The last few months have been full of eye-opening moments.

“Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams

Somewhere throughout my traditional career, I lost passion for my job. This loss wasn’t because of the job itself but because of what I’m calling a systemic disease—that negative vibe that creeps into an organization and rots in from the inside out. Things like bad bosses, lazy co-workers, ineffective policy that empowers bad bosses and lazy co-workers, and all the other things that lead to workers doing the job to earn a paycheck and not for their passion or for the benefit of the client.

During my time within that environment, I repressed parts of myself and who I am—like pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit—in order to conform to expected norms and archaic standards. The last thing I wanted was to draw any of that harmful focus from the systemic disease at me as a person. It was challenging enough that the focus was on my work. However, parts of oneself shouldn’t be cast aside; those aren’t the pieces that don’t fit. It’s the systemic disease that doesn’t fit. In previous posts, I’ve shared the notion that when you can’t change the environment, perhaps it’s time to change the job.

With my career transition into the world of freelancing, an unexpected shift back to ME started. I had repressed parts of myself so deeply that it wasn’t until things I’d forced down or abandoned completely returned that I noticed how important they were to me. With the return of those parts of myself, I experienced a lightening of my soul and bursts of happiness. It was like finding a long-lost friend.

I remember people quoting comments like, “When one door closes, another door opens” and “A minor change can have a big impact” and etcetera and thinking to myself with skepticism and cynicism, “Yeah, right!” However, those comments are true. By taking one step forward, the changes—even the small ones—ripple out and create effects you might not have expected or thought possible.

“Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into the water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.” – Dalai Lama XIV

By Shari Marshall – 2023