I didn’t escape the nine to five world and find my passion by my own volition. I was forced to dig deep and find out who I really was when I was made redundant at the age of 52, and couldn’t find another job for love nor money. After more knock backs than I’d like to count, I decided to finish a book I had started writing some years earlier. In the end, rather than being a vanity project as it had started out when I was earning a healthy six figure salary, I needed to be really strategic in the way I positioned the book because I was going to have to use it as a vehicle to launch a coaching practice.

 

The only problem was that as I often joke, I had written the wrong book. I say that because it was targeted towards helping women navigate their way around the midlife space (which I was doing myself at the time). What I didn’t know was that I was going to have an epiphany when I was standing on stage launching my first book which is called “Thrive in Midlife”. The epiphany I had was in the form of a blinding flash of clarity where I realised that I wasn’t put on this earth to coach women through the midlife phase. But what I was put on this earth to do, is help other people get that feeling of wholeness and clarity of purpose that I got when I completed the hero’s journey of writing my first book.

 

That’s how I found my passion. Essentially guiding others through the hero’s journey of writing a book is what gives my life meaning and gets me out of bed with a spring in my step every morning.

 

With the benefit of hindsight I understand why I spent my whole working life up to the age of 52 employed by the Australian government. Having a ‘regular’ job was like having a security blanket. On a deeper level, the cold, hard truth of it comes down to a fundamental lack of belief in the possibility of a different life.

 

Looking back on it now I can identify times when the universe was tapping me on the shoulder long before it took the decision of getting out of my comfort zone into its own hands.

 

It turns out that being made redundant was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I say that because it forced me to tap into a level of resourcefulness I would have never found otherwise. I not only believe in myself now, I also love myself for being the incredibly resilient and creative person that I am. The bottom line is that self belief is key to living a life of meaning and fulfillment.

 

To me the word entrepreneur means being unstoppable in the pursuit of one’s dreams, and staying true to one’s deep and abiding sense of purpose.

 

The biggest business idea I ever had took me Monserrat in Spain to meet up with Julia Cameron (of “The Artists Way” fame) to investigate the opportunity of collaborating with her. It wasn’t so much a matter of having faith in myself, as feeling compelled to follow my crazy dream.

 

Looking back on it now, I guess taking myself (and nobody else) half way across the world to meet one of my hero’s was a big leap of faith. It all just seemed to fall into place though.

 

I’ve moved away from running workshops based on my own version of the Artist’s Way, but the whole journey from beginning to end taught me timeless lessons in trusting my gut and not the little voice in my head that represents the self doubter that I used to be.

 

After the honeymoon period of my first year in business when I wasn’t overly concerned about the tiny profit I made, I started to get really worried about things not being a whole lot better in my second year. Fortunately toward the end of the second year the clients I was working with were getting such great results that momentum through positive word of mouth really started to pay dividends. What’s more, I’d become much more savvy around the business aspects of running a business by that time as well. Since then, I’ve not only survived, but truly thrive running the business that lights me up and makes sense of the fact that I’ve been given the gift of life.

 

“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow” Mahatma Gandhi