My Story of Career Transition
/My Story of Career Transition
By: Monica Crawford
Three years ago, I sat on the couch as my husband (then fiance) kissed me goodbye before going into work. It was the day after I resigned from my former police department and the first time in over a year that we wouldn't be getting in the same car to drive into work together.
In fact, we wouldn't be working the same job or same shift with each other ever again. A sobering thought at the time considering law enforcement was how we met and something we enjoyed being able to do together.
After he left for work, I wrote a post titled, Saving the Brotherhood, and shared it to Facebook. My thoughts at the time were so pure, even in my current state of hurt. I had no idea what I would be facing in my own healing journey in the coming months or even inside of my business and my career after that moment.
This caught the eye of Joel E. Gordon, of BLUE Magazine, and thus became my very first published work as an article for BLUE Magazine. With support and enthusiasm, BLUE Magazine has chosen to publish many more pieces of my work over the last three years in The Blue Magazine.
I never imagined I would be a writer let alone a published author. It's easy to see the connection of one leading to the other when writing my book, "Thriving Inside the Thin Blue Line." At the time, I never would have believed it.
Closing the door to an employer who blocked my opportunities, and did not value, support or respect me, gave me the push to leave, which is the very thing I needed to do.
A few months before I resigned from the police department, I saw an ad on Facebook for a business coach. Realizing I had enough education and experience in the nutrition and fitness space from years of being a NCAA Division I gymnast, CrossFit Trainer and Nutrition Coach, I knew I had the ability to help other women in male-driven fields through my same experiences and coach them to achieving things they never dreamed they could.
I created Five-0 Fierce and Fit and never looked back.
Closing that first door opened the first of many doors into entrepreneurship, traveling across the U.S. to network, present keynote speeches and teach, create a podcast, and write a book about my experiences, in hopes of highlighting what needs changed, and validating many others who have experienced the same and who also want positive change inside law enforcement.
Law enforcement has a great way of putting rose colored glasses on us. We feel afraid others can ruin our own careers with one unsubstantiated IA. We fear the chatter and the rumor mill. We fear pissing off the wrong person. We intentionally stay small or quiet to keep the peace.
The beauty is that YOU have the power to take off those rose colored lenses and see clearly again. We live in a world of abundant opportunities. However, we won't ever see it if we're not actively looking for it.
Here's your encouragement to take off the rose-colored glasses, lean into who you are, your authentic self, and the vision you see for your own life, and go get it.
Perhaps that means owning your story, controlling the controllable, and stepping up as a leader in your current position. Maybe that means removing yourself from a table that no longer serves you to FIERCEly pave your way forward into something else.
Five-0 Fierce and Fit is about helping you to break your own barriers. Through one-on-one online nutrition, fitness and leadership coaching programs, I work with you through these three pillars.
Defining what it means to THRIVE inside the ‘thin blue line.’ Speaking your dreams into life while creating a plan to get there and removing barriers along the way.
We rise by lifting others, but first we must lift ourselves. Your attention must be on prioritizing yourself and becoming the best version of you before you can best serve others.
You’re only one decision away from a totally different life. The decision you make today to stop settling for your circumstances now and instead paving your way toward your biggest, scariest and most successful vision of your life will be the best decision you ever make.
Fearless. Impactful. Empowered. Resilient. Confident. Elevating.
FIERCELY,
Coach Monica
Monica Crawford is a former law enforcement officer, the author of, “Thriving Inside the Thin Blue Line,” a public speaker, nutrition and fitness coach, and owner of Five-0 Fierce and Fit. Through Five-0 Fierce and Fit, Monica creates online nutrition, fitness and mindset programs to help female first responders lose fat, gain strength, take back their confidence and get Fit For Duty. Monica aspires to validate the challenges commonly faced in the first responder fields and provide education, motivation and inspiration to chase what truly matters to you in your life and career. You’re one decision away from a totally different life. Follow Monica on Instagram: @five0.fierce.and.fit
