The Day I Stopped Hustling and Started Aligning
Alignment is the New Hustle
By: Jamilah Lang
Hi there!
Welcome to the very first Chic Work Chick blog post! I’m Jamilah Lang founder of Chic Work Chick.
This blog has been a long time coming! It’s been on my “to do list” for over a year. The process of developing this blog and brand has been full of trial and error but I am happy to say I am more ecstatic and passionate than ever!
I promise to share my background and how Chic Work Chick became my life in a future post but first, let me tell you how I got rid of the HUSTLE and GRIND in my life and surrendered to ALIGNMENT and ALLOWING.
In 2016, I left a prominent, 6-year career as Corporate Communication Specialist and started providing independent consultation services to municipalities on environmental concerns.
I knew that leaving a secure job would be tough but not how tough. Retaining clients was a challenge plus I was doing a lot of work that wasn’t satisfying. Yes, I was good at it and saved my clients hundreds of thousands of dollars but I didn’t feel passion.
What brought me true joy was the little Instagram community I created—Chic Work Chick.
I created the page because among the thousands of women that had their profiles on Instagram, none seemed to represent a modern corporate working woman. This led to me using my latent interest in fashion and work wear to craft a unique Instagram page which soon attracted a small set of followers that I interacted with daily.
The highlight of my week was curating a selection of best work wear fashions and choosing a #ChicWorkChick of the week.
On reaching the 50,000 follower mark, I knew that Chic Work Chick was special and I wanted to create something more than a work wear inspiration page.
First, I attempted launching a clothing line through Kickstarter. In spite of working twice as hard as I ever did in any of my previous jobs and investing most of my savings, the venture failed.
Although disappointed, I was not in despair. Thankfully, I had the support of an investor and a major national retailer who was going to help me bring this project to life. But when the investor backed out, so did the retailer, and I was left with nothing.
This setback jolted me severely. With two small children, a consulting firm in ill-health and a husband under immense financial pressure, I just couldn’t take it and collapsed, both figuratively and literally. I found myself on the living room floor with an ice-pack over my eyes due to crying for hours.
I couldn’t comprehend how a hard-working person like me could fail.
In complete desperation, I asked God for help. I would call it a prayer but it really was a complete surrender. “Ok, God. I give it up. Show me another way.”
Then I heard a voice inside me say, “do nothing.” Somehow, after hearing those words, doing nothing made so much sense. I don’t know why but I had complete clarity for the first time in a long time. This was probably God’s way of helping me as doing nothing turned out to be the solution!
A series of what I call “tiny little miracles” ended up rescuing me! It started with me receiving the book “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle from a friend which led me to other similar readings and eventually to Podcasts and endless YouTube videos. I ended up in an all-day spiritual retreat with my friend after being reluctant initially.
At the retreat, the instructor discussed flow and alignment. Her definition of flow meant: to only take action when it felt good or easy. Anything outside the feeling of joy and ease meant it was not in alignment with your soul.
So I began designing a life that was centered around flow, ease, and alignment.
“Flow” can come in different forms. To me, “Flow”, meant only doing the things that brought me joy and stop doing the things that stressed me out. One of the stressful things was networking. Attending 3-4 networking events weekly was common for me but each one left me mentally and physically exhausted. I decided to attend only events that excited me on the inside. I was down to one event a month and it used to have fun and be highly productive.
Next, I chose to work with only the clients whom made me happy. This meant losing some money but not dealing with people who were unpleasant, especially one client in particular who was really obnoxious.
Weekly meetings with this client was dreadful and getting rid of them was a huge relief and made my work enjoyable. Soon, work became fun and my creative energy started to come alive again!
With this new-found energy, I decided to re-launch Chic Work Chick!
Having “surrendered” all expectations, it is with a free mind that I entered into this venture again.
Surrender isn’t a bad thing. It’s not about giving up but not being desperate for outcomes.
I still want to start my clothing line but without undue struggle. What is meant for me will come naturally.
This blog is to tell all readers that we are in this together! I’ve grown during this process and you will too.
This will be the place where woo-hoo, fashion, and strategy merge.
I have sought out the best female money-mindset coaches, brand specialists, celebrity stylist, and career coaches to help us along the way.
Thanks for joining me. Let’s start our life-changing ride!
Jamilah Lang
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