January 2005: Quitting a Job That Didn’t Fit and Finding One That Did

My 29th birthday was right around the corner, I was single (and sad about it) and I was almost completely miserable in my job. My super-zen boss was on her way out of the company, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.

I needed to make a change immediately.

So I emailed an old freelance contact and tried to set up an escape route. I had a finite amount of money saved and knew if I could supplement it with freelance writing work, I'd be able to get by for a couple of months. Of course, I also dreamed that the freelance gigs would explode and I could turn that into my next career.

I quit my downer of a job and felt like a bird who'd been freed from her cage.

Because I had made a List describing the dream man I wanted to find in life, I decided to also make a dream job list.

One of the first steps in manifesting your desires is getting clear on what you want. 

I wrote it all down in my journal and then financial fear and worry took over as I scrambled to make ends meet doing writing projects and taking a job as a nanny.

By the time April hit, I was down to my last few hundred dollars. My birthday is in April and I was so tired of being stressed that I decided to turn it into a month of worry-free celebration. I made peace with the idea of getting another job (I decided to apply at a coffee house to fill in the gaps between writing jobs) and I opened myself back up to enjoying life.

I let go and let the Universe take over.

After a particularly positive and magical day spent at, of all places, Disneyland, I came home to find three messages from different recruiters looking to fill semi-permanent copywriting positions.

One of these was at Yahoo!, a company that had long appealed to me. I had friends who worked there, it was close to home, and I was fairly certain the pay would be good.

When I went in for the interview, I immediately liked the people on the team. "Smart, fun coworkers" was one of the top priorities on my Wonderful Job List. Then I found out the salary and was bowled over—it was more than twice what I had been making at my previous job.

All my instincts pointed to GO and I felt so certain that not only would the job be an ideal fit for me, I would be an ideal fit for it.

They hired me the next day on a three-month contract. After that, another contract was extended, followed by a fulltime permanent position and six years of pretty consistent joy over working for the company.

I don't think it's coincidence that a job with all my criteria came to me as soon as I started allowing the Universe to handle things. Allowing is a huge part of manifesting.

The unexpected benefit of getting into this new job was that it put me in a place where I was happier in my life—and that made me more attractive in the dating world. Double score.