My life changes every 4,5 years. Yes, it’s almost to the day. Change is for me as regular as any other cycle in nature. I can see it now very clearly looking back as I’ve lived quite a few of those 4,5 year periods. Let’s calculate from when I entered university and I’m on my 6th period right now.

At the end of each period I get restless. I can feel the change coming and I know it’s time to move on or dramatically change something in my life. I’m sensitive to the things I have learned and created, and have never been able to stay in that comfortable spot for very long. I’ve changed jobs, moved countries or started a new company. My bosses have tried to make me stay, but I’ve always already moved on emotionally, so that has been that.

Every time the change comes it feels hard, sometimes even physically daunting. I can’t see clearly ahead but I know I have to walk into the fog. I feel a strong pull to the unknown and I know I will be fine. Maybe this trust comes from having walked in the wast Finnish forest at night from early age. You simply trust your gut and carry on.

Change has always lead me to a better place.

I remember when I was at my first job after university selling excess Finnish butter to the Arabs. It was the ‘export department’ of the biggest dairy company in Finland and I guess it sounded glamorous, to some. Against the advice of my friends I decided to follow my at-the-time boyfriend to live in Holland without knowing if I’d find a job. Within three months I was in a more exciting job earning almost twice as much.

I’m very happy I’ve always found the courage to listen to that call to change. I think this is the key to growth. What ever your definition of success may be, I don’t believe you can get there unless you are willing to embrace change when it is its time.

Change is the natural way of the universe and to ignore it’s calling is to put yourself onto a wrong path.

If you ignore the call and keep doing what you have always being doing you can hardly expect to end up in a different, a more successful place. You can’t expect to get things you don’t already have or experience feelings you haven’t felt before.

DrivenWoman was born four years ago. I had been searching for my ‘next big thing’ for, well you guessed it now, 4,5 years. Yes, my search took me 4,5 years! But this is my cycle, even if I wanted things to go faster they wouldn’t. So why wrestle?

I knew I was coming to the end of that period and that change would come soon. And sure enough, it arrived. All I had to do was to follow it’s call and let change take it’s course.

DrivenWoman has meant a huge change for me.

It has been a period of tremendous personal and spiritual growth. I have slowly and surely given up my ego (but I’m sure there’s some scraps of ego left behind to be sorted out at a later date!)

This has lead me to find the courage to do what I dream of doing. And that means to live my bigger life.

With DrivenWoman I took the biggest leap outside of my comfort zone. It may be difficult to see now, but imagine how I felt, a woman who used to have an important career (or so I thought). We can now start to call DrivenWoman a movement, but it was far from that in those early days! (Don’t miss my blog post from those early days ‘Lessons Learned In An Empty Room‘.)

I was putting all my personality, everything I believed in life on the line. I could no longer hide behind my tittle. Yes, change was very scary.

I let change come. And I embraced it.

And now I’m going through a change again as this 4,5 year period is soon coming to an end. (Iik, according to my internal calendar I have about until August!).

Again I feel like I’m walking into the fog, into the dark forest and I can’t really see clearly. But I have embraced change before and I know the unlimited joy that awaits me at the other side. We are moving onto a global stage with DrivenWoman and growing into one of the most genuine women’s movements of our time.

It daunts me, it scares the daylight out of me and yet at the same time, it lifts me up more than anything else has ever have.

Do you feel change calling your name?

How does it feel?

Will you follow it’s calling?

I feel like extending my hand and hoping you’ll grab it and walk through the fog with me so we can celebrate together at the other side.

Let’s embrace change together.

~ Miisa

 

Are you ready to explore where change will take you? Let a group of like-minded women support you and learn to enjoy the journey. Join one of our Introduction evenings in London Soho, Shoreditch, South Hampstead, Wimbledon, Guildford and in Helsinki, Zurich and Singapore.