Raise your hand if you can’t wait to face another hardship so that you can thrive from adversity and be reborn from your ashes!

I can imagine nobody’s raising their hands. 

We hear it time and time again, and we know it to be true. Three years ago, I was pregnant with my second child when I put the numbers together: after the new addition to the family arrived, our academic salaries wouldn’t cover our most basic expenses, whether one of us quit our jobs or not. We had to change something. 

Saying goodbye to my academic lifestyle involved tears, fears, and resentment. For a while, I lost myself, unable to identify who I was or my life’s call. Adding job and financial insecurity to the equation only made it harder. 

Three years later, though, I’m living the best years of my life. I have a house, a job, and a side business that fulfills me, and I even launched a course teaching others how I did it! 

Start Your Sci-Comm Journey – Climate Ages

Why I became a Science Communicator after years in Academia

Analyzing the situation, I can’t help but ask myself: would I have made it this far if it wasn’t for the hardship times? Did I need them to survive?

As I mentioned, nobody wants hardship so that they can grow, but we can’t deny that if it doesn’t kill you, hardship can move you to new places you couldn’t even imagine before. 

But let’s shift the conversation to something I’m very passionate about: Climate Change. The way things are progressing, we will be experiencing major changes in our climate and environment. These changes will force humans to rethink how we live and survive on Earth. 

We also know that, while never this fast, humans have experienced other climatic shifts. What can we learn from these? Today’s story has something important to say about this. 

I've talked many times about how hard it was for me to change my career after years in academia. At first, I spent so many days depressed without knowing what my call in life was anymore. 

For some reason, I couldn't function without a "call," what the Japanese call the "Ikigai."

In this fascinating book, the authors, fellow Catalans, explore how this "Ikigai" is helping people in Japan live long and fulfilling lives, with some of the islands in Japan having more centenarians than anywhere else in the world!

This is a book everyone can benefit from, but I strongly recommend it if you are facing important life changes. 

And if you're like me and prefer to books in audio form, I have good news. 

Audible offers a 30-day free trial and then 3 months for $0.99/month. That's a free audiobook each month!

Find the offer in the link below. 

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