December: The Lesson in the Job Search

In July, I spontaneously decided I wanted to move to Europe—not just for a vacation, but to relocate my entire life to Spain. After a trip to Greece and Italy in June, I returned home with a lingering feeling that my journey wasn’t finished. I’ve visited Europe before and felt a deep, soul connection to the continent. Call it past lives or karma, but my spirit felt drawn there. Naturally, I started planning: How would I get there? Where would I live? What would I do for work? I figured the key to making it happen was to land a job, ideally a remote one. If I could earn U.S. dollars while living in Europe, I imagined I’d be able to live like a queen, especially in countries with a lower cost of living than the U.S.

So, I applied to jobs. I applied and applied—hundreds of applications—and nothing. Crickets. It was confusing. I have a master’s degree and am nearly finished with my PhD. I’m a director with more than five years of experience in my field. I’ve published books, host a podcast, am a certified yoga instructor, and have even appeared on *Dr. Oz*. Yet, despite all my qualifications, I couldn’t get a single call back. It felt like some cosmic joke, reminiscent of dating days when the people I liked never called back, but the ones I didn’t want couldn’t stop texting. I felt rejected and ashamed. So, I broadened my search to any and every remote job I could find.

Finally, I got a call back. The company seemed great, but there was a catch—the pay was drastically lower, cutting my current salary in half. At almost 30, I was hoping to climb the salary ladder, not slide down it. I had worked so hard to reach my current level of security, and I felt insulted that the agency thought I was worth so little. So, I turned it down.

Defeated, I kept applying and kept receiving a flood of “thank you, but no” emails. In a panic, I decided to have my resume professionally redone, spending $3,000 I didn’t have to hire a job coach, convinced this would fix everything. My resume and cover letter were revamped, and I thought for sure the offers would start rolling in. But six months later, I was still stuck—same job, same place. No leads, no traction. Just a growing collection of polite rejection emails.

Now it’s December, and I’m not packing my bags for a six-figure job in Spain. For so long, I believed that landing the perfect remote job was the prerequisite for starting my new life abroad. I thought I needed to control every detail, to force the pieces to fit together. Maybe you’ve felt the same—like you had to figure everything out before you could move forward, or that things had to go exactly as planned for you to be happy. But what if we’ve been thinking about it all wrong? What if we don’t need to know how everything will unfold? What if life doesn’t go according to plan because it’s going exactly as it should?

Perhaps we need to stop obsessing over how our goals materialize and instead surrender to a higher power that knows better than we do. That’s how obstacles become opportunities for spiritual growth.

Over the past six months, I’ve realized my lesson is to let go of outcomes. There comes a point when we need to stop forcing our lives in a particular direction and release the idea of how things “should” turn out. The universe doesn’t respond to control and manipulation; it responds to grace and patience. I’m learning to let myself be led and to embrace the beauty of doing less and being more. When we constantly live in the future—thinking, “Once this happens, then I can be happy, successful, or free”—we miss the blessings of the present. The problem isn’t the job, relationship, or whatever not working out. The problem is our expectations. These expectations limit our ability to celebrate the now, where the universe is trying to guide us.

When we cling to a specific outcome, we push away our highest good. Desperation blocks us from being thankful, and that energy repels not only the universe but potential employers, partners, and other opportunities. Have you ever thought you knew exactly what you wanted, only to have life take you in a different direction? And later, looking back, you realized that the rejection was actually protection?

I can recall many instances where “no” was simply redirection. Things don’t always happen the way we want, but they do happen the way we need. We all know fear is repellent, so instead of obsessing over getting the perfect job offer, maybe we should pray for our highest good. Instead of asking what life has for us, we should ask how we can be of service. Only when we surrender to wisdom beyond our own logic can we truly align with the universe. This requires trust, belief in the unseen, and faith that we are being supported.

The true work begins when we stop blaming external circumstances and allow ourselves to let go, letting God take the wheel. What if the detours in life are simply moving us in a better direction? What if we stop trying to control everything and let life unfold as it’s meant to? Happiness doesn’t come from external situations that are ever-changing and out of our control. When we try to play God by thinking we know best, we’re acting from a place of fear, and that misalignment blocks us from receiving the guidance and blessings waiting for us.

Today, I pray to release the need for certainty. To let go of the pushing and pulling. To surrender to a higher power. Only in this state can we be open to intuitive guidance and show up authentically as our true selves. And that’s where the real awakening begins.

Much love,

Lauren