• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Page & Purpose logo

Page and Purpose

  • Home
  • About Meredith
  • Work With Me!
  • Blog: Turn the Page
  • Show Search
Hide Search

You don’t have to quit to begin

RICEMEREDITH · January 16, 2026 ·

đź“–Turn the Pageđź“–

Hi Reader,

I looked at the clock. 12:11.

4 long minutes to go.

Sitting in my car, Zoom open on my computer, hot spot on, armpits sweating (sorry but 🤷‍♀️).

What can I say? Nervous doesn’t begin to describe this scene ya’ll.

(I promise this story is Safe for Work, LOL).

I took my first sales calls sitting in my car, parked as far away from the school building as I could manage.

I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing.
Not because it was a secret—it wasn’t honestly—but because I wasn’t ready to explain it yet.

You might think that until you’re ready to fully quit, you can’t do anything else.

If I’m honest, there were many days I dreamt about quitting teaching in the most satisfying ways…

… Not signing my contract in March with loud, confident, indignance

… Pulling the old “Irish goodbye” and leaving on the last day and just not coming back

… I even considered not giving notice just to be spiteful to those I felt unsupported by

​
(Cue the scene where we get to say ALL THE THINGS to all the people)
​

TV gif. A group of friends are standing around when all of a sudden, one friend flips a table over. He flips it in a flippant manner and runs away while the friends exclaim in shock.
In my dreams

In the end, I knew I wouldn’t do any of these things. And I’m betting you feel the same way.

So then I was left with what felt like an impossible choice:
stay exactly where I was—or blow everything up and leave.

And because blowing up my life wasn’t an option, I stayed. And stayed…

And STAYED.

(Is any of this familiar, Reader?)

I admit. It kept me stuck for a long time. Way longer than it needed to (like YEARS LONGER).

What I didn’t realize yet was that there was a third path:
​starting quietly. One small step at a time.

Because here is the reality:

It’s very possible to take small, intentional steps towards the next version of your life… while you still have one foot in your old life.

For me this looked like:

➡️ Waking up as early as possible to research, learn and write. Could I do this every day? Nope. Did I do it whenever I could? Yup.

➡️ Eventually taking prospective client calls in my car or during a prep period (and I personally know at least a few other teachers who did the same when they were starting their copywriting businesses)

➡️ Using those weekend nap times (my daughter was only 2!) to work on up-skilling—and eventually to do some client work

​

Here’s what I want you know:

If you feel the nudge towards something different, it’s because there is already a version of yourself that knows you can do it.

It doesn’t matter how, exactly.

Or what your timeline is.

What matters is that with intentional action, you can step into it, now.

For me, just starting quietly, while still teaching full time, step by step:

Skills turned into momentum—which turned into clients, confidence, and eventually my exit.

And this is possible for YOU TOO.

If you started quietly this month, Reader, what would that look like?

What’s the smallest step you could take without blowing up your life?

Hit reply and tell me.

More soon,

Meredith

​

Uncategorized

Page and Purpose

Copyright © 2026 · Page & Purpose

  • Home
  • About Meredith
  • Work With Me!
  • Blog: Turn the Page