When Job Security Becomes Your Prison

You know that feeling on Sunday night? That pit in your stomach that grows heavier as the weekend slips away? Yeah, that's not normal. And it's definitely not what "security" is supposed to feel like.

Let me tell you something nobody wants to say out loud: that secure job you're clinging to might be the very thing that's destroying you.

I know this because I lived in that prison for thirty years.

The Golden Cage I Built for Myself

For three decades, I crushed it in real estate. The last few years? I was pulling in over $500,000 a year. From the outside, I was winning. But inside? I was dying.

I was numbing myself out—binge-watching whatever, not present for my family, eating and drinking garbage, never traveling, just existing. I wasn't even saving my money. No real motivation. No vision beyond maybe the weekend plans or my next vacation. Just STUCK.

Sound familiar?

Here's what I finally understood: I I was stuck because fear, scarcity, and comfort had convinced me staying was safer than betting on myself.

I was really, really wrong.

What "Security" Actually Looks Like

Let's paint the real picture of what your "secure" job probably looks like:

• Sunday nights filled with dread

• Binge-watching to avoid thinking about Monday

• Too mentally exhausted to do anything meaningful

• Not sure what your purpose is

• Vision doesn't extend past the weekend or vacations to escape your life

• Eating like shit and or drinking to much

• No idea where to go from here or what your purpose is

And yet we tell ourselves this is security. This is what we're supposed to want. This is what our parents and society told us to strive for—graduate high school, go to college, get a sensible job, save money, buy the house……But what if that path isn't yours?

You're Not Stuck Because You're Not Capable

Here's what most people don't understand (and what kept me trapped for way too long): your personality is not permanent.

The person you are right now—the one who's "not an entrepreneur," who "doesn't know how to run a business," who "doesn't have what it takes"—that was me too. But that's not who you ARE. That's just who you've been conditioned to be.

You're not stuck because of lack of skill or capability. You're stuck because your environment is designed to keep you exactly where you are.

Your environment has conditioned you to:

• Wait for permission

• Trade time for money

• Believe someone else should guarantee your security (as if that comes from anywhere but within)

• Think taking risks is reckless instead of essential

That version of you who builds a business? They already exist. They're just suffocating under layers of programming and conditioning.

This transition isn't about becoming someone new. It's about becoming who you're really meant to be. About finally being able to answer: Who am I and why am I here?

What You Actually Need (Hint: It's Not What You Think)

People get paralyzed thinking they need:

• The perfect business idea

• Six months of savings

• Every skill mastered

• Zero fear

Let me tell you about my transition: I definitely didn't have the perfect business idea. This is my third iteration—I'm now on a mission to 10x my business. Six months of savings? Try six years of debt because I was such a mess. I built my business while climbing out of a hole.

Every skill mastered? Not even close. I've taken so many courses over the last three years while building. And zero fear? Even though I'm kind of fearless by nature, there was still plenty of fear—especially when my business blew up and my husband left and debt came pouring out of every corner.

Here's what you actually need:

A bridge, not a cliff. You don't have to quit your job tomorrow. Give yourself a 6-12 month runway. Build the foundation while you're still employed. Test your offer. Find your first clients. Prove the model works before you jump.

(I torpedoed the ships, but that doesn't have to be your path.)

The skills you already have, repositioned. You're not starting from zero. You have ten, twenty, maybe thirty years of experience and expertise. Even if you were a stay-at-home mom for twenty years—there's a ton of skills and expertise there. You already have the lumber. Now we're just building a different house.

A new relationship with risk. The biggest thing about becoming an entrepreneur? You need to get comfortable entering the unknown, having a big question mark around money.

In corporate, risk means losing your security. In entrepreneurship, risk means creating your security. You're not gambling. You're investing in the one asset that can never be downsized, restructured, or replaced: you.

The question isn't "Can I afford to take that risk?"

The question is: "Can I afford to stay in this prison for another year? Another five? Another twenty?"

The Certainty You're Waiting For Doesn't Come First

After coaching dozens of professionals through this transition, here's what I know: the certainty you're waiting for doesn't come before you start. It comes during the process.

If you're waiting for that moment where it all feels right and you feel ready—that's not going to happen until you start taking action.

You don't get certain and then become an entrepreneur. You become an entrepreneur and then the certainty builds with every client conversation, every strategy you implement, every system you put in place.

Clarity comes from knowing what you're building and why. Confidence comes from consistency over time.

What's Actually Hard

I'm not going to lie—the transition is uncomfortable. Building a business while working full-time is hard. Unlearning a lifetime of conditioning is hard. Dealing with the guilt when you want more than "the stable job everyone says you should keep" is hard.

(And yes, that guilt is just programming. Your parents, society, everyone told you what the path was supposed to look like. When your desires don't match that programming, guilt shows up automatically.)

But you know what's harder?

Waking up at fifty ( like me) and realizing you've spent your entire life building somebody else's dream while your dream died of neglect.

I remember my mom crying every single day on her way home from work for the last five years of her career. She would call me just crying. She stayed in that prison way too long.

So did I. And it ended up blowing up around me.

That is what's hard. Living in mediocrity, plugging the void with things that aren't good for you just so you can sleep at night and wake up to start all over again—that's what's really hard.

Stepping into the unknown and taking the risk to build your business? That's nowhere near as hard as staying stuck.

Why I Show Up

I'm a high school dropout and probably the biggest mess-up you'll ever know in so many ways. But I fail forward always, and I'm always growing into a new and better version of myself.

Three years ago, everything crashed around me. I pivoted on a dime and built a six-figure coaching business in less than a year.

Now I've discovered my life purpose: to help as many people as possible build a business that supports the life of their dreams. That's why my main program is called The Business of Becoming—because you get to choose who you want to be and what kind of life you want to live.

I truly believe that when we live in that space of inspiration—when we're 100% inspired by our work, living in spirit, following our passion and calling—opportunities just begin to open for us. The path opens.

And no, maybe it doesn't look like what people say it's supposed to look like. But it's your journey. Your destiny.

The Door Is Open

The door is open. You just have to walk through it.

You're not stuck. The version of you that builds a thriving business already exists. Alignment is the new hustle. And you absolutely can have it all when you align your business with your authentic purpose.

The question is: are you ready to stop researching and start building?

Love, Light, and Prosperity,

Prosperous Jenn

Soulful Prosperity Coach