Love What You Do For A Living

by Pavlenka Small
(Suffolk/ Essex border)

Love what you do for a living & you'll never do a days work in your life...

When I was having to seriously think about giving up my teaching career 4 years ago, due to illness, a good friend reassuringly told me that just as one door shuts, another one opens and this has proved to be the case for me.

I have 're-invented' my career path three times in 39 years and although it takes courage, planning, determination and research,(you)can do the same.

I was fortunate in that from a very early age,I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to have my own tea shop and I used to spend hours playing make-believe cafe's and restaurant's with my long suffering sisters! After working in a variety of hotels and restaurants and gaining a degree in Hotel Management, I met my future husband,who is a chef, and we dreamed of eventually opening our own restaurant.

With the birth of our son, I started a sandwich delivery round to offices to bring in some much needed extra cash and when Stephen was made redundant, we joined forces to open the first sandwich bar in Peterborough. We were doing well but we lost our business premises and this gave us the opportunity to open our restaurant. Unfortunately we went from being extremely busy to virtually empty overnight, due to the last recession of the late 1980's, and so we had to find alternative employment pretty quickly in order to avoid bankruptcy.

After collapsing with exhaustion having co-run a 50 bed-roomed hotel for eighteen months, it was time to rethink future career prospects; I had always loved working in the industry but it was time to move on. Quite by chance I met the Head of the local college's catering department and he suggested I apply for a part-time job in his department. Three weeks later I was doing my PGCE in the evenings and putting it into practise during the day!

I spent 13 years at the college which was for the most part enjoyable but also challenging and stressful. Unfortunately I developed chronic arthritis and I had to spend the best part of a year off work after my first hip replacement developed complications. When I returned to work my role had completely changed and I developed stress related illnesses. By the time I had my second hip replacement a year later I came to the realization that I was not happy with the job and decided to leave.

As the major breadwinner,much soul searching and research took place as to what to do next, but I kept coming back to the same idea of re-training to become a life coach.

I now immerse myself in a career which I love and it certainly does not feel like work. I am fortunate to be able to encourage men and women of all ages to make the changes necessary in their working and personal lives in order to feel happier and more fulfilled.

Several doors have opened for me--the only thing I could do when I was off work for a year was read and it was during this period that I discovered Life coaching and how it resonated with everything I believe in and enjoy doing.

My friend was right; once one door closes, there is a possibility that another one will open. The time was right for me to change my career direction and the same can be true for many other people as well.