How do you find work you love, doing what you’re REALLY good at, with freedom to create what you want? Oh yeah, and pay the bills, too.

I wondered this for years.

After losing my job, I decided to figure this out so I could start living the life I really wanted to live.

So I dug out my sticky notes.

The most important thing I learned from my years as a UX designer is that sticky notes provide the perfect canvas to hold numerous unordered thoughts. Once placed onto an open wall, these sticky note thoughts can be organised and reorganised until they practically shout at you with the clarity you’re looking for.

The clarity I needed: what I want to do, why I want to do it, and how I can make it happen.

I gave myself one week to figure this out. No pressure sticky notes.

My white wall transformed into a mosaic of colorful little pieces of paper, scribbled with my Most Important Ideas.

I stared at those little pieces of paper for hours and then walked away. Then I came back to write and stare some more.

Similar thoughts and ideas formed groups --

I want to create a business that enables me to live the lifestyle I want.

I want to create what I want to see in the world, in the way that’s authentic and true to me.

I want to inspire people to go after their dreams, build community and connection.

These statements became my WHY.

At the end of one week, the sticky notes reflected back to me:

my internal why and my external why
what lights me up
what I’m good at
my core values
what kind of work I REALLY want to do

What I had was my anchor.

an anchor keeps you connected
to what really matters — for you.

Not what your grandma, or your bestie, or your well-meaning but opinionated neighbor says you SHOULD care about, or you SHOULD do.

You know what brings you joy. What you want to spend the precious hours of your day doing. What you want for your one, beautiful life. No one else can tell you this.

Your plans will change. Parts of your dream might even evolve (which is totally okay, mine has!). But your anchor holds you steady. It’s a lifeline to those parts of yourself that are non-negotiable.

My anchor helped me realise what I REALLY wanted to do in my business. With no job and the fear of losing my income setting in, I ran for the thing that felt safest: design. I wanted to coach, but I thought I SHOULD start a design consulting business. I checked in with my anchor and realised, hey, I actually don’t want to do that! What I really love is helping people, women specifically, to discover and live their best creative lives. And I love creating — but now I’m creating for myself, and my dreams.

I’ve already pivoted at least 10 times in the last 4 months of working on my business. Some days I’m so full of ideas and excitement I can’t wait to get out of bed and start working. Some days I don’t feel like doing anything. But no matter how I feel from one day to the next — I know what I want, why I want it, and how much that matters to me. So I keep going.