Career change case study: Emily follows her calling and discovers a whole new life

Emily was doing shift-work in the NHS, on the team in an operating theatre.   She used to daydream about making changes, and finding work that was more fulfilling, but she had a secret.  While she came across as confident to others, on the inside she was tortured by worry, anxiety and lack of confidence. She was afraid that if she followed her heart that would just be ‘one more thing to fail at’.

Fast forward 4 months and Emily is a few weeks into her new job as a professional trainer. She’s gone from working crazy hours, with no spare time and being stressed out of her mind… to:

• Being happy and optimistic
• Having free time to spend with her friends
• Starting a job she loves on a package that’s almost double her previous salary

At one point in this interview, Emily cries tears of joy:

“I’m happy and I’m not worrying about things. It’s quite different to anything that I’ve had before. I’ve not had this kind of peace before.

I just hope that nobody else sits there thinking ‘I can’t change things.’ I did it year after year, and then the next year I’m thinking, ‘Oh if only I changed something last year maybe it wouldn’t be like this now.’

So just to get to the year when you actually change something and then realise how quickly that can snowball into a whole different life…that’s just amazing.”