Finding My Calling: From Corporate Junkie to Yogapreneur

Written by: Michele Lyman, 500 RYT

Have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow already know what you want to become. —Steve Jobs

“They” say that every human being experiences a “calling”. It could be toward a career path, a way of life or even where you should go for vacation.  Merriam-Webster defines a calling as, “A strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence”.  My personal translation?  To be in alignment with your higher purpose. 

I’m sure I’ve experienced many callings in my life, but today I want to share what I consider to be my biggest calling - my journey to leave Corporate America and become a full-time entrepreneur. You’ll learn a little more about me and how I got clear on my calling so that you might be inspired to follow your own heart and intuition as well.  

How I Landed in Corporate America

My older cousin Joe graduated from Babson College when I was a sophomore in high school.  At his graduation ceremony I said to my parents, “Oh I love this campus. I want to go here.  Now ... what do they do again?”

That’s how I started my business career.  For those that don’t know, Babson College is a business school in Wellesley MA, known for ranking No. 1 in entrepreneurship education by U.S. News & World Report for 26 years in a row, which is an impressive achievement unmatched in any other specialty ranking.  Not only is the business curriculum world renowned, the school also has a pretty campus.

I graduated with an undergrad degree in finance and economics and took a job in a Financial Leadership Development Program at Lucent Technologies, where I landed back at Babson to get my Masters in Accounting.  I worked in a corporate finance organization for large corporations from that first job out of college in 1998 until 2016.

One of my teams from my corporate life enjoying some time outside the office.

I enjoyed my various finance and accounting roles over the years, but when people asked me what I did, I usually said something like, “I push numbers around on a spreadsheet”.  I enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel like I was adding any value.  Of course I was adding value for someone - a stakeholder or policyholder I never directly interacted with, a corporation that needs those back office positions in order to stay afloat, or an IRS agent that was happy I filled out line 12 of 23 on the company’s corporate tax return.  Pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet is important to a corporation, but whose life was I impacting?  Although I didn’t understand it at the time, the jobs weren’t fulfilling for me.   

How I Found Yoga

Me and sweet Jen on vacation! Nice hat!

In 2000, my roommate at the time, and still one of my dearest friends Jen, said to me “Hey, a new yoga studio just opened up across the street from my office. Wanna meet me there after work to take a class?”  WHAT?  Yoga?  What is that?  No thanks.  I was a step aerobics gal at the time and that yoga stuff seemed too “woo woo” for me.  But, she suggested I give it a shot anyway, and I trusted her, so we went.  I’ll be grateful to her for the rest of my life for pushing me to give yoga a chance.  

During that first class I was very self-conscious and worried about what other people would think if I didn’t do the poses perfectly.  Was my outfit ok? Was my hair in place?  Was I breathing too loud?  The teacher was tall, thin and gorgeous - I didn’t look like her.  I wasn’t flexible enough and I surely wasn’t tall and thin.  Lots of judgy voices in my head for that entire hour.  HOWEVER, I also noticed how connected I felt to my body and my mind, and I was pleasantly surprised to leave feeling calm and grounded.  Something shifted and I was hooked.  There was no way to explain it - I just knew I needed more of whatever that peaceful feeling was! 

In 2003, our teacher at the time suggested that Jen and I train to become yoga teachers. We both had other full-time jobs and really considered this a chance to enhance our own practice and maybe teach here and there after work.  It was never meant to be a “career changing” move.    

I realized pretty quickly that teaching yoga gave me an opportunity to serve others and really enabled me to help people improve the quality of their lives.  So, from 2003 until 2012, I was an accountant by day and a yoga teacher by night. By day I wasn’t happy because I felt like I wasn’t making a difference.  But by night I was joyful, energized and uplifted by the positive impact I was making for my students.  The day job paid the bills, but it was the night job that made me feel most connected to my true self.  

How I Finally Said “Yes” to the Calling         

In 2005 I decided to move “home”, so I packed up my apartment in New Jersey and bought a condo in South Hadley, MA - a town close enough to my parents in Westfield, but not too close for an unexpected pop-in.  I found the perfect little yoga studio and began practicing and teaching there within a few months of moving to the area.  As a “newbie” in town, it was nice to be connected to a community of like-minded people who loved yoga as much as I did.     

At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but I can remember practicing a pose while also imagining all the things I would change about that studio if I were to ever own it.  And then I would laugh to myself and think, “Me a studio owner?  Nah…”  But the thoughts kept nagging and I kept wondering.  

In the fall of 2011 the owner approached me and explained she needed to sell the studio and wondered if I would be interested.  To my surprise, I was!  We negotiated and I realized the numbers didn’t add up for me to purchase it.  It wasn’t meant to be. So, the new owner took over in February 2012 and I happily worked for her.  But as I like to say, The Universe continued to push me toward the “right” path and in May 2012 the new owner came to me and said, ‘My husband got a job in Boston and we need to move.  Would you like to buy the studio from me?”  It WAS meant to be.  

So on July 1, 2012, Serenity Yoga was born and I was officially a full-time accountant and full-time business owner. I enjoyed this dual lifestyle for about 3 years but at the beginning of 2016, after a promotion at work to management and the studio starting to grow, I found myself burnt out, confused and frustrated with my life. 

In the Kripalu yoga tradition, we believe that all beings are energetically connected to a higher power at all times - and that higher power can be defined however you’d like (e.g., God, Buddha, The Universe, etc.).  This divine higher power is connected through our sense of “true self”, and it is all knowing.  After we are born and start experiencing life, we establish stories and beliefs that create “filters'' between that connection.  We begin to believe our stories are our truth and the connection back to our higher self is lost.  

Think of it like a muddy glass of water - When you are born, the glass is filled with clean water that you can see right through - the connection is clear!  Over time, life drops mud into your glass and shakes it up so the sediment becomes too thick for you to see through it… and the connection to the other side of the glass is lost.    

A very powerful way back to that connection is to use the practices of yoga to slow down, stay present, get quiet and begin to challenge your stories and beliefs.  Eventually the filters are removed, or the sediment falls to the bottom of your glass, and you are able to see clearly again.    

In 2016, my glass was full of muddy water. I was at a giant fork in the road and I had no idea which path to take.  I knew for a very long time that deep down something needed to change, but I ignored it.  My own Voice of Doubt, as well as some of my family and friends, begged me to stay put where it was safe and secure.  Leaving to become a yoga studio owner was just not logical but that deep, intuitive feeling just kept surfacing. 

Meditating in Mexico - the beginning of my transition.

It took a yoga retreat to Mexico, 9 months of working intensely with a brilliant life and career coach and many hours of practicing yoga to finally hear my calling.  And it came to me in the shower.  

I had worked through all the stories and beliefs that were holding me back from my calling to become a studio owner - except the fear of not being financially stable.  It ate me alive for weeks.  Until one day I was reaching for the shampoo bottle and it just came to me like a lightning strike.  I thought, “We are reorganizing my department - I wonder if my position will still be needed?”  And just like that, I felt a sense of ease and calm literally and figuratively wash over my body.  I knew at that moment that The Universe had my back and would make that happen.  

About a week later my job was eliminated and I was able to collect a severance and benefits for a few months, which eased my financial fears.  I left my corporate life and began pursuing the life that I was always meant to experience - a life that has always been in alignment with my higher purpose.  

Most days I pause and reconnect back to this higher power when I am making big business decisions. And, I can say for certain that each time I have waited to hear my intuition, The Universe has responded by letting my business path unfold with ease and grace. From growing in that small studio where we were literally bumping into the walls, to expanding right next door from our old space into a location four times the size that supported our community growth, to hiring some of the best yoga teachers and staff in the area … all because I get quiet, wait, and let my true-self lead the way.