It feels like more and more people nowadays start questioning what they currently do, especially when working in fixed or corporate jobs for many years. If you are one of them and feel you would like to change your life but don’t know how and where to start, this blog post will give you some good ideas and inspiration.
In this blog post, I would like to share my story of changing my life with you and also give you some useful tools that will help you change your life!
Firstly I have to admit, change and growth are not easy and it does usually not happen overnight. The idea to where I am now actually started in 2015 – almost 7 years ago.
I have changed my life around quite radically over the last 5ish years but all in small steps. Oftentimes people call me brave and say they wouldn’t have the guts to do such changes but to be honest, I had many fears, and being brave doesn’t mean you don’t have fears, it means acting or making decisions despite having fears! I strongly believe anyone can do or achieve anything in their lives and create the life of their dreams. But let´s have a look first at my journey to give you a bit of a better idea.
At the time I was working full-time in a corporate job and had been in the corporate industry for more than 10 years when I felt that I somehow wanted to change my life. I knew surfing was my biggest passion so the most logical idea of what to do next at that time was to start my own business – an Eco Surf & Yoga House. I started brainstorming and writing a business plan in my free-time as I thought that was going to be my next plan or project. But then in the same year on NYE, I sat down with a good friend in a kayak on the Orange River in Namibia – while being on a 5-day kayaking adventure – getting drunk on red wine and brainstorming about what we actually want in our lives. And I realized I did not want to be tied down by my own business, but I wanted to be freer and travel more. I had never done any traveling besides taking regular 2 week holidays until then. This is how the idea to my first plan was born. A few weeks later I suggested to my manager to take a longer holiday of maybe 3 months – like a mini-sabbatical and they agreed to give me 2 months. 1 month paid leave and 1 month unpaid. It was also the first time that I traveled on my own and that I went backpacking. I left for Bali, Indonesia in July 2016 just after my birthday. This was the longest leave I had ever taken and the best decision up until then.
During the 6 weeks in Indonesia and 1 week in Australia, I met so many interesting people and had such interesting conversations, and felt so inspired to do something different. But I didn’t know what? Even though I didn’t have any plans or ideas, 2 weeks after I was back from my trip I quit my job. I wanted to live my life the way that the people do that I met in Bali. So many of them told me they took a year’s sabbatical or just quit their jobs. And I thought, „hell yeah let’s do this”. The next week or two were hell! I went from “this is so cool” to “omg, what did I do? I don’t have a plan what to do nor a visa after I leave my job” (if you didn’t know I am German living in South Africa and at that time I was dependent on the visa from a fixed job). In a conversation with my manager about 2 weeks after I quit, he told me that he could have almost already sensed that I might quit my job after coming back and said in the same sentence “you could have also worked 3 days per week from Bali” and suggested to me to think about a different type of work agreement. And that I did! A lot! I discussed it with many friends and in the end, I decided to keep my job and scaled down to working 3 days per week and earning 60% of my salary as well as having the freedom to work remotely as much as I liked from anywhere.
Of course, this was my situation, scenario, and opportunity of my employer allowing me to do this and at that time I had worked in the job for about 5 or 6 years which helps as you can be trusted to do a good job also remotely and in less time.
On top of that, I requested another month’s leave for Jan 2017 (4 months later) to go to India for a Yoga teacher training (one of the plans I came up with during my stay in Bali.) Before I left for India, I sold my furniture, a lot of my belongings, the rest went into storage and I started to become a Nomad since I could not afford the rent on my lower salary anymore. Living out of bags pretty much. Whenever I didn’t travel for work or privately I would rent a room here and there in Cape Town for anything from 2 weeks to 3 months.
I guess you could call this a light to medium size step or change in the right direction. Now I was able to travel more, have more free-time to do what I love (e.g. surfing, hiking, being in nature) and still had a job with a steady income – even if lower.
Another 3 years later – with a permanent residency permit in my pocket – I finally quit my job in the corporate world and went full-time traveling – the first time in my life! I had the safety of another job offer in my pocket for when I would return from this trip – but 9 months into the travel while being in India my heart and intuition were speaking very loudly to me and it was impossible to ignore this inner voice – so I called the owner of the company I was supposed to go work for and said “I can’t really explain it, but it doesn’t feel right to come work for you. My heart says “no”. I didn’t have any other job prospects or ideas of what I would be doing going forward, but all I knew and felt was I could not accept this job and go back into the corporate world. I returned to South Africa a mere 2 weeks before the “hard lockdown” in March 2020 with no money left and no job. So this was no more “soft” change to my life. Now I was diving headfirst into the unknown following the call of my heart.
If you like to read the continuation of this story, click here to read more about what happened when I jumped off the cliff and went into the unknown.
The above is of course a very brief summary of what happened over many years but I would like to share a few tips and tools with you that helped me along the way of changing my life around.
Steps and tools that help you to change your life:
- Identify your fears
One of the first things I did back then after I realized I want to change in my life was to identify my biggest fears, which were “Fear of the unknown” and “Financial security”. I then worked on those fears slowly (reading and meeting like-minded people helped a lot!) and continuously so they wouldn’t stand in my way anymore.
Nowadays I pretty much thrive in the unknown – I think it is the best place to be not to know what is happening next! It makes life so much more exciting! There are so many possibilities out there that you cannot even imagine.
For me to have been able to do the changes to my life I wished to do, I had to change myself and do a lot of work on my mind and belief systems. What helped me is reading a lot of books, meeting new people, and making new different friends who were more similar to what I wanted in my life.
2. Identify your values and what is most important to you
It is also important to identify what your values are, what is most important in life for you, and then align your actions and behavior with those values as often and much as possible. It is good to write it down so you can remind yourself about it regularly.
3. Break your goal down into smaller steps
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, all you need to do is take the first step”. Oftentimes when we have a big idea or goal or dream we have no clue how to get there. It seems scary and impossible. But the secret is to break it down into lots of different small steps and just start with the first one.
4. Read, read, read! (books give so much inspiration)
Below I am listing some of the books that helped me grow, evolve and change:
- The monk who sold his Ferrari (the first book I read that got me into the right direction)
- The Secret
- E-Squared & E-Cubed by Pam Grout
- The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton
- The Untethered Soul & The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
- The 4-Hour workweek by Timothy Ferris
- A new earth by Eckhart Tolle
- The power of the heart
- The power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
- The seven spiritual laws of success by Deepak Chopra
- Breaking the habit of being yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza
The last book “Breaking the habit of being yourself – How to lose your mind and create a new one” by Dr. Joe Dispenza was probably one of the most important ones. I read the book and afterward over 1-2 years I continuously read over and over again through the sections of the book that I had highlighted to really internalize the process of changing my thoughts and working on my mind.
5. Working with affirmations & intentions
Over the years I have written down many lists with affirmations or intentions to work against any fears and take a leap into the unknown, into changing my life.
- Go beyond
- Take the call – feel empowered
- I am the hero of my own life
- I have a choice and am responsible for my own adventure
- Don’t follow somebody else’s path, find your own
- Stretch! Do the things that scare you!
- Don’t take life too seriously – it is just a play.
- I am extremely resourceful
- Relax & Breathe
- Do what I want to do
- Let go of perfection and fear
- Follow my heart
- Focus on what is really important to me
- Do MY thing, follow MY path, and share MY light with the world
- Life is happening RIGHT NOW. Every moment.
- Follow my excitement level!
- Take risks!
- My thoughts create my reality!
- Learn to love uncertainty
- Let go of any worry
- Let go of who I was told to be
- Let go of worrying about the future, about money and security. Know that I am safe.
I strongly believe in writing down any goals, intentions, dreams, affirmations, etc. And not just as a new years resolution but regularly – at least monthly. To be clear where you want to go, to re-read it regularly, and to direct your mind and thinking in the right direction again and again.
5. Ask yourself these (or similar) questions
I have also continuously asked myself a lot of questions again and again over the years and wrote the answers to the questions down to find out where my journey could go:
- What makes me feel most alive?
- What are my talents?
- What made me stick out as a child?
- What have I never done but always wanted to do?
- What are my goals?
- What are my beliefs?
- What are my values?
- What do I want in my life?
- What do I need to be happy?
- Not-to-do-list (what should I avoid to reach my goals?)
I hope that this post will help you to feel inspired or at least open your mind to new ways and ideas. If you find yourself in a situation where you want to do changes to your life but still feel lost, feel free to reach out to me – I also offer personal guiding along your journey of change.
My last thoughts on changing one’s life and growth, in general, are that growth really is a lifelong journey. Goals or ambitions I had many years ago got me where I am today. But that does not mean that where I am now will continue to be the right way of life or job for me forever. So it is important to regularly throughout your life take a step back and evaluate who we are and where we want to go.
And always ask yourself are you the victim of your life or the architect of your future? We are so blessed as humans today to be able to choose freely what we want to do and really the world is our oyster! Anything is possible!
THE NAKED TRUTH
Making major changes to your life as well as personal growth can be pretty damn hard at times. And it is often not fun. But so far I must say it has all been worth it!
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