I don't know about you, but I woke up one day and barely recognized my life. Almost 20 years of being professionally unfulfilled and just going along with the motions left me feeling like a diluted, boring, unmotivated version of myself.
It was heartbreaking, confusing and demoralizing — and, just super shitty.
Even though I had accomplished a lot (hello, PhD), in many ways I felt like a failure:
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I didn't own a house or have kids like most of my friends.
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I wasn't kicking ass in a career I loved.
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Being in a huge giant funk had left me coping with wine and takeout — and now my clothes didn't fit.
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I was deeply burned out from almost 20 years of working 2 or 3 jobs because IDK if you've heard, but teachers don't make a lot of money and NYC is kind of expensive.
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Some days it was hard enough to put not-leggings on, let alone kick ass and build an empire.
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The punk rock suck the marrow out of life person I had once been seemed like a distant memory.
One mid-ish life crisis pls...
Overwhelm threatened to bury me: I wanted to change so SO many things, but didn't even know where to begin.
But, I knew I was meant for more and I refused to give in to mid-ish life malaise.
Quit my job before I had a real back-up plan because I could no longer stomach going into a job I felt so disconnected from.
Spoiler alert: things got a lot A LOT messier before they got better.
But I refused to accept complacency. I chose to believe the life I knew I was meant for was simply waiting for me to go and collect it. Along the way, I:
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hired my own Confidence Coach who helped me reframe my conversations with myself, dismantle overwhelm and remember who the f*ck I was
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chose myself over and over
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became a certified life coach
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turned down side hustles and roles in my old industry because they did not serve me
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learned how to care for myself but also be honest about my efforts
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educated myself, kept learning, kept growing and choosing to evolve
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clung to the belief that there is a whole wide world of Opportunity out there and possibility is not a finite resource
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privileged consistency over perfection
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did The Work. And then did some more work.
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put myself out there again and again
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was brave enough to pivot and reinvent as many times as I needed to
So I...
I'm here to tell you that the life you want is possible, you are worth it, it is not too late (not by a freakin long shot) and it's time to get the F after it.
erin m. gallagher, phd
coach | writer | tea drinker | human
Dr. Erin M. Gallagher is a native New York city-er, former educator and sassy pants at large. She could eat pizza every day of the week and be totally content.
Erin believes in reinvention and unapologetically going after the life that's gonna set your hair on fire because you're just so stoked to live it.
When she's not coaching, she like to do fitness things and watch anything dystopian or Sci-Fi. In another life she'd be a drummer in a punk band. In this life she's beyond grateful to work with mid-ish life humans to help them return to themselves.
#iusedtobeateacher
— BA, University of California, Berkeley
— MA, City University of New York, Brooklyn College
— MPhil, Trinity College Dublin
— PhD, St. John's University
— Certified Resilience + Life Coach
— Certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Teens
— The Professional Course in Positive Neuroplasticity (Rick Hanson, PhD)
— Certified Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) Practitioner
— Master Practitioner EFT/TFT Tapping