Living the "Apparent" Dream, Part 1

I was sitting here at lunch today, and realized. This is it... you’re finally doing it. 
 
For years people told me I was “living the dream”...
 
I was living in paradise. I left the cold Canadian winters for the beautiful beaches of Bermuda.
 
I was finally making the 6 figures I once thought would be impossible (especially coming from 6 figures of debt). Not only was I making some money, I was even starting to see the idea of one day being debt free an actual possibility (nooooo, that doesn’t happen…).
 
I was the fittest I had ever been, winning my Pro Card in a competitive fitness organization, landing myself in Oxygen magazine.

​I had (still have) the most incredible friends. Weekends on boats, white sand beaches, turquoise waters, weekly happy hours...
 
Externally, I had the lifestyle. I had my “shit together”.
 
I was “living the dream,” when all I could really think was, “Is this it?”... 
 
I could finally afford nice vacations and found they were a bit...unfulfilling? Empty? Sad? What’s this about?
 
That’s when it hit me. 
 
What do you spend the most time doing? Work.
 
Who do you spend the most time with? If you have one, probably your partner. (If you don’t have one, probably yourself.) 
 
Meaningful work. Meaningful relationships. 2 of the most important things to me. And yet both were no longer meaningful.

I was “living the dream” in my external world, but I wasn’t thriving in the areas that were important to ME. To my core.
 
Even vacations were sad and empty because they were a temporary ESCAPE from my day to day WORK (aka from my real life) and they made me realize that running away temporarily didn’t change the person who I was WITH, either.
 
Living the dream externally, yet falling apart on the inside.
 
I would try to change EVERYTHING about my surroundings without addressing the actual cause, which only lead me to develop FULL. ON. ANXIETY and situational depression. And as long as I kept trying to change my external world without changing the actual cause, my anxiety would get louder and louder (sounds like common sense, right?).
 
The dread of returning to my day to day work and the fact that I was still in a relationship that needed to end - those things weren’t being addressed. Those things were the things that needed to change but weren’t changing. 
 
Whose going to change those things, IF. NOT. ME...?
 
I felt like my entire life was a façade but certainly not intentionally. I wasn’t putting on a front. I wasn’t pretending to be happy when I wasn’t. I didn’t know WHAT I was doing!
 
 Meaningful Work and Meaningful Relationships. 
What we spend the most of our time doing and who we spend most of the time with.
 
LIVING THE DREAM MEANS making your INSIDE world match your OUTSIDE world.
 
"Living the dream" means thriving in the areas that are important to YOU.
 
For me, this meant it was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for meaningful work and meaningful relationships to be aligned to make MY inside world MATCH my outside world.
 
It wasn’t until I made this connection that I was then able to change the entire trajectory of my life.
 
But what about YOU?
 
How are those aligned for you? Your work? Your feelings about work? Your current relationship? Or your relationship with yourself? (Your "meaningful relationship" with YOURSELF is the MOST important place to start). 
 
If not work or relationships, what do you NEED to be true to the real you in order to be living your best life?
 
Huh. This is where a lot of people get stuck. No forward movement.
 
Your personal formula for living the dream : making YOUR INSIDE WORLD = OUTSIDE WORLD 
 
I was doing everything everyone told me I should do to be happy and successful. And there lies the problem. Most people aren’t genuinely happy. Why would you listen to them? 
YOU define your dream. No one else. 
 
So until you figure that formula out, inside = outside, you might feel a bit lost. Wandering through life aimlessly. A little unfulfilled.  That is where I can help you get on your path.
 
 The two most liberating experiences of my life, were getting out of that relationship (an unwritten novel in itself), and finally letting go of an 11 year professional career (that took 8 years of invested time and tuition…trust me, I understand feeling “stuck!”). The feelings on the other side of these changes were SO incredible, I felt the need to help as many people as possible feel this way in their own life. People need to know what it feels like to feel empowered. Fulfilled. To have inner peace with WHO they are and be in alignment with actually living it out.
 
If you have ever felt “liberated”, than you know the exact feeling I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you have to. It’s the stuff that life is all about.
 
For this reason, I will always coach clients through these 2 major transitions in their lives.  As a Certified Specialist in Life Transitions through the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching, I’ve got all the tools to share with you.
 
I will always offer my 8 month, life-changing signature program to help as many people as possible live THEIR dream. It’s a combination of all the tools, skills, principals and disciplines I’ve learned through multiple organizations that I myself needed to master in order to change my OWN life. A set of skills and disciplines from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching to change the entire TRAJECTORY of your LIFE.
 
Change your life. Live your dream.
 
If you’re living the dream externally, yet falling apart on the inside…
 
If you’re “living the dream” according to everyone else but you just don’t feel like it…
 
If you have a “perfect family”, good paying job, security/stability....you’ve got “it all”...but you don’t feel fulfilled. You’re happy, but you’re NOT HAPPY. And you feel GUILTY for not feeling happy…
 
If you know that life is good, but it’s not “the good you want”, that something still doesn’t feel right…
 
If your outside world doesn’t match your inside world, this program might be (is) for you.
 
Learn more about it here.
 
Make your outside world match your inside world. Give me a shout.

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