Here’s what I’ve discovered: The courage to follow your intuition isn’t just important, it’s how I’ve based my life up to this point. It’s how I solo traveled from India to the Philippines with a one way ticket, and it’s how I currently live in simple, third world conditions for over 6 months and survive.

In short, having the courage to do what I do with the stubborn resolve to follow my bliss is what keeps me going. It’s what’s keeping me focused on this path of indie design and freelancing my way towards a better income and less student loan debt. I may not have that six figure income now, but I will, since I’ve set my mind on it and I’ve got a vision. The courage to follow through with that vision is the next thing. Courage is the only way I’ve been able to get this far at all.

Sometimes, Intuition isn’t always that easy to listen to, though. Sometimes, people need help figuring it out. Sometimes, even me. It’s OK to fuck up a little. Just admit that you fucked up and move on.

I fucked up.

I let myself stray from the path and in a moment of desperation, took on a *gulp* full-time job. I thought I was ready for it. I thought it even had its place in this greater plan. I was ready to take two+ years on a career path in order to ‘learn’ skills on the job that might help in the long run to running my own business. It was perfect! Except that it wasn’t.

My intuition took a jolt on the first week when I realized I was getting a cough. That cough has not gone away over a month later. I joked that the office was making me sick, but I’m willing to bet that it was. I am not a city girl and yet I live in one of the most overpopulated cities in the world. Poor infrastructure makes my total roundtrip commute three hours a day on top of 10 hour work days. And without going into detail, lets just say that the work standard was not what I was expecting from an American who has only–up til now–worked in America. Generally speaking, Filipino companies get away with a lot of things that would be unheard of in the Land of the Free.

So what would any Good American who voluntarily accepted the third world office job earning over a third less than she did in the USA do? QUIT. I mean what was I thinking!? With more and more freelance projects and inquiries rolling in, I wasn’t about to say NO when I’m earning a lot more as a freelancer than… $2/hr. in the office. I may not be an Asian good at math, but its enough to know that third world office job ain’t gonna cut it when it comes to paying off my student loans. The longer I would’ve stayed there, the MORE money I would have lost. And I hate that the bane of my post-college existence is to “pay off my student loans”, but there you have it. The 99%.

So I quit. I quit cold turkey. I completely went AWOL after a fantastic weekend of 104.5F fever (40.3C), cold chills, hot flashes, shivers and a cough that I’m still getting over. I didn’t need that stress in my life, and my body knew it all along.

Lessons in Intuition #1: Your Body Knows

Your body might be more aware than you are. It knows things. And if you’re not in tune to what it might be telling you, you could end up with a situation you end up regretting. I didn’t realize my defiance towards the 9 to 5 was so severe that it called upon my physical being. If you are physically getting sick after a change in your life, ask yourself whether the change is a good thing or if there’s something that you’re not addressing with your emotions. What are you suppressing? What do you need to let go? Express? Emotions are always connected to physical sickness. Do not treat them separately. In my case, a dry cough was an indication of not asserting my needs in compensation and ultimately feeling like I was taken advantage of in the process. Which brings us to…

Lessons in Intuition #2: Assert Yourself

I must have a “walk all over me” sign on my forehead, but the truth is that I am a fucking doormat. Don’t be a doormat. It’s hard for a lot of women to say “NO” but it makes your life a whole lot easier if you know when to say it. By asserting yourself from the get go, you avoid those sticky situations where you realize that you don’t like something (and you don’t like it because you never asserted towards anything better) and have a hard time getting out of it. If you know you don’t like something, SPEAK UP. And trust me, I’m the first person who needs to know that. It’s almost pathetic (or it is).

Lessons in Intuition #3: Fuck Protocol

When you’re acting on intuition, sometimes rules and regulations get in the way. And for a person like me, rules and regulations are something to roll your eyes at. I mean, do you EVER read the instruction manual first? NO. You ignore the step by step illustrations and pt 8 text and figure it out yourself. Fuck protocol. There’s no way you are going to try to enforce a 30 day notice when it comes to resignation from a shitty situation. Two weeks is crazy enough, and sometimes, employers don’t deserve it. Unless you’re upper management, what’s the point!? Swift and quick is better for both parties in the long run when you’re already disgruntled and unhappy. Always follow your best interests first… You can’t trust companies, so trust yourself and your intuition. It’s all you’ve got.

Lessons in Intuition #4: Turn that “Mistake” into Something Great

Everyone told me that this job would be a “pit stop” to my goals. Little did I know that it would literally be a blip in the road. How is that great? It’s fucking AWESOME because it jolted me awake, and made me aware again of my greater purpose. It reawakened me to the path that I’ve set out and how important that path is to me. Without the so-called “blip in the road”, I wouldn’t have seen my weaknesses and the areas I need to work on to keep an “A” game. I wouldn’t have had a reenergized desire to continue, and I wouldn’t have felt this strong connection to my intuition, reminding me why I’m really here. It’s as if the Universe was banging me on the head to tell me “Hello! You’re a freelance designer!! How much work do I need to drown you with before you get it!?” Thanks, Universe (and thanks Elisa, copywriter that you are, for coming up with that..)! It’s true. I did absolutely nothing different with my unmarketing, and wasn’t actively looking for work, but as soon as I accepted the job, the work came pouring in!

Lesson learned: When you counter your intuition with something different, your intuition will counter back with your right path.

Just trust the process.

Janet

Janet is a Professional Hobo, burgeoning entrepreneur and homeless nomad passionate about working with creative world changers and showing people how to march to their own beats.