On Tuesday morning coffee dates and realising there’s another way 💫

It was 9.30am on a Tuesday morning and, after having spent a few hours already working on a few bits from home, my boyfriend and I set off on a walk into town to grab coffee together.

It was one of those beautiful autumn-winter mornings, with blue skies and that crisp, cold weather that calls for getting all wrapped up in your winter hat, lots of layers and your favourite cosy coat.

It was quite possibly my perfect morning.

Five months ago, however, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the weather or go for coffee at 9.30am when the streets - and coffee shops - were quiet.

I never imagined that this could be how I could be spending a Tuesday morning.

I had a full time job that required me to commute to an office that was 40 miles away and spend 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, committed to that job.

That was my life for the last 11 years and it was all I knew since I was 18.

It was what I thought I wanted.

It was what I was always told to strive for.

It was what I thought I had to do.

I thought that in order to be able to pay my rent and live a life I was happy with, I had to resign myself to the fact that the weekdays would never be my own.

My plans, goals and working towards my dream life? Well, that had to be reserved the weekend, right?

If there’s one thing I took away from my last job, it’s to never take “no” for an answer and that there’s always a way around. But, despite applying this to the many - many - obstacles we encountered in work projects, I never seemed to apply this theory to my personal life.

If I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure what changed. But what I do know is that I woke up one day and I realised I had to find another way. I had to find another way to take back my time and be more in control of my whole week, not just the weekend.

There was so much I wanted to do and achieve, so many things I wanted to experience and places I wanted to go. And it dawned on me that I’d never be able to do any of those things if I stayed in a 9-5, as the very thing I’d been told to strive for my whole life was now holding me back.

I started to really look around me and noticed that a hell of a lot of people I both follow online and know in real life, weren’t leading the 9-5 life but were still covering their bills and were happy doing it.

I’ve always been my biggest self-critic and again, being totally honest, I’ve always been my own biggest hurdle and held myself back because of the “I’m not good enough” narrative I would constantly tell myself.

I would tell myself that I wasn’t good enough to run my own business.

I would tell myself that no-one would pay me for my services.

I would tell myself that if I left the job I was in, I wouldn’t be able to get another job because I was too “niche”.

But finally, one day, I realised that if other people could do it, then so could I. I realised just how much experience I had and how qualified I was to finally take the leap and start my own business.

As soon as this realisation hit me, I couldn’t wait. I started visualising how I wanted my days to look and “acting as if” - as much as I could! - to give the universe a little nudge.

And then, the science-y part of visualisation started happening and I started to see so many different ways and opportunities for how I could really start designing my life the way I wanted it to be.

In the end, I decided to start my own business whilst pursuing a degree alongside it. My student loan gives me the security I need and the knowing that I can pay my rent and my bills each month, while I’m also able to grow my business alongside the 2 days a week at uni. As a bonus, I finally get the degree I’ve always wanted and can also start working towards lecturing one day, too.

As is the way most things have unravelled in my life, I’ve not taken the most conventional route. But, I cannot tell you how much happier I am since I started building and designing the life I really wanted, instead of following the life I thought I should.