Sometimes, letting go is the only way forward

Lessons learned on letting go when it's finally time for it

Photo by Studio 74 on Unsplash

Last year, I had this brilliant idea, to create something that includes all the knowledge I accumulated since starting my business as a scientific illustrator almost 7 years ago.

I am constantly asked for advice what to do & how to do it when it comes to starting out as a creative, coming from the hard sciences.

And I have TONS to share, all kinds of failures and wins, try-outs and anecdotes… So I usually share them, either in writings, videos or voice notes.

I also had a couple of mentees on the way, and I could directly help them where they were at in their own journeys.

I loved those direct interactions, and I thought it could be brilliant to expand on that, to help more people.

So I found someone I thought I could do it with, cos I knew my vision and idea was way too extensive to only do it by myself.

Plus, I thought it could be beneficial to have more perspectives than just my own, because there is never only one way to get where you want to end up.

We agreed to collaborate on this idea.

And now, 7 months later, I decided to leave.

Do I regret it? No, not at all.

Do I feel remorse? No, neither that.

Do I feel betrayed, lied to by myself, having wasted time? No, no and nope.

None of these.

What I feel is relief, ease and a peace of mind.

No hard feelings, no blame, no shame, no disrespect, neither that anyone did anything wrong.

This might sound weird, but it actually is not so weird. At least not to me :).

You might ask yourself, why did I leave then?

If you know me personally, or maybe through what I share online, you might know that I strive to do and be my truest self.

Not to lie, listen to my intuition, speak my truth and act in alignment with my ethical and moral values.

I would never advice anyone to do something they don’t feel aligned with, that drains their energy.

And to be honest, in those last 7 months I started feeling that I am not anymore aligned with how things are developing.

So: how can I teach and share that, encourage people to go for what they truly want and leave what drains their energy, but not act upon it myself, in my own life?

I can’t. It started to weigh heavy on me. So I decided to leave.

I will share some more personal development details with some of you below, but the main message I would like to share with everyone that reads this until here is:

You have the right to leave a situation, project, relationship, workspace etc. as soon as you feel it drains your energy instead of fueling you!

ALWAYS!

I learned so much in these last seven months; many lessons about myself, my inner pain points & traumata, unhealthy behaviors I internalized, and I managed to transform them.

For that, I am endlessly grateful & I wish all of you similar breakthroughs in your life and personal developments.

Now, off to some more personal details…