I have resigned.  I wrote a resignation letter before Christmas.

It was accepted straight away.

It feels very scary and amazingly exciting.

I resigned so I can focus more on writing.

I wrote the letter to myself.

I have not resigned from teaching as I love working with A level students, they are fun, we all learn and I get a real sense of belonging from working within the lovely schools I am connected with.

However, something had to go as I was so tired and frazzled before the holiday that it wasn’t good and nor was it part of the plan. Love Being Me is meant to be the place where I get to love being me and instead it was becoming a stress and a drain.

Remember that blog about the Energy Life Map? Well that really shifted stuff for me.  I realised that so much that I was doing was not energising me.

  • What was draining you?
  • What have you changed to avoid the drains?

Sometimes we have to do things so we find out that we don’t want to do them.

So I have resigned (or at least, taken a sabbatical) from all the bits of Love Being Me that don’t completely light me up and fill me with energy.

  • What have you tried that you would now like to resign from?  It could be roles in the home as well as at work.

I was doing a crazy thing.  I was telling myself that if I could get only do X, Y and Z then I could create time to write.

I was also doing stuff in with mistaken belief that I had to do them so I got more readers so I had readers to to write for,  so that I can write.

Doh!  How back to front it that?

  • What are you telling yourself which might stop you resigning?

I have been creating roles and ‘to do lists’ which have in fact stopped me from getting on with all the amazing books and blogs in my head which have been patiently, and now impatiently waiting to be written.

So I’ve decided to take the short cut; just write.  Don’t worry about who, will read it, if anyone. Just write.

I am turning my boat downstream, with the current and I’m going to let writing steer as I look out for clues and adventures and things which interest me. Writing puts me in ease, it energises me, it is fun, it has always been part of my life.

Writing puts me in flow, it helps me see in more detail, it brings me into the present, it helps me understand what I am thinking and feeling and gives me a sense of connection and contentment.

  • What puts you in flow?

Thank you to Elizabeth Gilbert’s big Magic for helping me shift my thinking.

  • So how about writing that resignation letter to yourself now? 
  • What would you like to resign from in your domestic and personal life as well as your work life?

I used very formal language as I would for a resignation letter to an employer. This is how mine was structured:

  1. I started with; ‘To whom it may concern’,
  2. I then said ‘I am writing to resign from the following roles’  and I  listed all the roles I wanted to give up.
  3. I then appreciated all that I had learned from those roles but explained why it was that I wanted to give them up ie why they drained me.
  4. An optional bit that I  put in was my realizations about why I had carried on with these draining roles for so long.  For me it was because I was trying to please other people, because I thought I had to do the tough stuff before I did the stuff that puts me in Flow, because ‘I started so I’m going to finish’, and because I have invested time and money so felt obliged’.
  5. Then I went on to explain what I would doing with the extra time released from resigning from these roles.  In my case I’ve freed up time to write.  I explained how writing makes me feel.
  6. As the letter was drawing to an end I thanked all the people who have supported me in the draining roles – it is not their fault I felt drained and they did their jobs well.  I thanked the roles again summing up all that I have gained from them.
  7. As a conclusion I ended with a commitment to my new role.
  8. I signed off by wishing everybody well.

Of course you don’t need to follow this structure – it’s your resignation letter so write what feels right for you.

Enjoy.

Julie

If you enjoyed reading this please share it with friends. You might also be interested in talking to me about coaching , or maybe try some of my online courses (some are free), or treat yourself to a climate protecting pamper with vegan friendly, organic Tropic which supports the planting of forests and education in deprived areas.
Thanks for being here.
Julie