Going on a journey and returning to the same place, anew.
Back in 2015 and 2016, I was a part of a community of fellow millennials who, like me, had experienced quarter-life-crises of sorts and were trying to find work they cared about.
I met a long-standing friend of mine through an organisation called Escape The City, who was working in consulting at the time. She has since worked in various roles, gone overseas, completed a Social Impact programme, started a business… and in recent months she has returned to her original consultancy firm, in a similar vertical but this time looking at the environment and social side of things.
She is in a different role, and back as a different version of herself. When I caught up with her shortly after she started working for said employer, she seemed happy with the work she was doing, the balance she’d found, and to be back in the employed world.
It’s an example of coming full circle, having left her firm, gathered a whole range of experiences and the growth that has come with, and now returning to said firm and showing up with her skills and experience, as as a more evolved version of herself.
If I was pleased to see one example of a friend happily-fulfilled with an old employer, I was a little surprised when I learned of another friend — again long-standing, and again who I had met through the same organisation I mentioned earlier — who had been on a similar journey…
Having left her consulting firm after being stressed out, she has also gone on to try a range of different experiences, go through therapy and coaching, and is in a happy relationship; she got married last year, in fact. And, she has now returned to another big consulting firm, helping them with their firm-wide strategy; in other words, doing what she likes best.
I think the term ‘coming full circle’ is misleading, as it suggests going on a journey and coming back to where you started. I think it more represents going on a journey and returning to where you were before, but also starting from a new vantage point.
I found myself reflecting recently on the journey I’ve been on, specifically in the field of Psychology. I studied a Masters in Positive Psychology back in 2016 and, at the time, I discovered that going into the traditional world of “coaching” or “therapy” didn’t feel like a fit.
And yet, as I’ve gone from journalling to blogging and everything that’s come with that… I’ve realised I was a coach all along, it was just a case of being ready for it and discovering the sort of coach I wanted to be.
In other words, I’ve realised that I, too, have ‘come full circle’.
There’s something quite reassuring about that.