October 3rd, 2007 and it’s a glorious sunny day in Perth. I am out by the lake running and “destination unknown” is playing on my ipod. I am singing while I run with my hands in the air. I feel so free and I don’t have a care in the world. The sun feels amazing on my skin and the light plays on the water. I don’t care who’s watching and I run hard, belting out the words at the top of my lungs. I feel like I am going to explode with excitement. I feel so full of happiness, joy and love. Love for me and love for my life……I will always remember this day and this feeling.
What had lead me to this moment. A week before my life had changed and change can happen in seconds, moments, days or years but for me it happened in seconds.
There I was at the height of my career in real estate at the top of my field, ranked in the top 1 percent globally and I was living the dream. I had a successful career. I had invested we’ll from a young age. I had a gorgeous convertible so hot! I was traveling the world while having three months off a year and most importantly I was able to contribute back through charity work. Yet I wasn’t completely happy I had this niggling feeling that something was missing. I felt I wasn’t living my purpose.
As I was sitting in a hotel room in Melbourne, I asked myself the question. ‘What could you change in your life?’. I had dreamed of being a professional speaker for as long as I could remember. I think the seed was first planted at the age of 15 when I entered a school public speaking competition. So I started writing on the hotel pad. What if I decided to follow my dream. What would need to change. It may sound strange but I had never thought about other options. I think sometimes we can get stuck in a box. A role in life or a certain identity and thats how we see ourselves or how other people see us. I was Kirsty the successful real estate agent. When I started to think about it what I realised was I had other options, other choices. Within seconds my life changed as I realised the possibilities and the opportunities I had available to me.
I made the decision to take a risk, a leap of faith and believe in me. To go and live my purpose I felt so strongly drawn to. I returned home two days later and resigned before I could change my mind. It has been the most extraordinary journey. Not a day goes by when I dont feel exhilarated and challenged. I have no regrets and am so glad I took that leap of faith. It was life changing. Dont get me wrong it hasn’t been easy. There has been plenty of tears. Leaving everything I knew, my family , friends, home and going from the pinnacle of my success back to the bottom of the food chain. Starting all over again. It’s been the most challenging difficult time for me but out of that comes strength, resilience, learning and growth. I have learned what I am capable of and I am changing every day. Like a caterpillar into a butterfly there is transformation.
For me the most exciting part comes in the freedom to choose. The sense of empowerment you feel in being able to choose to be the director of your own life. I always chose even in the beginning. I chose where I worked and who with. I have had a lot of jobs from target, to chinese restaurants, bar chick, running a pub, every type of real estate job, property manager, commercial, retail, all over the world. I didn’t go to university for me “life is the best classroom” traveling to 40 countries early on in life gave me a sense of choice….So how do you get to a point where you can really start to choose, where you dont rely on a job.
It takes hard work and a strong desire to live your dreams!
It’s not easy as often you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I have learned to embrace the pain, its not a physical pain so much as a mental one, where we face blockages, barriers and belief issues along the journey. I’m sure you have all faced them at some stage. The “Im not good enough” voice in your head, I have learned to argue with it and debate it, sometimes I ignore it and other times it wins but I keep getting up ! because I have learned now that we are all capable of more than we know and my desire is strong enough that I keep taking small steps towards my dream.
Martin Luther King did not say I have a strategic plan. He said ‘I have a dream’ and a dream is one of the most powerful things you can have, I believe we all have them, some of us are just afraid to listen.
As I started out on this new journey again in my new adventure into professional speaking. I find myself experiencing a lot of the same lessons and at the same time many new ones. I am facing new setbacks and obstacles and I liken it to being in the ocean. The weeks are up and down just like the waves and I feel like I am body surfing. You get dragged out and ride a wave and your adrenilin pumps and you feel on top of the world, its such a rush. Then your dunked and dragged under like your in a washing machine and you swallow a mouthful of saltwater and come out with half a kilo of sand in your crotch with scratched knees like a bad exfoliant experience from being dragged on the ocean floor… Yet there is something about the ocean, the sense of exhiliration, fun, adventure and freedom that keeps calling me and I want to go back in even though I know that there will be the highs with the lows. Life is like that for me. I am high on life and will do anything for that rush, that feeling when you accomplish what you had set out to do, when you find out how capable you are and fulfill your dreams. I love what I do and everyday I am excited to get up and get started working on creating my life. There is such a sense of freedom in choice. Choosing your own path. The entreprenuirial spirit of being in control of directing your own destiny, riding the waves …..
So listen to yourself and follow your dreams. There truly is no greater feeling in the world than to be living each day as you choose.
Now when I hear my special song play the words have new meaning and I am transported back to that day by the lake. Running hard and fast, bursting with joy and excitement thinking about the new life that awaits me.
Destination unknown – Song Words
I left my car my job my boss and my home
I’m leaving for a destination I still don’t know……….
and if you like this you can follow me…….so lets go
follow me …. and lets go …to the place where we belong and leave our troubles behind….
come with me…….we can go to the paradise of loving……destination unknown…
Now I dont feel those heavy shoulders no more, my life got better, now I can finally enjoy..
Come on and join us, follow me and lets go to the place where we belong….
Come with me…..
Destination unknown….
Stay tuned to www.KirstyTV.com for full episodes of our interviews, when our talk show launches in March 2013. We will be sharing inspirational stories from our interviews with celebrities, everyday people and experts.
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