Reverting back to the corporate life, with false promises of better work-life balance and promotion can be tempting… And is that. A test to see how serious we are with our life change.
The job offer
A couple of weeks after I’d been back from India, I got offered a job at the Headquarters of the corporate bank in Madrid. My boss was encouraging me to take it and to negotiate hard as they were desperate to get someone quickly.
Weighting options
So, I started weighting my options for my transition out of the corporate life. As I had no clear idea what I wanted to do afterwards, besides exploring my spiritual side and having a healthy lifestyle with lots of outdoor activities, I thought about asking for compressed hours, which is in essence working a couple of hours more each day, but having a day off per week, for the same salary. Knowing how things worked in Madrid and their ‘we must be seen late at work’ culture, this seemed to be tricky.
What is important?
I had a coaching session with a colleague – and now dear friend – who was training to become a coach; and one of the exercises we did was evaluating what was important for me. And I realised how my criteria list had changed in the last couple of years. How items that were top of my list were almost last; and how things that were in the traded-off category previously became top of mind. Connections and Relationships for example appeared in the top position (from almost last previously); everything to do with quality of life was ranking exceedingly high, which I tended to compromise on previously. Madrid could offer me a better quality of life, more sun, markets, fresh tasty fruit & vegetables, I thought. I was tempted to lean back in.
With Much Love,
Heidi
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