My knees are stiff, my back aches, my neck is in pain. Do I really need to wake up right now? It’s 5am.
My mind wanders for a second, but I already know the answer. If I want to live my dream, then yes, I have to wake up. So I get out of bed, stare out the window, and smile. 4 years ago, I did not believe this life was possible.
At 20, I was 280lbs (20 stone/127kg). I was desperately lonely and hated looking at myself in the mirror – I knew I wasn’t the person looking back. I was regularly insulted by random strangers and didn’t have the confidence to do the things I really wanted to.
Between the ages of 20 and 21, I lost over 8 stone and then went on to lose more – in total, dropping half my body weight – 140lbs (10 stone/ 63kg). And I’ve kept it off.
How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off Read More »
When I left home at eighteen, I knew nothing about the world. Or about myself, for that matter. My education at that point consisted of 12 years of primary and secondary schooling and 18 years of my dad yelling at me. As far as I knew, my existence was fairly normal.
I volunteered for airborne school, a strange combination with the personnel clerk position I was to be trained for. But I ended up being assigned to a Special Forces unit.
How I Overcame Fear of the Unknown Read More »
It’s been almost a year since I first shared my story on The Change Blog. I was coming out at the happy end of several years of endeavouring to live a more creative life and I was excited to share my story with others. I had recently founded my own creative business as a designer after years of striving toward it as my ultimate goal and I felt I had finally arrived.
I told my story with pride in the hope that it I might inspire others to make a positive change in their life. But most importantly I told my story like it was done. I had arrived at my destination. I had changed.
The Real Truth About Change Read More »
I wrote an article for The Change Blog titled, “5 Ways to Discover and Nurture Your Intuitive Voice,” where I told the story of how I quit a lousy job and took six months off from work to travel, and in the process found my intuitive voice.
A woman named Judy posted a comment in response that stuck with me.
How to Listen to Your Intuition Even When You’re too Busy to Hear Read More »
Heart racing. Nerves throbbing. Stomach churning. You’d think I was having an episode the way I was feeling, standing outside my old university gym that fateful Wednesday morning. As I watched some men shooting hoops in the court, I asked myself what I had gotten myself into.
Contrary to misconceptions of it being a dance of seduction, belly-dancing actually used to be performed at festivals as a social dance. Nowadays, it’s a form of exercise that aids in digestion, weight loss, muscle toning, posture improvement, and stress reduction.
4 Surprising Life Lessons I Learned from Belly Dancing Read More »
When I was a kid, I always felt compelled to play by the rules. I walked throughout the elementary school hallways when I wanted to run, waited for my parents to sort out my Halloween candy into rations before diving head deep into my pillowcase full of tootsie rolls, and even tried my best to control my self-expression (talking) throughout a decade and a half of schooling. Whenever I deviated from the particular socially accepted etiquette, I felt uncertain and uncomfortable.
As I got older, I noticed that many of the kids around me were breaking all sorts of rules. In the midst of the most awkward years of my life, middle school, bullying started to show its face. Cliques began to form and rebellion felt like a natural form of expression for others. Yet, I still was too damn chicken-shit to participate. I can still remember how I felt when I was sent to the principal for being part of a ‘food fight’ in 4th grade. My food fight participation had more to do with fitting in as I sneakily tossed my empty Yoo-hoo box across the cafeteria.
Permission Granted Read More »
For some reason, I used to think paradoxes were hard to understand, and that they were somehow confusing and complex. Hearing the word would make my brain freeze up.
I used to confuse a paradox with an oxymoron, until I learned one day that “jumbo shrimp” was an oxymoron. That one stuck.
Understanding The Paradox of Panic in Order to Overcome It Read More »
“If you want to be happy, find a career doing what you love.”
It’s a simple enough motto, echoed through homes, classrooms, and counselor’s offices across the nation. It was the singular motto of my youth. If I wanted to break out of the family’s dying farming business, I needed to get educated and pursue a career I was wildly passionate about. Only then would I unlock the door to success and fulfillment.
But what happens when you get your dream job, and it doesn’t solve all your problems?
The Myth of the Dream Job and the True Pursuit of Happiness Read More »
Have you ever wondered how some people are able to overcome incredible adversity, while others remain stuck, defeated, and struggling to handle failure?
There is a common thread between the “rags to riches” and underdog stories of victory.
10 Thoughts to Remove from Your Mind Read More »
A short time ago, Uncle Mike died. That’s not entirely accurate. He stopped being my uncle about 40 years ago. My aunt, who is my mother’s sister, got divorced from Uncle Mike back in the 1970′s. It was a short marriage, just long enough to have a couple of kids. She remarried Scott, who feels much more like an uncle than Mike did.
But I never did call him “Uncle Scott.” In an effort to establish my independence and maturity, I decided to call him simply by his first name. My parents and my aunt didn’t seem to object, nor did Scott. So Scott he was…and continues to be to this day.
Remembering Uncle Mike Read More »
