and why we cling to it).

Losing a job forces you to question everything you thought was secure.

Stability, I’m learning, is often just familiarity dressed up as safety. Control is mostly an illusion. And sometimes the thing we cling to for grounding is the very thing delaying our growth.

True safety doesn’t come from work — it’s built from trust in self, and in God.

When I lost this job, I saw the real situation of where my corporate career is right now… and how much I’ve already outgrown.

With God doing what I couldn’t bring myself to do — leave it for good — I suddenly felt the freedom to play with my life and career again, just like when I first decided to grow within the marketing field.

I put my life under a microscope and asked what actually needs changing. And I realized that in this season, I want real freedom: where I work, what I do, how I do it, and who I work with.

More than a job loss or career change, what I feel I’m gaining back is that version of me who once packed up her whole life, moved to another country, found a job, and explored.

With the illusion of safety removed — initiated by this job loss — I started feeling alive again.

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Learning to cross bridges instead of leaping

I’ve heard this story before. Almost every company owner I know — personally or online — has a termination story. While I planned a different path for myself, I honestly didn’t think this would be my journey too.

What I’m learning is that transition to a different career looks a bit more like crossing a bridge than the romanticized leaping.

Right now, that looks like staying open: exploring consulting work, having the freedom of time to actually build what I always wanted to focus on, and allowing this next chapter to take shape without forcing an identity too early.

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If you’re in a season where something feels shaky, uncertain, or unexpectedly ended, I hope that by sharing this, you find some normalcy… an okay-ness… or even reassurance in it.

Sometimes life simply removes the door so you finally step into the room you’ve been circling all along.

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And if you’ve been through a similar season, I’d genuinely love to hear what helped you — feel free to hit reply and share.

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Question For You This Week

Where are you choosing familiarity over alignment — and what is it quietly costing you?

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Here’s to endings that gently lead us home,

Dane ( ˘ ︶ ˘ )ﾉ♡