For the next 7 days I’ll be sharing one story a day about a woman who reached her turning point. I don’t believe there is a single “way” to transformation. There is only our own unique way, and only we can do the work necessary to achieve our own sacred success… 

We all have them: Those defining moments when the forces of head and heart come together with crystal clarity and we knowthat what we’ve been doing, or haven’t been doing, is no longer enough. For some of us it’s like standing at the edge of a precipice looking out at the vast open space beyond; for others it’s like standing at a fork in the road, looking left then right, but not moving because we can’t decide which road to take. Still others of us feel that nagging vibration in the pit of our soul that refuses to be silenced.

These moments are defining ones because it’s then that we realize we must make a decision: to jump; to turn in one direction or the other; to listen to the voice reverberating from some still small place within us. It’s then that we reach our turning point. That moment when we acknowledge the need to do something differently; to let go of something that’s holding us back and away; to step into the extraordinary life we glimpse on the other side.

 Carole’s Story

It’s 4:30 in the morning, the same time I got up each day for 27 years. What’s different is the reason I get up, and where I get up; well, really everything is different. For close to three decades I worked in the corporate world where early start times and long hours were the norm. My view was the still-sleeping city passing by in a blur as I looked out the window of the L-train that took me into downtown Philadelphia and my office on the 17^th floor.

Now my view is the gallery across the street from mine, on a winding stretch of road that dates back to the 1800s. It’s been six years since I walked away from the lucrative salary, the generous benefits, the exclusive club memberships and first class travel. Six years since I walked away from exhaustion, never-ending deadlines, meetings that ran one into the other, and too many nights in bed alone.

Throughout my career I had focused on just one dimension of myself to the exclusion of all else. I never married. I never had children. My life was my work. Period. I’d like to say there was a definitive crisis that led to my awakening, but it was more like slowly coming out of a dream. Subtle rumblings; moments I’d question my choices when I’d catch a glimpse of a mother laughing with her children; questions – always questions about whether I was living the life I wanted. For years I denied the rumblings. I refused to acknowledge the loss and the intangible grief I felt, focusing instead on the trappings of my material world, and the identity I’d carved out as a high-powered professional woman.

It was a difficult, but crucial lesson to learn that I am so much more than just one job, one role; that I am a multifaceted and complex person (as are we all) with an array of abilities and talents, all wanting to be expressed. When I at long last allowed myself to listen to the rumblings I learned it’s not an “either/or” life, it’s an “everything” life.

So I chose to make the commitment and focus my energies on bringing forth all the aspects of myself that I love and want to honor. I didn’t realize how one-dimensional I’d become. When I quit my job and began reintroducing myself to the world again I was astonished to realize how many people don’t live the corporate life – who have unique businesses, artistic products to sell, and a wealth of things to do. I felt like I’d come out of a trance and was seeing life in full, blazing color again after so many years of seeing it in black and white.

I looked back to when I was a child and thought about those things I loved doing – drawing, coloring, constructing masterpieces out of clay, sticks and paper clips. Where was that child who found such joy in creating? When had I stopped giving my imagination free reign?

Both my parents and the corporate world I lived in frowned on such right-brain thinking. It was seen as frivolous and distracting from the goals at hand. I had blindly accepted that dogma until one day, in my 55^th year of life, I put down my BlackBerry and picked up a paintbrush. Where I used to slash budgets with a stroke of a pen, I now create paintings with the stroke of a brush.

It wasn’t about “becoming” an artist – I had always been one. It was about letting her come out to play again. I had buried these traits, these abilities because they didn’t “fit” the life I lived, but in truth I was the one who didn’t fit the life I’d created. So I created a new one.

I’d love to know what those of you reading this blog post feel about you own turning point. Have you reached it? What was it like for you? Are you beginning to feel that rumble, that nagging restlessness that’s telling you a change is coming? Please share your thoughts and comments here as we explore then next 7 days of turning points.

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Are you a woman executive whose career is beginning to wear like a tight-fitting pair of heels? If so, this call is for you! There is still time to register for my free one-hour teleclass: “Your Turning Point: The First Step Toward Your Extraordinary Life Waiting for You” scheduled for January 12, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT. The only thing you need to commit to is 60 minutes of your time, and I’d love to have you be a part of the conversation and the journey.  You can learn more by following this link: http://www.evelynkalinosky.com/yourturningpoint.

Tagged as: authenticity, Business, Career, Career Change, Identity, Life, Professional Women, Transitions, Turning Point, Women Executives, Women Executives, Work