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WHO INSPIRES YOU? (A
PERSONAL NOTE FIRST)
'Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely, in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
'Wow – what a ride!'
Peter Sage, Entrepreneur and Speaker
This month's newsletter is a slightly different format. For those
of you who don't like change (that's me too!), next month we will return
to the regular layout.
I got into my business at a time in my life when I had lost my passion for
running other people’s businesses, where the focus was more on money than
people. I have always found people and their stories fascinating and I
knew that the idea of working in personal development was what inspired me most.
And then I had the opportunity to follow my own dream. When my father’s
mother passed away and left me a small inheritance, I decided to put it to
use in a way that she would have been proud of – training in a new career
path.
People sometimes ask me what made me choose the profession I've chosen and
the answer is, that I pursued what I was passionate about.
I had two role models in my life who I have only recently credited with
shaping many of my choices - my vibrant and spirited grandmothers who, in fact, were appallingly
bad at ‘grandmothering’ but who were role models for me in their own way.
My mother’s mother was absolutely wicked until the day she died. She was
petite, very dark and strikingly beautiful. She had the most wonderful
sense of fun and mischief and appeared to be the epitome of style and
class. She was always immaculately groomed, her home was smartly decorated
and kept beautifully clean. She adored small luxuries and indulged herself
in anything that filled her senses – fine food, delicate fragrance,
sunshine and warmth, the ocean, music, an engaging novel and a glass of
wine – she completely indulged herself in whatever brought her
pleasure.
Her greatest passion though, was her relationship with ‘Joey’ her husband.
She literally died of a broken heart after he passed away eight months
earlier. My grandmother taught me that passion and love are everything in
life. Having the ability to live each day like it could be your last,
indulging in exceptional food and wine was an experience not just to be
savoured. She taught me to love passionately, to laugh loudly and to
always hold onto my own sense of wickedness.
My father’s mother, on the other hand, was equally as feisty (and
similarly petite – but nowhere near as beautiful). She relied more heavily
on her intellect and defied convention many times by living her life in a
way that challenged the protocol of the era and class she grew up in. She
found motherhood somewhat restrictive and left my father behind with
family when he was only a few months old to spend nine months travelling
Europe with her artist husband. She adored music, playing cards, the
theatre, ballet and travel and until the time she was 90, any sort of
adventure. For her 90th birthday she asked me to take her hot air
ballooning – which she absolutely loved. She was a woman who knew her own
mind and was stubborn and committed once she made it up. When her husband
told her she couldn’t drive a car because she was a woman, she stole his
and drove it into a wall at the tennis club. When he said she shouldn’t be
seen riding a bicycle through the streets of Darwin, she only did so more
furiously.
At nearly 93, she steadfastly refused any offer of being accommodated in a
nursing home. In her final days residing in respite care, she climbed onto the
children's rocking horse in the sitting room one afternoon when I was visiting and
pushed it as high as it would go. She said to me that day ‘we’ve had so
much fun, haven’t we?’ and this thought has remained with me. She had
lived a fun filled life – she defied convention and followed her heart,
she chose to do what she wanted and she willingly bore the cost of people
believing her to be selfish or stubborn. She lived her life the way she
wanted to – and she rarely complained. Like my other grandmother, she
considered a glass of wine with dinner 'medicinal', she loved to laugh and she filled her life with things that
made her come alive.
Both of these women inspired me to follow my passion, to live my dreams
– to be myself, and to remember not take that person too seriously. To
keep laughing, to keep loving, to enjoy every day, to keep dancing and to
keep dreaming of adventures and experiences to enrich my life – this is
the legacy they have left for me.
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