Have you ever wanted to follow your heart and start your own business doing something you are passionate about? Maybe you’d love to retrain or start a new career? Maybe you’d like to do something different but you haven’t got a clue what that might be! If the answer to any of these questions is yes then what is preventing you from moving forward with this idea? 

The biggest reason I believe we remain stuck in a job is fear! Fear of change, fear of the what if’s. “What if I’m not good enough. What if I can’t earn enough money?” The internal chatter begins about what everyone else is going to think or say. Our heads say – “I’ve put my whole life into this! I can’t just decide to drop it all for a new dream!.” Why not? Our careers/jobs have become our identity! For many it’s how we present ourselves to the world. We are often judged on our profession as a reflection of the person we are. So It can be scary to decide that actually this job that was everything you wanted or thought you wanted doesn’t feel like the right fit for you anymore. 

When this bombshell hit me a few years ago, I couldn’t actually believe that I would want or actually be capable of doing anything else. I started out my working career at the age of 15 as a gymnastics coach which came as a natural progression from being a competitive gymnast for many years. At this time I also had a huge passion for music and singing which led me to study performing arts at university. I decided to go for it and pursue a career as a professional singer. I had put my life into my dream and passion. I put myself through emotional hell and back for years believing in my quest to reach the highest level I could in the music industry. I dealt with many highs and lows. But I did it! I had a few successes and also a lot of blood, sweat and tears for not much reward. 

In the I end I was teaching singing more than I was actually performing, as all musicians who are not famous tend to do. I was singing more of other peoples songs than I was on my own because that’s what everyone wanted to hear. My passion and motivation for life began to dwindle. I’d done some good stuff. I had stayed true to my art and myself I like to think. However, after having my two beautiful girls life changed. I changed! My priorities changed! I no longer had the time to write albums and book gigs and had absolutely no interest in getting in at 2am from corporate and wedding events I had been performing at. I pushed this doubt away for a very long time and cracked on with it. Because after all “I can’t give up now. This is my dream!” Well….I began to question this dream. The dream I had acquired at the age of 15. In fact I began to question everything in my whole life. Is this really who I am anymore? No one could have been more scared than I was. Who was I if I wasn’t ‘Sarah the singer’ anymore. My career had become my identity! Without that I was nothing. Or so I thought!

Obviously, I now see life from a very different perspective. I had been so blinkered and so focused on one thing for years that I had actually forgotten to check in with myself and ask if this was really what I wanted anymore. After much internal turmoil, therapy and eventually a more compassionate approach towards myself, I began to go a little deeper and really discover who I was. At the age of 36 who am I now? What do I want? And of course it is not going to be what I wanted at the age of 15 or 21 or even 30. And why should it be? We all change. We all grow. Or at least we do if we allow ourselves to. 

So why do we beat ourselves up when our heads, hearts and souls are crying out that it is time for change. Time to move forwards. Time to let go of the past. Time to learn something new and move down a different path. Why don’t we listen? Why do we wait another 5 years and still have the same thoughts rattling around in our heads like a mental prison. I had to pretty much had to have a breakdown before I listened to my inner voice. I had pushed it away for far too long. Not really understanding why this was happening. My lack of self belief and fear of letting go of old dreams and beliefs and values was holding me back from being happy and truly who I was. I looked at my life and thought “Is this what I want to be doing in 10 years time” and the answer was a big fat NO! The idea totally depressed me. It wasn’t that I hated what I was doing or that I had a stressful job because I didn’t. It was just that somewhere deep inside me a little voice, or at that point, a very loud voice was saying “There’s more to you than this. There’s more for you to learn and to share and to give to the world. For god sake Sarah get on with it!”  

So I did. I listened, I challenged my beliefs. I did some training and I began a new path of self discovery that took me places I never thought I’d go. And here I am. I’m not saying it’s easy to change, it’s not for the faint hearted! I’m not saying you should go and quit your job and dive straight into something else on a whim. But what I am saying is maybe it’s time to look within and listen to yourself. Go a little deeper and bypass what your head is letting you believe you are capable of. If you’ve got that feeling buzzing around inside you like I did. If you’re not quite sure why you feel so uninspired by life. Then just stop for a minute. Take a breath and ask yourself the question. “Is this really who I am? Is this where I want to be in 10 years?” Be honest with yourself. If the answer is no then you have just taken your first step towards a very exciting and fulfilling journey of self discovery. You don’t need to know what it is you are going to do. You just need to know that you are going to do something about it. And it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, because this is your life and time is ticking on! 

I would love to help you realise your full potential and get you on the right track towards the life you want to live. For more info on one to one life coaching sessions with me please go to www.whoselifeisthisanyway.com/coaching