Embracing the Creative Life After Corporate “Confinement”
Stepping out of the corporate world and into the realm of creativity was like breaking free from a tightly woven cocoon – a cocoon that had provided perceived security but ultimately stifled my spirit and dulled my senses. For over a decade, I had danced to the tune of corporate expectations and society’s narrative trying hard to fit in and belong. Navigating the rigid structures and protocols that defined the nine-to-five grind. And while I gained invaluable experience and knowledge along the way, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was slowly losing myself in the process. If you have been on a similar path, I’m sure you can relate. I’m also pretty confident you know how embracing the creative life after corporate confinement is a wonderful thing to happen.
Lack Of Space Leads To Lack Of Creativity
Corporate life, with its rules and regulations, left little room for self-expression and spontaneity. Every aspect of your day is meticulously planned out, leaving you with precious little time to reset, rest, and rejuvenate. But perhaps the most detrimental effect of all was the toll it takes on your creativity. In a world governed by spreadsheets and deadlines, your imagination lays dormant, suffocated by the weight of conformity. So it was only a question of time until I would find myself disconnected from any creative nature that I used to embody. With the lack of creativity came the lack of fulfillment, simply the “lack of being truly me”.
Creativity wants stillness, space, so it can find you. It can’t be forced. It wants detachment from doing too much because productivity is not creativity. Add more personal… I knew I had to rest, make space… remove myself from constantly striving yet not thriving, depletion was my main state of being….
Rest and stillness is sometimes the most creative thing you can do and it took me a moment to understand that.
Rest, allow time & space without feeling guilty. This will bring clarity.
Marching To The Beat Of Your Own Drum
I knew deep down for a long time that there was a different calling and that one day I had to break free – to carve out a path that honored my true nature and allowed me to flourish on my own terms. Often times we just don’t trust ourself enough, we wait for permission. Until one day — with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, you take the leap into the unknown. You trade in the security of a steady paycheck for the freedom to chart your own course, to march to the beat of your own drum. Knowing the reward will be greater. One day.
Listen to your body, see the signs.
You just don’t know when. It’s not an easy decision, and the road ahead is fraught with uncertainty. But with each step you take away from the confines of corporate life, you feel a renewed sense of vitality and purpose. No longer shackled by the constraints of someone else's agenda, you revel in the freedom to set your own schedule, to bend the rules when necessary, and to fully embrace the responsibility that came with working for yourself.
Be prepared for a long journey and take full responsibility. No permissions needed and all risks are on you.
Realizations Leading You Back To Creativity
You come to realize that all this time you have been more than just a robot in the corporate machine – you finally allow yourself the space needed to figure out what lights you up and set your heart on fire. Same here, it’s not an easy path, it’s not linear. When you accept the fact that this is the game of life, you’ll learn patience.
I'm a life explorer, an experimenter, a seeker of experiences and truth. And while the creative life may come with its own set of risks and challenges, the reward of rediscovering myself and reclaiming my sense of wonder is more than worth it.
So, to all those who find themselves trapped in the confines of corporate conformity or any 9-5 job, I urge you to listen to that voice deep within – the voice that longs for freedom, for exploration, for a life lived on your own terms. For it's only when we dare to break free from the chains of expectation that we truly find ourselves and unleash the boundless creativity that lies within.
The intention behind this blog post is that breaking free from a 9-5 is so much more than being on your own schedule. It teaches you to trust yourself on another level, it’s a whole reprogramming from enslaving yourself to what you believed the norm was, to exploring and experimenting. It can be perfect at first. It’s scaling yourself and life to another level where you learn to be free in a system that wants to control it all. It’s the journey to never give in and understand that as nature works in season so do you. You have chapters of cycles in your life that are defined by the principles you live by, ultimately leading up to your actions. It’s not all fancy.
Corporate life stopped my evolution closest and dearest to my heart and enstranged me to myself to just be another number on the HR sheet. Coming home to myself was, and still is, pure bliss. I’m still in the middle.
This is just a glimpse of my journal entries—for more journal entries join me on Substack.
with love,
S.