Words in the Wind

When you set an intention to live longer, its only 'words in the wind' if you fail to take action...

 

That action could be simple, such as taking a close look at your current reality and understanding the impact that the life you are currently living will have on your longevity.  Which is exactly what I did!  Then it turned out that the so called  'random' actions that I took, in reality worked for me.

 

• Took time out with the intention to take a closer look at my life and where I was heading
• Found Lifebook, a course, to help me manage and record my thoughts
• Decided that health was my first goal
• Used Wildfit to loose 20 lbs
• Decided stress was not going to be my killer
• Took notice when my daughter gave me a book titled "How not to die"
• Then took notice of my better half's suggestion that life should be better than this

So I took a leap of faith....

• Gave up the working week

Once I got to France I was faced by my biggest challenge: "what the hell do I do now"?

I had, of course, a vague plan.  I had tried moving to Devon several years ago, for a less stressful life (didn't work, but that's for another blog post).  It wasn't easy selling our house (Brexit and all the accompanying uncertainty can be thanked for that), so for a year I stayed in Devon during the week and drove home at weekends.  All this driving and time on my own gave me plenty of opportunity to do some research.  Listened to podcasts, surfed the internet and even read some blogs (reading doesn't come easily to me) but they were just ideas milling around in my head.

 

The reality was, I was exhausted.  Once I got to France and stopped it all hit me.  My energy bank balance was well into its overdraft.  My body was telling me it had had enough.  My brain said the same - I spent the first two months in a complete mental fog, achieving nothing, feeling I should be doing something, but feeling totally incapable of doing anything.  Then I realised I just needed to rest and get my energy bank balance back into the black.

 

 

 

By this time Christmas was upon us and I reassured myself that a New Year can be a new beginning.  I realised this Christmas would be very different to others.  Our plan had always been to come back to see family in the UK before Christmas, then have visitors over the Christmas holidays with us in France.  COVID stopped that happening!  We had to make do with Zoom calls and knowing that everyone was safe.  I missed my kids, my family and to be honest, my typically British Christmas...

2021 started and I struggled to find my feet, so much for

'New Year, New Start'

I tried to think back to the plans I had formulated when I explained to my colleagues back at work in Devon, when they asked me:

"What are you going to do?"

Well, the answer to that was my better half was starting a new career that allowed her to work anywhere.  I would help her in a support role, while exploring what I would do next.  "What's the worst that could happen?!" we asked ourselves several times before we left....  We have some time out, enjoy ourselves and then we come back and I get a job again!

Then came a couple of opportunities - God bless the internet and email:

• For a long time I had enjoyed listening to Steve Chou and his podcast 'My wife Quit her Job'. He suddenly started appearing in my social media feed again, then a challenge popped up, his Profitable Audience Challenge.  I had watched some of his e-commerce challenge in early 2020 but I was working those long hours, and just couldn't find the energy or the time to complete the course. There was a glimmer of hope - this time it was different!  I decided to take on the challenge.
• I had started a family tree properly eight years earlier but time and the cost had meant that I only had a few members in my tree.  Now an email gave me four months membership for £5 a month and I have TIME to spare.

These two things were the spark that I needed to get myself into action.  It was not going to be easy but both would be the fun and focus I needed.