Leap: What I’m Doing With My Time After I Take the Plunge

“You’re leaving? What are you going to do?” (Said with an exotic mix of terror, awe, and confusion with a hint of frustration and a healthy handful of ‘I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it’.)

This is a fairly common response I’m getting as I begin to make my plans for Leap Day known. To be fair, I also have a tremendous number of wonderful people in my life who couldn’t be happier with my decision, and who think it’s about time I finally did this! The questions of what I’m going to do with myself post-leap is entirely valid and it’s high time I answered exactly what I will and won’t be doing in this newly designed life o’ mine.

Things I will be doing:

• Finishing my advanced teacher training at ISHTA Yoga to complete my 500-hour teacher certification. There will be a celebration when it’s all wrapped up this summer!

• Working on Compass Yoga, the nonprofit I founded a year ago to focus on improving the health of all people by teaching the therapeutic benefits of yoga and meditation through free and low-cost classes and workshops. Given the demand and need in New York City, the programming requiress more of my attention. We’re also eagerly awaiting the approval of our 501(c)3 status to begin fundraising efforts.

• Working on my freelance writing and a few personal writing projects like The Geronimo Project. (Know someone who took a leap of faith in their career and wants to share the story? Send them my way!)

• Consulting with  Sesame Workshop. I have been tremendously lucky to be a consultant this year with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the education research arm of the Sesame Workshop, as they set-up their second annual National STEM Video Game Challenge. I’ll be continuing that work this summer and also looking to pick up some additional consulting work if possible. Someone’s got to make sure my pup, Phineas, has a warm bed and a full belly!

• Running a pilot of Innovation Station. About 2 years ago I started working on a new product development curriculum for middle and high school students that I named Innovation Station. After a number of iterations, I finally found a format that is worthy of a pilot program. Now that I’ll have time during the school day, I’m going in search of a partner school. (I’m taking suggestions!)

• Learning to code. Thanks to Codecademy, I’m fully indulging my inner nerd to learn the basics of coding as a way to grow my skill set while I stretch my mind. “Why does a yoga teacher need to learn how to code?” you ask. With the way our world is going, a knowledge of coding will be as necessary basic computer skills in the coming years.

Things I won’t be doing:

• Sitting around eating Pop Tarts and watching TV. Well, that’s not entirely true. I enjoy a good Pop Tart now and then, and I do love TV. My consumption of both will be kept under control.

• Doing tedious, menial work that doesn’t take advantage of my full set of interests and skills. (Enough of that!)

• Wallowing in regret over the risk I’m taking.

• Spending a lot of money. I don’t spend that much money now, but I’ll be making adjustments to do more with less. I’m actually really excited about living in an even thriftier fashion.

It’s going to be exciting to see what comes of this mix. Rest assured it will all be shared here.