Pause and Pivot
some ways it was the pause and reflection that I needed.
In the months that followed I started to gain more energy and self-awareness and it was time to explore Adette Lacerte, what I wanted to do next. I knew I wasn’t ready for full Traditional Life Coach on retirement. I still had a lot more to contribute to my community, but what did that look like? I grew up in a household where it appeared that we were constantly on the move. By the time I was I decided to go and buy some big self-adhesive poster sixteen we had moved thirteen different times and paper and start mapping out some of the things I had attended ten different schools. While my that were going on in my head. My first poster had parents didn’t have a huge amount of money we words, pictures and drawings of things that I was were always visiting relatives on the weekends with truly passionate about. I grouped some of these things long weekends being a seven hour long drive to my together so it was easier to visualize them. The second grandparents place. Sometimes it felt like we grew up poster listed off all of the things I knew how to do; every skill or cluster of knowledge that I possessed. I listed in the backseat of the car. everything from cooking and cleaning, to advanced My travels and moving didn’t end once I graduated Excel spreadsheets, health and safety, human resources from high school. I continued to move around while and project management. Like my first poster, I also in college and university, different apartments grouped these items as much as possible acknowledging and different roommates. In my working career, I that there were lots of crossovers. On a third poster followed a similar path of transition from one job to I listed off people I knew, and I grouped them by the another, from one field to another. Over the course of communities I knew them from and their relevance in my life I have worked in tourism, retail, construction, my life. Family and close friends were close to me and in health and safety, real estate, software support, the centre with all my other communities and network administration, oil and gas, and engineering. I also groups surrounding me, supporting me. managed to get bit by the global travel bug along the Then I walked away from the boards and let them hang way and have visited twenty-six different countries. in my spare room. I casually went and cleaned my house Through all of these moves and changes in my life and as I did I found myself mentally making room and I have managed to gain an incredible set of skills space in my mind, making room for whatever was next. that allowed me to adapt and transition with a huge Occasionally, I would go and have a look at those posters amount of ease. Every new home, school, job, chapter and try and make sense of what it was all supposed to in my life was something to look forward to and mean and what I was supposed to do with it. embrace. I didn’t get stuck in the muck of worry, anxiety, what if’s, or drawn to my holding on to my One day, while looking at the boards, I realized that on past. I learned to adjust my mental mind-set, find my skills and knowledge list I knew how to do a lot of out what needed to be done, whom I needed to talk things that I didn’t actually like doing; things that I had to, whom I needed to connect with, and adapt. I had learned or done out of necessity of the time, but ones that didn’t ignite my soul. That’s when I started crossing become a master of transition. off items. Anything that I truly hated doing I put a line At the end of 2015, I went through another major through. I took a closer look at the things that I did change in my life. I chose to leave the corporate world like doing and how they correlated to the things I was just as menopause was starting to take hold. At the passionate about. time I had been working on a very stressful major project that was winding down for our team. Given Next I started to ask myself why. Why did I like doing the stress of the project I really needed a break and so some of the things that were on the board? Why was I passionate about youth, feminism, and empowerment? that’s what I chose to do, take a break, full stop. Why were these things important to me? Then came the At first I just took time off to enjoy some down time at questions of how important were these things to me? home, a chance to really enjoy the Christmas season. What was I willing or not willing to do about this? What After a few weeks I started on a path of self-healing. was my commitment level? I had so many questions, but That meant taking care of my physical health, my they were also invaluable in defining my next steps. mental health and my spiritual health. Being at home by myself gave me the time and space in which to It was through this process that I became consciously focus inward and on what was important to me. In aware that I love working with teens and young adults.
40 // Community Now!
