Ep. 2: How to Make Life Feel Magical, Without Quitting Your Job or Moving to Bali
Ever had a time in your life that just felt… magical? Like everything was flowing, you were saying yes to adventure, and you felt truly alive? What if I told you that you don’t need to quit your job or move to Bali to get that feeling back?
In this episode, I reflect on one of the most magical years of my life, and the surprising realization that I wasn’t happy because of my circumstances… I was happy because of my perspective.
You’ll learn:
✔️ The one mindset shift that made my year feel effortless and exciting
✔️ How I unknowingly created the magic (and why you can too)
✔️ How seeing your current situation as temporary can shift everything
✔️ Simple ways to bring adventure back into your daily life, without drastic change
What if you knew your job, your routine, or your “stuck” season was temporary? How would you show up differently? Let’s talk about it.
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Episode 2
You are listening to The Pivot Point where we unpack the defining moments that shift careers and lives. I'm your host, Laura Dionisio, a founder of Lead Intact, and my mission is to spotlight the raw real stories behind career pivots, the fears, the hopes. The messy middles and the bold decisions that follow if you're feeling stuck or quietly wondering what's next?
I hope these stories help you see yourself a little more clearly and inspire you to start moving toward your own dream life. Let's begin.
Picture your best vacation ever. You're on the beach, soaking up the sun without a care in the world. Relaxed, open, and everything feels magical. What if I told you you could have that in your everyday life without having to quit your job and move to Bali?
I was reflecting back on a truly magical year about 11 years ago, and I felt exactly that way. You know, that feeling on vacation where everything just seems amazing and even when things go wrong, like maybe they lose your luggage and it takes you a couple days to get back, you're like, uh, no big deal.
Maybe you don't resonate with that, but just think of a time where, yes, life was lifein', but you were still in your groove and everything still felt like a good time. I wanna share a story of this magical year for me. Like I mentioned in the first episode, so if you haven't listened to that, take a listen.
I ended up getting an opportunity to move to the East coast temporarily. Now, I was a southern California girl at the time, lived in Orange County, originally LA and I was asked to move there in the middle of winter. And let me tell you. I saw it from the get As like this amazing opportunity. I saw it as the universe saying yes, because a couple months before I found out about that opportunity, I remember fully leaning into my desire, which was, yes, I want to move to the East Coast.
So in my mind and in my heart, I already knew like, yes, oh my God, I get to go to the East coast. There were so many things that went wrong in the beginning, and not to mention so many people who were like legit worried about me, they were like, uh, Laura, you, um, you're from the Philippines originally. It's a hot climate.
Uh, and then you moved to Los Angeles and now Orange County, still pretty warm. And uh, you don't even own a winter coat, but you're saying yes to moving in the middle of winter. To upstate New York. And I was just like, yes, I'm excited. And they're like, Uhhuh, Uhhuh. So you were born and raised in Manila, which is a city in the Philippines, and then you lived in Los Angeles and granted you're in Orange County, but the still pretty city.
And they're moving you out in the middle of nowhere and you're cool with that. And I was like, yes. I'm so excited. And I really was, and it didn't matter how many people were like, you're gonna hate it, or were genuinely worried, like, are you gonna be okay? Please call us. Or you could, you can always say no to this.
Right? You don't have to do it. They're not forcing you. Right. And no matter how many people express concern or saying that, I wouldn't like it, no matter how iffy the logistics were. Okay.
I still was able to maintain the sense of happiness, the sense of adventure, because I was just so, so excited.
Now, this opportunity was supposed to be for six months. It ended up being a year, but at the time. I actually had no idea how long I was gonna be there, nor did I have any idea of what my role was supposed to be. It was one of those situations where my job was like, I need you to move there yesterday. But then as soon as I got there, not only did they not know what my role was, but I couldn't get ahold of anyone to help me with the lodging part of it.
So I was living in a hotel for like three weeks. And again, at that time I didn't know it was gonna be three weeks. It could have been two months. I didn't know. And yes. I am not gonna lie to you. I was very frustrated. I was very much a control freak at the time, and it really annoyed the shit outta me if I'm being honest.
And at the same time, I never lost that sense of happiness, of adventure, of joy, and of openness. I've had many career pivots since then. But what I've found in retrospect is that the other pivots while also magical, usually only lasted for like maybe two, maybe three months. At most and through the years I've been thinking about it.
Why was that year so magical? Because it was the whole year. The whole year I felt so happy, adventurous, open, and to this day, it's still the most exciting and happiest year of my life. For the longest time I had said, oh yeah, it's probably because. In that situation, I knew it was temporary, right? It was from the get, you're gonna be here six months-ish. Don't really know how long.
That made me more open to friendships. That made me more open to exploring things that made me not worry about the fact that I was going to a place I'd never been before, didn't know anyone. I was just like, oh, it's all good. It's all temporary, right? So I really thought for the longest time, that was why and the other times it wasn't like that. But recently I really sat with it and reflected and realized that's actually incorrect, because the same thing could have happened, right? Same. Temporary, like relocation. And I very well could have been like, fuck this shit. I very well could have been like, see, the universe is against me.
I don't even have a place to stay. I don't even have anyone to talk to. See, I don't even have friends here. Like I could have very easily been that way. Right? And so recently I realized it was not because there was an external factor dictating that it was temporary. It was really me. It was my perception.
Yes, it's true that it was temporary and I knew that, but because of that it allowed me to be more open. No, scratch that. It's not that it allowed me, I chose to be open and I chose to see it as an adventure. I chose to be excited about it and it's almost like those defense mechanisms that I had up back when I was living at home were all down.
'cause it was kind of like, fuck it, I'm leaving at some point. Let me just be me. There were no fears of, what if they don't accept me or whatever. 'cause I was like, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. You know what I mean? I will forever be grateful for that opportunity.
Because I didn't have any friends and I had to build my own community. It was a chance for me to really build upon, okay, who am I really today? What kind of friendships do I wanna have now? And I really learned a lot about myself. So yes, very true that these external factors allowed me to be in a cocoon and to really understand who I was at that time.
Truly it was what I chose to do with that situation. It was like what I decided on the inside, like the self-reflection.
I'm sharing this because if you're like, okay, well good for you, Laura. Even if I had like a temporary relocation to a place of my dreams, I've got a family, I've got responsibilities.
I can't just up and leave. I hear you. I'm not saying go quit your job and go move to Bali. Or wherever your dream place is. Okay. I mean, unless you want to totally support that. If you do DM me, I would love to hear about it. What I am suggesting, and what I invite you to do, is to shift your perspective.
Think about it. What would it be like if this situation you're in right now is temporary? How would you feel about it? What would you be thinking? How would you act? So I'll give you an example. Imagine that you are someone who's been in your job for like 15 years At this point, you're known as a subject matter expert.
You're the go-to person. You're established, Teams or whatever is pinging all day long. People calling you , emailing constantly. And let's just imagine that at this moment you are frustrated a little burned out, and also. Kind of bored 'cause it's like, what else is there for you to do? And at the same time, maybe you feel a little guilty 'cause it's like, oh, I should be grateful, right?
I should be happy. It's not like I can do anything else. I've been at this for 20 years. I don't wanna start over.
Imagine as this person, you ask yourself, , what would it be like? If I knew this situation was temporary, not in a, oh my God, you're gonna get fired or laid off.
Not like that. Just again, we're just playing with the idea, what would it be like? It's temporary for the best of reasons, let's put it that way. Okay. Maybe you would approach your day a little differently. Maybe you would remember.
Oh yeah. Actually my team's pretty cool.
Maybe you feel inspired the next time you talk to a more junior employee and you're like , wow, the passion in you. I remember feeling that way.
Maybe you'll feel inspired to mentor that person. Maybe you grab a cup of coffee with your friend Brandon, and what he's doing seems really cool. Maybe your enthusiasm is gonna inspire him to connect you to his boss.
Then maybe in, in conversing with his boss, you get offered a job that you were not even expecting. You never know. So I just invite you to play with the idea. And just to continue on the story of what happened that year.
I ended up with a beautiful community of friends.
Went on a lot of hikes. It was so magical. And when I got called back to Southern California at the end of the year, I realized that I didn't want to actually move. I like fell in love with the place, surprisingly. I was like, wow. Upstate New York really forced me to slow down and I loved it.
And remember, this was 11 years ago. I had asked my manager at the time, Hey, are there opportunities to work remote? So remote was not even really a thing, but again, I had fully said yes to that desire to move to upstate New York. So I was just like, let me just put it out there.
Unfortunately, this time around my boss couldn't make any promises. He's like, look, first of all, I'm no longer gonna be your boss. There's some reshuffling happening. So you're gonna have a new boss, one that you've never met, and also who is in a different country, so that's fun. And second, before I go, what I'll do is I will pass it along to your new boss and also like our boss's boss, like the director basically.
Then when I got back to Southern California, I was told no, it doesn't make sense because the supplier we're working with is like by contract base and it doesn't make sense to have somebody live there for longer than the contract so I was like, okay, but remember at this point I had fully said yes to my desire.
And I was of that mindset of the magical, what if this is temporary? So I just said, okay. I had already fully committed in my heart. And again, I didn't have a timeline in mind.
I mean, I had a preference for sure. I was like, I left my cats in New York and I'm in Southern California. I would like to get there as soon as possible, but let me just sit with this. I could tell it was gonna be a pivotal moment even as it was happening. And guess what?
As I started telling my friends about the situation. I was like, yeah, I really wanna move there, but it doesn't look like my current job is gonna allow me to work remote. Two of my friends offered me a job opportunity, and mind you, it wasn't, 'cause I was like, do you know anyone? I wasn't coming from a desperate energy. I was just telling a story to these friends that I've made that past year.
All this to say it, it did work out. I did end up moving, so I was in Southern California for four months and then ended up moving to upstate New York. I never could have imagined any of this happening . So that's why I think it's really important to start toying with the idea. Now, please don't take this to mean, oh, if I do this, it's gonna happen for me in like four months, or.
Six months or whatever. That's not at all what I'm trying to say here. What I am saying is it starts with your mind and your perspective shift, and you'll be surprised by the opportunities. And even like some dreams you didn't know were dreams may come out of that. I'll give another example. I was in aerospace engineering for a long time. And at that point when I was talking to the two friends who were like, oh, well there are these two opportunities. One was in the industry I was already in going back to government work, government, aerospace, engineering, and the other one was like, completely new.
I never even, like, I can't make this up. It wasn't like I was sitting there. Trying to map out my life, like, Hmm, this would be my next step. I mean, looking back, it makes sense now, but in the moment sometimes it makes absolute no sense.
Sometimes it's scary as fuck. Sometimes you're like, can I even, so what ended up happening is I got offered the job that was in my field already, and then the other job was something completely new. It would require me to leave engineering for a role that they're gonna write for me.
So not only do I not know exactly what I'm doing, but the company won't know. Also, I was scared shitless, , but again, because I was in that state of like, what if, what would this be like? Because I was in that state of adventure. That's the job I ended up taking, and it was a really cool experience.
I know as I'm telling the story that it sounds like it was something quick like this. It wasn't. So, please hear me when I say that. There was a lot of back and forth. There was a lot of oh, but can I, you know, but this thing is so new, but I've been doing this for so long and there was a lot of that.
So if you were feeling this way, it's totally normal. What I have to say to that is that just listen to your heart and trust yourself. Trust yourself. Trust yourself to figure it out. Your skills are probably a lot more transferrable than you thought.
Just to wrap this up, that year wasn't magical because it was a known temporary thing. It was magical because my perspective was to be open and to see it as an adventure.
So I invite you in the next few days, weeks, or months even, I invite you. To envision, what would it be like if this situation I'm in now was temporary? How would I approach my day? How would I feel? What types of thoughts would I be having? And then just pay attention to how different life will seem to you.
If this resonated with you, please subscribe and follow this podcast . It would mean so much to me. If you have a story you wanna share of a career pivot or something like what we talked about today, like your magical year, please shoot me a DM on Instagram. My handle is at Lead Intact. That's L-E-A-D-I-N-T-A-C-T
If you are already in the midst of wanting to do something different, but you just don't know where to start. I have a free resource called the Heart Aligned Career Transition Starter. You can get that on my website at www.leadintact.com. And with that, remember trust yourself.
Know that a magical year is waiting for you as soon as you make that perspective shift. I'll talk to you soon. Bye now.
All right, friend. That's it for today's drop. If this episode hit something deep, don't just sit with it, act on it. Share this with a friend who needs to hear it, and then head to www.leadintact.com to grab your free heart aligned career transition starter, or book a free 20 minute call with me. I'm here when you're ready to stop feeling stuck and start moving toward what you really want.
Catch you next time.