Everyone loves a good comeback story.
I have lived one.
Four years ago, I was bullied, lost my job, and lost my self-esteem. I was just plain lost.
Until that point, my life had been fairly smooth sailing, with consistent promotions, plenty of material wealth, great family, and not much in the way of tragedies or hardship. Reflecting back on my former life, it was a good life, but not a blessed life.
The setback was the beginning
I wallowed for a while after losing my job, feeling depressed and hopeless. A particularly insensitive and cruel person from my workplace told me that I would never be what I once was.
That unkindness created a spark in my soul that told me kindness would be key to my comeback.
I knew I wanted to help others who were bullied like me in the workplace. I started to focus on finding other people who had similar experiences. When I heard their stories, it inspired me to write a book to help people survive traumatic work experiences.
Knowing that I have a love of writing and helping non-profit organizations, I launched my own business through my local Chamber of Commerce. The focus of my business is on non-profits — assisting them with marketing and fundraising. In my first year, I made a nice profit and built a community of collaborators and artists whom I work with on a regular basis.
When I was in the midst of my stressful workplace experience, my health suffered. With the more time to concentrate on developing a healthier lifestyle, I lost thirty pounds through yoga, pilates, walking my dog, meditation, and intermittent fasting.
Creating a comeback
Here are some of the steps I took to create my comeback:
Network. I turned to my tribe and found as many friends and colleagues as I could to help sort out what I wanted to do. They gave me good things like advice, referrals, connections, and even bought the coffee for our conversations. This was invaluable.
Journaling. I wrote all my thoughts, dreams, and plans down in my journal. I wrote myself encouraging notes when I felt depressed. I wrote every idea I had down so I could refer to it when I needed it.
Nature. I got outside. Nature became my cathedral and sanctuary. I walked miles with my dog, talking to him about my ideas. I rode my bike, breathing in all the fresh air to clear my head. I simply stopped to look around to appreciate everything around me, and it always made me believe everything would be okay.
Health. The more I moved and ate healthier, the better I felt. Each day became a new, fun challenge for how I could be healthier than the day before. There were definitely days when the only thing that seemed to work was a donut, but I let it happen instead of beating myself up, and then the next day I kept going with my healthier plan. Feeling better gave me the confidence I needed to push forward.
Community. Whether it was finding free resources locally to start my business, or going online to meet people who shared similar experiences, the importance of community cannot be understated for helping to define goals and building support.
Today, I can say that I am truly living my best life.
I have a successful book and online presence that helps people get through workplace bullying. My business is thriving, and I get to help worthy non-profit organizations achieve goals that benefit many people. I just had my annual physical, and I am the healthiest I have ever been in m life.
Through it all, my family and friends were my support system. Even when I thought I lost everything, I didn’t. Not even close.
Living this blessed life with a new perspective is why my comeback was stronger than my setback. Sometimes setbacks are really resets. It is the universe telling us to reassess the path we are on to find our true purpose in this life. That is how I view my experience. It was hard, but valuable. And in the end, I am grateful for all of it.
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