July 30th 2021 - This was the last working day at my full-time job exactly 1 year back.
The company where I served for 17+ years. The job which gave me the title of "Quality Expert".
It's been a year already!
I want to share my journey over the last year and the experiences that life gave me -
Thinking of leaving a corporate job that gave me quite a good identity and salary and doing something else was not something that came to my mind instantly. I had been thinking of that for quite some years!
I saw some of my friends, colleagues leave their job because they had to take care of kids, to take care of elderly parents, spouses' who took a transfer to another country or for many other reasons.
I had sailed through quite a few of them already in my life and had no really good reason to leave my job. One might ask, why that decision then?!
People who know me, know me as a person with several interests. I have a lot of hobbies and passions and work on my passion projects every now and then. This is what defined me and that is what Ramya likes and does. That is what gives me joy and happiness.
Software quality work did give me everything I wanted - money, status, title, identity and I really enjoyed leading projects from the quality front across geographical locations, but I must admit, happiness is at a different level when you work on passion projects without deadlines!
Over the past years -
Over the past years, I really never had time for any of my passions. I was so indulged in working in an agile world that my work life and personal life were always working in agile mode, sprint mode, deadline mode and timer mode. I had no time for anything nor for anyone, not even for myself.
I was wondering when will I ever have that time in my life. The answer was "I have to make time". How on Earth, can I make time when I am always on a deadline?
It was time to take a decision on what to do next in my life!
The best way was to hear perspectives from near and dear people on how they see my life and seek some advice from them. Many suggested that I work in parallel on passion projects so that I can make something big on that and then move completely to that. Not a bad idea I thought, I even tried that - but where was the time to work in that mode?!
So, I approached a coach.
Not knowing what I wanted from those sessions from a coach, I went with a blank slate.
The first question I was asked was: "Who am I?"
My reaction back then: I am a software engineer with XX+ years of experience..... etc. I literally vomited my whole resume there.
I never really wrote "Who is Ramya", I literally wrote what my job had defined me.
After a few sessions with my coach, I realised that somewhere I had lost myself into the trap of working full-time and had missed working on so many things that actually brought me joy.
This helped me re-discover myself and helped me set goals for my future.
I am really thankful to my husband for supporting me on the idea to seek support outside the family circle.
Looking now at a year back -
I started following a lot of other coaches and what they did in their life/careers which got me more interested in understanding what they offer - they help people set and realise their goals/potential. Wow! This is what my coach did to me and that is what I want to do to others.
I couldn't think of leaving my full-time job as it was giving me everything I needed. I started looking out for different kinds of jobs where I thought I could bring out the coach in me and help people.
Though I had several job offers, I preferred to take my coaching journey forward as this gave me a sense of joy. It was then that I realised that I wanted to study that and be good at that and learn it the right way.
My Achievements -
In the last year, I did 6 months of coaching certification from Symbiosis coaching and now I am a proud certified life coach. I help women in empowering themselves with self-confidence, up-level in their career, help them get better in time management and most of all help them in money management to ultimately seek financial independence.
I met so many coaches virtually and many people who wanted to connect with me. I am glad I was of help to them and could help them uncover their potential. This is happiness and this world brings me joy.
I launched my website: www.coachingbyramya.com where I offer 30-minute FREE get-to-know-you sessions and paid coaching sessions later on.
Connect with me here: https://www.coachingbyramya.com/connect
I launched two seasons of podcasts on Kannada Folk stories and Kannada folk songs called "KatheRamyaJothe". Listen to them here: https://anchor.fm/ramya-the-storyteller
I met so many of my relatives during weekdays whom I had not met probably in the last 4-5 years bringing back fond memories of my childhood spent with them.
I could do a phone call to my parents/relatives at any random time or they could call me anytime not thinking that I am in a meeting which otherwise was only to talk in the evenings after my office calls.
I read 40+ books in the last 1 year on self-development and leadership. My most recommended ones are: Siddhartha, The Seed, Ask and it is given.
I did many more things...
I NOW have time to do whatever I want to do.
I don't work anymore on only "agile". I do have a checklist of what I want to achieve. I do write future letters for myself on how I see myself a few years from now.
This is life, this is joy, this is happiness!
I must admit, I do miss the office life sometimes, I miss the people whom I interacted with daily, lunch-time walks, outings etc. Corona and WFH helped me with this transition. But, I know I am still connected to those people very well, I can go back to full-time/part-time work if I want to and I can talk to those people anytime... this is the power of TIME.
Cheers to the last 1 year and many more years to come filled with peace, love, caring, joy and happiness!
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