What lululemon Means to Me

At least once a week I get an email from an active woman who is tied to a desk and craving something more- something more fulfilling, something better suited to her passions. I worked at the lululemon in Orlando for a year and am often asked about my experience there. Did I like it? Did I use my degree? Did I ever regret leaving my corporate desk job?

I left lululemon to move to North Carolina, but in no way is my career with the company over with. I’m actually having a yoga/coffee date with the Asheville showroom manager today!

On my last day at the Orlando lululemon (after leaving the best team and balling my eyes out for it), I wrote a bit about what lululemon means to me. Obviously working at lululemon isn’t for everyone, but hopefully what I found with this company will inspire others to seek out the possibilities.

What lululemon Means to Me

I was lost. I was scared of who I was and the possibility of never finding it. Goals were aimless, small, an afterthought. I didn’t fit into the puzzle of a 9-to-5 and I was starting to believe there was no alternative. I wanted success, happiness, a career. I wanted to make a difference. Instead I applied for jobs I didn’t want and thought, “there must be something more.”

One day I was let go from a job I never wanted in the first place. It was a paycheck and a constant reminder that I lived to do something I didn’t enjoy, something that didn’t make a difference. I commuted home, my bag stuffed with my belongings, in heartfelt tears. This wasn’t working for me and I didn’t know where to go. What was my role in this life? In that moment I declared I wouldn’t let this open door shut. I would never again settle for a paycheck, for the low, generic standards I had set for myself. I was going to reach out and I was going to do work that I loved. I committed to pursue all my passions without a second thought to the how’s or why’s that they’d work out.

A month later I stepped on the floor for my first shift at lululemon athletica. I was thrilled to talk to a woman who had just started running and needed a supportive bra. I loved the colorful walls and the amazing dancers, triathletes and yogis I worked with. I was challenged to write out my goals- to look one, five and 10 years into the future and specifically declare what I wanted out of life. ‘No way,’ I told myself. I couldn’t possibly know what I wanted, who I was. I was a question mark who was just getting along.

Three months and 400 Groove pants later I took another try at my goals. My heart skipped for joy as my passions, my hope and my goals flowed onto the paper. I realized what mattered most to me and clearly wrote out the standards for this exciting life I was owning. This job became more than a happy place with colorful walls. A fire was set under my feet.

A few weeks later I declare that I will no longer settle for anything in life as I leave comfort zones that were weighing me down. I am too strong, too dynamic, to settle. My lululemon athletica family stands behind me. Letting go of my security blankets was exciting as I realized not only could I stand on my own, but I could dance! I was alive and I was in control of my choices and my destiny!

A year has passed since I began with this empowering, colorful company. I can educate you for hours about the four-way stretch of luon or what the Groove pant will do for your bum (and dating life). I can add my experience to my resume, maybe even tout my promotion. Rather, more than the paycheck, more than the amazing conversations, I want to scream from the tip of my yoga mat that thanks to this crazy Canadian company, my life is changed. I have strengths and I have opportunities and I own it all. I have goals- big goals- and a team who believes in me to push me toward them and tell me to try again when I fall short. I have thirty people who will call me on my crap and tell me I am taking things too personally or that I am worth it to work on this or that. Thanks to lululemon athletica I believe there is a world beyond the norm, where yoga changes lives and you can be whatever you want when you grow up. Thanks to this company I can tell you quite a bit about thoughtful, brave, creative me and how when I grow up, I still want to wear black stretchy pants to work.

Are you happy in your career? Current situation aside, what would you love to be doing right now?

Tagged as: career, changes, lululemon