Design You

We Begin The text from my mother read, “This time forty-two years ago, I was feeling rather uncomfortable. It was worth it!” It appears that the pain of childbirth has its rewards, and on the morning of my forty-second birthday, I am sitting overlooking the ocean, on the most easterly point of Australia, awaiting the dawning of a new day and contemplating the year that was. I am lucky; I associate most of what I have learnt in life with what I hear of the process of childbirth. Giving birth is a different experience for everyone. The emotions involved vary, the pain may be immense, but the outcome for most is a true period of growth, awakening, insight, and development that hopefully develops and grows along with the child. I say I am lucky because it is this belief that every experience is an opportunity for growth that gets me through all that life throws my way. More than six years single, with a mortgage and not much else, I was made redundant. February 24, 2010, my new life was born. With the news that I was out of work with a single week’s pay as compensation, I packed up my desk and headed home to face an uncertain future. That night I remember sitting on my lounge floor with my friend and telling her, “This is exactly where I am meant to be.” I have absolutely no idea how I knew that, but looking back one year later, I can see how that faith has held me in good stead ever since. From that day of redundancy, I moved forward without fear and with few worries as I charted the new life I intended to live. I went through various processes, gained much clarity, and somehow always managed to maintain faith that things would work out for the best. Having lost my job, I was determined to search for a role that would fulfil me. I soon realised how lucky I was to have seemingly stumbled across techniques that helped me understand what it was that I fundamentally wanted from my life and specifically how I wanted to spend my next twenty to thirty working years. As I went through the interview process for a new job, I realised that I had managed to gain clear insights into what was important to me in a career. During that period, I talked often and long with many people while I continued to follow where my heart and mind were taking me. Throughout this journey, I also discovered that many people did not share the clarity I had come to enjoy. What I learned is that many people hate their jobs, feel lost and flailing when it comes to their careers, and are unsure about how to change the lives they have. It was wanting to share some of what I had been through and learnt in that year that led me to write this book. I do not intend to tell you how to live your life or what your values should be. We all have our own journeys to follow. By sharing lessons from some of my experiences, I hope to demonstrate the processes that helped me to clarify and determine my direction. I keep a notebook that outlines my own lists resulting from the exercises you will find written in the pages that follow. Whenever I am unsure about a situation related to work or personal issues, I still take it out, read what I wrote some time ago, and use those notes to help clarify my current direction. Where exercises are included in this book, I have placed a blank page or two for you to use to scribble any thoughts that come into your mind. The final chapter has some key words to trigger further contemplation. Your life is a blank canvas, and so is this book. Make this book yours – change it as you need, and use and doctor it as required to design the life you want. My hope is that you will also be able to gain clarity, direction, and a sense of knowing—and thereby the potential for fulfilment. I am far from perfect, and my life isn’t exactly what I originally had hoped it would be. During a year when I had my lifetime wish of travelling to Antarctica fulfilled and my dreams of carrying my own children shattered, I have maintained a faith, an unwavering understanding, and a direction that have rarely faltered. Through the emotional, physical, and mental highs and upheavals of that year, I have maintained clarity about who I am, what is important to me, and what it is I truly want from life. As I continue on my journey of discovery, and you on yours, I hope that in some small way, this book can help you too. I wish you every blessing. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. —William Hutchinson Murray (partially attributed to Goethe)