Not long ago Anna, a MML reader, reached out to me and shared her story and I instantly knew that her experience might resonate with others who are looking to find and follow their purpose. What I love most about the journey is that she eventually took something that many would view as heartbreaking: losing her job, and turned it into the biggest sign to pursue what really mattered all along.

Enjoy!

Anna’s “Designed Life”

I originally started my blog last year because I wanted to help others maintain a healthy lifestyle through health promotion, health prevention, disease management, and health education. I have always been interested in health promotion and prevention since I started nursing school.  As my blog evolved, I became more interested in the body-mind-spirit-connection or holistic/alternative therapies.

At a young age, I have always had the desire to help others and became a nurse. Being an Intensive Care Unit nurse has its ups and downs.  I felt good when my patients survived a life-threatening disease and walked out of the ICU. On the other hand, I wept with the family when my patients died.  After being an ICU nurse for 6 years and not being able to save lives, I was burned out from the nursing profession. I wanted to get out of the bedside.

Instead of pursuing a less intense specialty, I discovered Nursing Informatics (or Healthcare Information Technology). At the time, I was really interested in computers and taught myself HTML and other software programs. The starting salary lured me in and quickly enrolled in the program. My ego got in the way and I became unaware and unconscious of my reason for being on earth.  I had forgotten my interest in health promotion and prevention.  I became only interested in making a lot of money and moving up the corporate ladder.

Four years ago, I woke up.  I re-evaluated my life because I became tired of the corporate rat race.  At the time, I was a healthcare consultant.  I quickly grew tired of the consultant lifestyle: working 80 hours a week, traveling every week, staying in a hotel room, and eating dinner by myself.  It was a lonely and depressing lifestyle. I asked my boss if I could stop traveling and take local assignments. He said no. I quit my consulting job without having another one on the horizon.

During that time, I began a self-development journey where I read many personal growth and development books and attended many workshops.  I thought about the decisions that I made from the time I transitioned from being a nurse to an IT professional. When I was a nurse I worked for the same hospital for 6 years and since making the transition to the IT world, I held 4 different jobs. I kept searching for the perfect job because each job I had made me unhappy; whether it was the salary, my boss, my colleagues, or the actual work itself was unfulfilling. Until I realized it was my career that was making me unhappy, not the job or the boss.

During my awakening, I thought my purpose in life was to help others realize their dreams by becoming a life coach.  I enrolled in life coaching school. More than halfway in the program, I realized that helping others through life coaching was not my primary purpose and only a part of it. I felt there was something more but I did not know what that something was.

I eventually found a new job. Three years ago, I made a promise to myself that I will stay in my job until I knew what my purpose is. My current position bought me time to attend life coaching classes and finish.  I finished life coaching school last December but did not start my life coaching business because at that time, I loved my work and had no reason to start a business.

Two weeks ago, I found out the hospital I work for planned on eliminating my department and everyone’s job.  By November of this year, I will be out of a job. I believe we live in an abundant Universe that supplies us with all our needs. I never became angry but saw this as a sign that this is the time to take action. It’s the Universe’s way of giving me a wake-up call.  At around the same time, I read a nursing magazine with an article about nurse practitioners and what they did.  Imagine my surprise when the job description of a nurse practitioner matched the reason of why I originally started my blog.  NP’s focused on disease prevention, health promotion, health education and counseling.   For the past 3 years, I thought about attending nurse practitioner school but always shrugged it off.  I wanted to finish my coaching classes or it was never the right time to go back to school. I would find many excuses not to enroll.

I believe in synchronicity and there are no accidents in the Universe.  Every day, signs cross my path.  After I found out my department will be eliminated, I received an email for a nurse practitioner program open house and saw that they offered a degree for adult and holistic health.  I signed up for the open house right away.  Last week, an unknown caller left me a message. It wasn’t a message at all but in the background I heard a heart monitor and sounded like someone was helping a patient because I heard faint voices and medical jargon.  I took that as another sign.  The Universe is always giving us signs. It’s up to us to acknowledge them.

All this time, I really knew my purpose but never listened to my soul.  Until I started listening to my soul and de-cluttered my mind, I realized my purpose is to be a primary care provider for patients with chronic conditions or diseases utilizing holistic treatments/methods/therapies.  It took me awhile to realize my purpose but in the end, my purpose found me.