How do you know you're on your path? Because it disappears.

How I surrendered to the fog and restructured my business.

At the bottom of this email is a private invite to my first IRL event in New York City. I’m so excited for this new chapter of my business and can’t wait to share my new work with you in this new way.

I’ve lived many lives, across many continents, professions, relationships, and social scenes. I’ve been the globe-trotting foodie, the East London hipster, the MBA tech type, and most recently, the career alignment coach … to name a few. I reckon I'm working on the seventh version of myself, but I’m not sure yet what to call her.

By Liana Finck for the New Yorker, 2015

This past year I’ve fumbled through the deepest, most uncomfortable fog of identity growth I’ve ever experienced as I worked on evolving my career alignment business into something broader, more grounded in creativity and spirituality.

Evolving in public is no joke as you fail and reimagine and make bad art in front of everyone that follows you. Unlike previous transitions, I wasn't navigating towards something that already existed, I was creating something brand new, out of thin air. I was flooded with ideas that seemed fun and interesting, unable to distinguish which felt sparkliest, and consequently oscillating between paralysis and doing everything at once. I was simultaneously building a strengths test, doing an inner-child healing training, launching a new podcast, creating an Instagram series about destigmatizing Tarot, marketing a new group program, and trialing a personal styling program.

Unsurprisingly, things reached a breaking point and I had to completely down tools and finally submit to the mess, ambiguity and confusion, while I repaired my mistakes and restructured how I was approaching this transition. It grounded me knowing that fog is what true soul alignment feels like. I clung to the words of the poet David Whyte: How do you know you’re on your path? Because it disappears.

The thing is, a lack of clarity plus a lack of structure plus a lack of linear progress is so uncomfortable that most will run away from this journey, back to the safety and predictability of the well-worn path. And I’ll admit, it tempted me too. But that solution has its own flavor of discomfort: the discomfort of living a version of yourself that no longer fits, of not honoring the gentle nudges of your soul, of giving up a part of yourself to fit into a formula someone else designed. At some point you have to choose your discomfort. I chose the discomfort of growth.

Cue months of waking up with anxiety, processing it out during meditation and uncovering fear and insecurity beneath that anxiety - fear of the unknown, of making a mistake, of spending all my savings, of looking chaotic and unprofessional. Every day I’d have to look the fear square in the face, cry it out, come back to my commitment to myself and my business and my future, then get up, make my coffee, and start my day.

Each transition I’ve navigated teaches me something new about becoming someone new. This time around, in the absence of any external path to hook onto, I’ve had to learn a new way of growing based on my creativity - an engine and compass that is entirely self-generated through intuition, inspiration, individuality, and play.

There wasn’t one eureka moment, it was a year of slow creative iteration. Trying things, failing, rethinking, reshaping, processing fear every day, following moments of inspiration, until slowly, oh so slowly, the outline of an updated philosophy began to emerge.

I call it creative living. It’s a way of living devoid of external formulas, existing paths, ladders, brand-names or fancy titles. But follow this approach and you become the artist of your life. The themes that drive creative living are all communicated in the Tarot, which is one of the many reasons I’m obsessed and use it throughout my work.

The Magician is the artist. One hand to the sky they are connected to inspiration, that inspiration flows through them, unhindered, into their other hand, action, manifestation. On their table is every suit in the Tarot, as they create whatever their imagination prompts, infinitely recharged and reinspired in the garden of life.

We all have a unique form of creativity we’re here to contribute. The challenge is most of us don't trust our creative voice. So we don’t create the conditions for our creativity to flow, meaning our self-expression is blocked and thus our growth is blocked. But when you give yourself permission to nurture and express your unique creative voice, you always have a compass, no matter how foggy it gets. No matter if you’re an entrepreneur, creator, or corporate worker who can hear the call of your creative soul, this approach guides you through the fog towards clarity, towards your next chapter, towards your alignment, fulfillment, and self-actualization. It's the most direct route to a life that feels sparkly, meaningful, and true.

• Learning how to trust your intuitive nudges, what feels sparkly and what doesn’t

• Creating the conditions for inspiration and ideas to flow through you

• Owning your unique frequency, the way you add value to the world, even if it doesn’t fit into a traditional box

• Learning to experiment with ideas, clarity and momentum comes through playful action in community

• Embracing ambiguity, messiness, and emotions that feel uncomfortable

• Trusting that life is happening for you and learning to follow the clues

I’ve been living and refining these concepts over the past year and it’s birthed a new business, a new philosophy, new creative projects, and a whole new version of myself that feels unique to me and true to my bones. I’ve truly become the artist of my life.

And now I’m ready to share this work with you.

We’ll be gathering at Reforesters in Williamsburg

One of the things I’ve been craving is less time behind my computer, more time out in New York City, engaging with people in real life, in cool creative spaces, and building a community of likeminded souls around this work.

People who want to live intentionally, who are ready to call in their next chapter, one that is more creative, joyful, sparkly, and meaningful.

Every gathering focuses on a principle of creative living and transmits it to you through a combination of

• Teaching, coaching, and conversation

• Meditation and somatic body work

• Tarot’s wisdom and intuitive guidance

• Community connection and hangs - with each other and other local artists

I’m intentionally keeping these gatherings small and opening to you, my closest supporters and readers, before sharing with other select communities in the city. Thank you for coming along on this journey with me.

The first one is Thursday evening April 2nd at Reforesters in Williamsburg.

During the gathering I’ll also be talking about my new IRL group coaching program, The Frequency: the most direct route out of the fog of transition I know how to offer. Hosted in intimate creative spaces around New York City, this 6 week intensive program teaches you the principles of creative living and lays the foundation from which inspiration, creativity, clarity, and momentum will emerge.

If you can’t make the March event and want to learn more about The Frequency, let’s connect.

Finally, for all of you that live outside of New York City, I see you. This Substack has a lot of exciting new stuff on the horizon that can support you. You can also work with me virtually here.

Until then, go create your art.

PS. If you want to read about how I navigate some other major life transitions, check out I burned down my social life and started again and I got fired (twice). It was the wakeup call I need.