How I Used my 5 Step Roadmap to Start my Business

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In the last post, I shared a bit about what it took to leave my corporate position. Today, I’m sharing the full story with you because it perfectly illustrates the 5 step roadmap of aligned creation that everyone goes through when intending to do/be/have something. If you’re part of my Wednesday Realignment email series or in the Aligned Business Accelerator Facebook Group, these 5 steps will look familiar!

It all started with a New Year’s vision board workshop (as most good stories do). I held the intention and envisioned: What my life would be like when I left the corporate company where I currently worked. My intention was to leave on good terms with severance.

As I kept on showing up and having conversations with the powers that be in business, it was very clear they were not A) interested in me leaving and B) they weren’t going to reward me for leaving by providing severance.

What you should know about me… I can get a little bull-headed at times! I grasped the vision and intention so strongly, I could only see my way of leaving. Thus, I got very frustrated.

I had a hard time accepting that the company was rejecting my requests. And I’m sorry to say, I went into victim mode by telling myself I deserved to leave with severance. I was thinking, “My job has clearly ended and yet they’re trapping me here. They’re forcing me to stay and controlling the outcome by not granting my request for severance.”

I was holding on to these stories so tightly, it eventually caused so much suffering and frustration. Realizing that I was having manipulative conversations in which nothing definitively was decided (aside from “I had to stay there”), I recommitted to my intention, though in doing so, I knew I had to play by their rules.

After all, when you go through the 5 step process, you always have to listen for the next right step to appear. 

So, I told my company I would take an unpaid leave of absence. It was the only kind of leave I was eligible for, and while it was frustrating to take this without pay, I knew this would help me process through my next steps.

And wouldn’t you know, a funny thing happened during my leave. In that time, I surrendered and trusted in the steps that I was hearing. I spent some of my leave time planning my coaching training and officially started my business. I figured that I could always grow my business on the side until I got severance, but I surrendered to the possibility that I may have to leave without it.

When I went back in October, I did so without fully knowing what my next steps would be. Turns out, the universe brought on a management restructuring across the company when I took leave and three months later when I came back, the company had to downsize and get rid of management positions, mine included.

The day I returned, they asked if I wanted to leave with severance. (Did they forget all the meetings we had months ago? Of course I wanted to leave with severance!)

I was placed in the management restructuring, transitioned a few loose ends, cleaned up some things, and then I got to go home after a week. I was paid through the end of the year and they officially let me go in January.

During the year I tried to leave my job, I went through all stages of the 5 steps. I declared an intention and envisioned what my life would look like when the intention manifested in reality. I committed to what I had to do (ask to leave). Then, I showed up (asked for severance).

I see, clever friend, you noticed I’m skipping something. I didn’t reach the surrender piece of the 5 steps. I had to recommit to my intention (this time, it was to find creative solutions to get severance by taking a leave of absence), then show up and do the work (asking for a leave of absence, starting my businesses whether I knew if I’d have a full time job or not) and fully surrender to the possibility of leaving without severance.

Had I bull-headedly clung to the idea of leaving my way (when and how I originally envisioned all those months ago), I would have sucked it up and taken another job. At that point, I was committed to leaving, but also I wanted control of how it happened. It took me a while to get to full commitment, which, as you know from this post, looks like surrender.

Eventually, when I did surrender and stayed open to letting the universe help me play it out…  I reached the final step of the 5 steps and realized my intention.

Because I stayed open to different possibilities, the leave of absence emerged. It felt like the resonant next step. It was a huge gamble to take it and not be paid.. But that’s part of the surrender piece. And in that surrendering time, the restructuring came about and I was able to step away.

This is what happens. The 5 steps are not linear. It’s a loop taking you from commitment to show up and back a few times because you’re holding on too tightly to how you think it’s supposed to happen…and you don’t fully surrender.

But when you do finally surrender, trust that you’ll hear the next resonate step you’re supposed to take, and act on it, that’s when you align yourself with your intentions and create something amazing.

How has this loop played out for you? Do you notice any patterns here that you’ve taken yourself?

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