This week’s podcast guest underwent a “gradual awakening,” by asking herself if she was “Working to live or living to work?”
She was a successful corporate recruiter in England and literally left that job and her entire life to move to Colorado and become a “cowgirl.”
No joke.
It’s a great interview with a compelling story for doing work that feeds your soul.
Tara is our fourth guest on The Great Resignation Uncensored, and the more of these conversations we have the more we see a connecting thread emerging, namely that those who have left the traditional workforce have made a conscious decision for their lives to no longer be about money.
We talked about the fear of leaving a high paying corporate job, which I could relate to, as the fear of losing a stable income held me back for quite some time. Tara had a life-long love of animals and the outdoors, which is what ultimately lured her away from the prescribed life of work, career, and money. She said, “I’m a great believer in feel the fear and do it anyway.”
I asked her about her doubts, and she expressed that her family said, “‘Are you crazy? You’re leaving a highly successful well paid corporate job to go and be a cowgirl.’”
But she did leave, moved to the U.S., and took seasonal work as a ranch hand, a wrangler, and a front desk manager at a ski resort in the winter months. She worked long hours, no doubt as much or more than she did in the corporate world, but she had great fun doing the work she loved.
I’ve been reading about the “Lying Flat” movement in China, which is their version of the Great Resignation. Many Chinese people are rejecting the “996 Work Culture,” which refers to the practice of working 9 to 9, six days per week. They are rejecting the cultural conditioning of working hard, making money, getting married, and having children, to merely lie flat and do nothing.
This is not just a U.S. thing, it’s global, and reflects a gradual shift in culture taking place. Tara went full on with her life change, traveling around the country taking seasonal work and having a blast doing it.
Then she met her husband and had a child. Tara and family are neighbors of ours. We buy eggs, and homemade soap from her. Which is how we came to know her and learn of her story. She works continuously on her small farm and loves her life. She shared that, “Once I had made that decision, it was like peace just kinda’ washed over me . . . I knew that my heart just felt happy.”
As she herself said, “It’s not for everyone.” Referring to the rugged life of a homesteader in the New Mexico high desert.
So far, we’ve interviewed an academic, a corporate sales pro, an HR pro, and Tara a successful corporate recruiter. These are successful people. They’re not washouts. They are people who yearn for more meaning and have taken the risk to find it.
If you know of anyone who may make a good candidate for The Great Resignation Uncensored, please send them our way. We look forward to sharing more stories of courage and change.
EP 4. Working to Live or Living to Work