Sara’s Evolution Part 3: Choosing Fulfillment
Quietly, things began to shift. I was drifting from the mission and from the very thing that fueled me.
After five-plus years in my role at Parks Foundation Calgary, I’d worn all the hats, built better processes, created new grant programs from the ground up, held different titles, and carved out a name for myself doing work that mattered.
But quietly, things began to shift. I was drifting from the mission and from the very thing that fueled me – the connection to community.
I didn’t notice it all at once. It was a slow unravelling, masked by the constant grind of meetings, metrics, and mounting responsibilities. The work still mattered. But I no longer felt close to the people we were serving. And the deeper I went into operations and administration, the more I felt like I was losing sight of the impact.
Then came the pandemic.
tHE CATALYST
That season changed everything, for everyone. It cracked things open in ways we’re still trying to make sense of. For many of us in the nonprofit world, it exposed truths we’d been too busy to face. For me, it marked the beginning of the end…
The abrupt announcement came in March 2020, and suddenly we were all working from home. The energy of the office – the laughter, the impromptu brainstorms, the social banter around the coffee maker – was gone. My days became back-to-back Zoom meetings and an unrelenting to-do list. I put on a brave and positive face because that’s who I am – I wasn’t going to be easily shaken, and I chose to lead. But I’m not invincible. Passion and positivity weren’t enough, and eventually, exhaustion began to win.
I kept telling myself I could handle it. After all, I cared deeply, and I’d always held myself to a high standard.
But the more I pushed through, the heavier it all became. It was as though I was walking a mental tightrope – holding it together on the outside while everything felt shaky underneath. (Can you relate?)
The stress was constant. I wasn’t sleeping. My body was sending clear signals that something wasn’t right – but I brushed them off, telling myself I just needed to be stronger. That it was just the pandemic.
A DEEPER TRUTH - MY WHISPER
But it wasn’t just the pandemic.
There was a deeper truth whispering beneath the surface – a truth I didn’t want to admit. It was telling me this wasn’t my path anymore. And eventually, that whisper got louder. It showed up as anxiety, burnout, and a misalignment I couldn’t ignore.
I was faced with a crossroads. I could ignore the symptoms and push forward, or I could listen – to the exhaustion, the discomfort, the inner voice nudging me toward something else.
So, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life: I quit.
And I did it without a plan.
It didn’t make sense on paper. I walked away from a respected, stable, management-level job at the height of the pandemic, when people were being laid off left and right. To some, it seemed risky or premature. A few quietly admired the courage it took. Others thought I’d lost it entirely. But the truth is, I didn’t leave because I had a backup plan – I left because I couldn’t live with the misalignment any longer. That was not going to be my life.
And here’s the thing: I didn’t leave to become an entrepreneur,
I didn’t have a grand vision, a polished business plan, or a dream of working for myself. I left to create space. I left because I couldn’t show up for a cause I no longer felt connected to, and I didn’t want to become someone who stayed just because it was safe. I chose to leave because loving the work I did mattered to me.
When people asked, “So what’s next?” I smiled and told them the t
ruth: “I have no idea.” And that was the most honest I’d been with myself in a long time.
I took six months off. I rested. I healed. I wrote a book. I slowly started returning to myself.
But I never planned to leave the nonprofit sector. That was never on the table. I just didn’t know what it would look like or where I would go but I knew I couldn’t choose just one cause. I didn’t want to choose. I wanted to support many. I wanted to help organizations tell their stories, advocate for their communities, and build the kind of impact that gets noticed – and funded.
Because even though I’d stepped away from one role, I hadn’t stepped away from the sector.
And so, Step Up Consulting was born – not from ambition, but from alignment.
From a desire to choose fulfillment and to do the work that I was truly passionate about. I chose to walk alongside others doing incredible and meaningful work and wanted to remind them that their stories matter.
Enjoying this series? Keep reading with Part 4: In the Arena.
I drop something BIG at the end you don't want to miss.
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I’m Sara (she/her), the leader behind this mission, and I want you to believe in your power to make a difference. Just as a circle has no end and no beginning you too have the infinite potential to evolve, transform, and create change in your community and I want to help you achieve it.
