I have purposefully changed every aspect of my life over the last eighteen months. That has meant selling one business, closing another, selling my home, moving to a tropical island, and launching my online business, all in pursuit of long term health and happiness.
My businesses - two sports supplements stores, served my tribe of healthy living advocates in Adelaide, South Australia. I loved what I did, or so I thought. But after 5 years, something was beginning to change. I felt the need to serve more people than I could reach in just my little 'ol hometown.
I don’t remember the exact moment I ‘awoke’ but I do remember a number of stand-out moments on my journey to enlightenment.
Perhaps the most powerful is a memory I have of coming home from work, feeling miserable and slow and heavy. In my gut, I knew I wasn’t happy. In my heart I knew I’d settled. In my soul, I knew I was cheating myself.
Arriving home, late one night, I dragged myself inside, ran a bath and shut the door to give myself space. As the water ran, I watched a You Tube video. It was a voice recording of Steve Jobs.
He was talking about how precious life is and said: One day, we’re all going to die. If I wake up on any given day, check my schedule and realise I’ve been doing too many things I don’t enjoy then I just stop and make a change.
The words “One day we’re all going to die” rung in my ears, calling me to wake up from my coma, like a car horn warning you that you’ve drifted into another lane on a busy main road. “Wake up…you’ve drifted into another lane.” The car horn was Steve Jobs. The lanes were my life. I had drifted and was in danger of a fatal collision.
I knew I had to make changes…and not small changes either. It wasn’t going to be easy but I no longer had a choice. I’d had a glimpse of divinity, I’d had my wake up call and I knew I might not get another. “Life is too short”, I told myself over and over again.
A few days later, I called my business mentor and I told him I wanted to sell one of my businesses, and close the other – I wanted to create an online business, live wherever I wanted and have time and flexibility to do the things I loved: I needed my life back. I told him I was ready to follow my dreams: I wanted to be a motivational figure, author, health and wellness coach, and inspire others to live their best life. I told him I was moving to a tropical island: I needed a break, a fresh start.
The decisions I made that week put me into thousands of dollars of debt and it has been bloody hard work getting back to square one.
When people ask would I do anything differently I reply with confidence: “No, I wouldn’t change a thing”. The debt was the cost of my education, the change has created new beginnings and I am happier now more than ever.
And now, I’m on a heartfelt mission to turn my mess into my message. To help you learn to nourish yourself from the inside out, and in the process, connect mind, body and spirit so that you too can live a life of intention and do something remarkable.
To learn more about my health, fitness and wellbeing journey, here is my life in five parts:
- Losing 20kg;
- Competing in a couple of fitness competitions;
- My four year battle with binge eating disorder;
- Becoming Australia's first solo female owner operator of two sports supplement stores;
- My new life in Bali.
Megan Jayne