The feeling we get in our gut. That little voice that tells us something is right or wrong. Our intuition is more often right than wrong, especially in regards to things we have experience in.
The feeling can come up when we see a situation or person that doesn’t feel right. Something just feels off.
It can also show up in a bigger way—our relationships, our work—when we know that the path we are on isn’t the right one.
These are bigger decisions. Bigger impacts on our day-to-day lives. We need to make a living, and most of us want to be in a relationship. The fear of being alone. The fear of not being able to pay our rent or mortgage. These are all real challenges we have to deal with.
The comfort of a W-2 and a steady paycheck makes it hard to take the “leap” and go start something on our own.
How many people have stayed put in a job or relationship based on fear of loss? It’s a strong emotion.
I remember working at Wegmans fresh out of college. I was an assistant manager in the produce department. At one point I thought I’d be a store manager. In reality, I didn’t really know what I wanted at 23 years old. Heck, I may not at 39.
One day on my day off, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to work there anymore. I drove 20 minutes, parked my car, and brought in my resignation letter. I was wearing a Nike tracksuit (green top). I remember sitting down in the café and telling my immediate manager I was done. It was a pretty surreal moment. The store manager saw us sitting down and came over. He seemed a bit in disbelief.
There was no plan. I moved back home to Rochester into the bedroom I grew up in. I reached out to a vendor we did business with—Red Jacket Orchards—and told them I could help them with social media. I wrote them a business plan on how I would use Facebook to help boost their business. They took a shot on me, and I ended up going back into Wegmans and selling their juice.
Action led to change. Just taking one step. Then another.
It was social media back then. This time around, it’s AI. Anytime there’s a new tool in technology, it sprouts opportunity for those willing to learn.
Many people have resistance to change. Yet, everything continues to change. It’s the one constant in life.
That one decision I made walking into Wegmans changed the trajectory of my life.
Funny thing is, as much as I wanted to leave Wegmans at the time, I grew to appreciate it more and more as the years passed.
Turns out most of us adults don’t really know what we are doing—just making it up as we go.
Wegmans had systems and processes in place, and leadership that, for the most part, made great calculated decisions.
If you’re feeling stuck, you don’t need to hand in a two-week notice tomorrow. But you can probably take some sort of action—working nights and weekends on the thing you love. Creating content. Putting your work out there. Your “work” can be as simple as your thoughts.
Before I sat down to write this, I had no idea what I wanted to talk about today.
You don’t have to have the answers.
Just take one step.
Then another.
