SWIM OR SINK?

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was trying to piece my life back together after my younger brother died suddenly in a car crash. He was 19.
I’m not ashamed to tell you I felt suicidal and depressed for a long time. We lost our parents five years before that and I was like a mother to him.
I spent my 20s bringing him up and I’d been so proud when he went off to University, to spread his wings and live his life.
Getting the news that he was gone sent me under. 
I was a high-flying solicitor at the time, working for an international law firm, “living the dream” down in London. (Actually, it had been my parents’ dream for me to be a lawyer – being a working class family, they had pushed me to work hard & get a profession and earn mega-bucks in order to be financially secure. I had wanted to be an actress and a singer. But I ended up stuck in a profession which didn’t make my heart sing, working long hours, searching for a purpose.)
So 10 years ago I was broken.
When you hit rock-bottom you have to choose whether to climb back up or lie down and give up. You have to choose whether to breathe and swim to the surface or whether to sink like a rock and curl up tight.
I chose to live.
I chose to become an entrepreneur and build a thriving consultancy business, disrupting traditional law practice, so I could impact issues of equality.
I chose to live each day searching for freedom and joy and recognising that since those I loved were unable to make that same choice – they had left this earth for good – I would try my damnedest to live it for them.
I chose to fall in love and marry and bring two beautiful daughters into the world. (Despite the fact that my heart was shouting at me “don’t love again, don’t trust again, you’re going to get hurt, they are going to die.”)
I chose to smile and laugh and entertain and help and heal others. 
I chose to search for my Why. I decided to inspire, help and coach other women to create and live the life they dream of. 
None of us know what life has in store for us. It could all be taken away in a flash. Living a mediocre, comfortable life where you muddle along earning “just enough” or doing “just enough” to get by is not an option. Living a life where we feel miserable or trapped or following the expectations of others is not okay.
We have, each of us, opportunity to make a huge difference in this world. Create a legacy, impact other people, fulfil our potential.
So I'll ask again: Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? How has it helped you get where you are today?
More importantly, what are you going to do TODAY to impact where you are going to be 10 years from now?
Let’s live big and bold and make each day matter. 
You get to choose. {I guess that's why you're reading this blog, right?!}
With love to fellow bold women.
Rx