Living a Full Life?

I am a big believer in living a FULL and balanced life.

Making time for professional, personal and family goals is important to me.

But it hasn’t always been that way…. For the most part of my life I seemed to exist without really appreciating what a full life actually meant.

Indeed – living a full life has its own meaning for everyone.

For me, living a full life simply means living fully in every moment. That means leaving behind the sense of self-doubt, not allowing those inner voices to dominate that question whether I could or should do something. Pushing through moments of fear and always coming back to my question (my barometer)…

‘what’s the worst thing that will happen by deciding to do this …’

Perhaps having suffered a pretty major traumatic event six weeks before my 40th birthday, now nearly a decade ago, allowed me the knowledge that nothing can ‘trump’ that event when I effectively lost everything important in my life at that time.

Do we have to reach ‘rock bottom’ to have the taste of ‘nothing gets worse than right here and now’? Perhaps that’s when we really have unpeeled our own onion to get right to the heart of what’s important for me.

Getting back to that ‘living a full life’ concept –  that’s not to say that my first 40 years of life were dull or boring, not at all. I managed to carve out a professional career in finance against all odds and society norms. Not having the University start to life I still managed to study hard and achieve my professional accounting qualification as a mature aged student (at 25!). I managed to drive a successful career working my way through the ranks of the finance team and within 12 years making the high echelons of my first senior role as CFO.

This felt very pleasing given some 15 years earlier I was an Accounts Payable clerk writing cheques in my first early years in the finance team – back when cheques were still a thing!

I had carved out a great career and I managed to travel the world with only a back pack and many Lonely Planet ‘bibles’ which helped me track around three continents visiting over fifteen different countries all on my own steam. Learning wonderful courageous acts over a twelve month period without ever having to wake up and attend an office or answer to anyone….

You might wonder why I say that I had only lived ‘half a life’ until by 40th birthday. Surely from the outside it might look like a very full life with ample achievements… I say it was a half FULL life because now I can see my calling, my purpose and that requires me to consistently push, grow and try things never tried before. I now know that my passion about living the best life for myself is to help others to question and push out of being comfortable to find that FULL life for themselves.

This year during my conversations with others in CFO Conversations and with the fabulous women of the LBD network, in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and even in the emerging markets of London and Singapore, the theme has been constant, and is this

Conversations about change and transformation have all stemmed from trauma….

This theme of ‘Trauma triggers Transformation’ sparked my curiosity and made me question whether this has to be the case. Why can’t we transform without having to have a traumatic event..?

Perhaps we could use my barometer – ‘what’s the worst thing that will happen by deciding to do this …’ TODAY…

Have you felt the same need to a FULL and balanced life? Why not reach out, have a conversation and better still reflect on what and how you are living your life….

Is it FULL for you in all the right ways…