Every now and then, I go off course.
When this happens life becomes a monotonous blur of ‘to dos’ and going through the motions.
I get dizzied by my efforts to ‘make things work’ and ‘keep people happy’ that I lose a sense of myself, my passion and purpose.
With 2016 drawing to an end, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions to make sense of where I am and where I’m going.
Funnily enough, I have never really taken the time to answer this big pearler of a question and I have to say, the answer brought me out of my self-imposed fog.
‘What do you want to achieve in this lifetime?’
I have to say, it’s so funny how we transition from the mentality of ‘what can I get’ to ‘what can I give’.
In my teenage years right through to my twenties, achievement looked like accolades, being on the property market, making six-figures, jet setting across the world as a famous singer, being married to Leonardo DiCaprio (happy to say, that ‘13-year old girl dream' is over!) and the list goes on.
Now I did achieve some of those things in my twenties – I was making pretty good money and was climbing the corporate ladder - but I couldn’t shake the feeling of 1. being miserable and 2. still feeling like a loser.
I also changed my life completely at 27 years old to study music full-time and become a professional singer and singing teacher.
But it wasn’t until launching my business this year - Fearless Singer - that I truly felt excited and in alignment with my life goals.
You see, I come from a long line of entrepreneurs from both sides of my family. My Dad’s side are Greek migrants who built successful cafes in regional Queensland from very little in the form of money but did it with resilience, resourcefulness and generosity. In fact, they didn’t just build cafes they built warm welcoming hubs for the community. My Dad himself has always been in business and has the amazing ability to ‘dream big’ and see it through.
My Mum comes from a dairy farm and a long line of clever, hard working food producers. Mum changed her life and ours for the better, when she decided at 38 years old to finish her senior certificate to go back to study full-time at university. To pay for her uni fees, she bought and sold antique dolls and bears. She had a little shop in Rounds Arcade in Bundaberg called Toy Zone (named by me).
So working for myself is a massive achievement. And I must say that after going solo in business, I have an enduring respect for business owners and freelancers.
Because… it’s pretty bloody hard at times.
One of my biggest discoveries this year has been that even when doing something that you love full-time, you will still experience the ‘cons.’
You can also get quite disillusioned and exhausted by it all, if you let it.
But what is supremely beautiful about these ‘cons’ is that they teach you so much about yourself and help you become even more ‘you’. Because the more years I have spent on this planet, I now realize that becoming ‘more of yourself’, IS the ultimate life goal.
The reality is that being uncomfortable forces you to go deep. It makes you ask probing questions, like, ‘why the feckle are you doing this?’ It teaches you to think and act creatively, to learn how to lovingly conquer that voice in your head that says ‘you’re a dick’ and to keep moving forward.
More importantly, it teaches you how to access that infinitely wise source that is always within you.
So go ahead and ask yourself now: ‘What do you want to achieve in this lifetime?’
I bet the answer will surprise, delight and perhaps make you slightly uncomfortable but inject you with a huge dose of love at the same time. I also promise that if you are feeling overwhelmed by life at the moment, it will remind you of the bigger picture.
This is how I answered and I have to say it floored me in the most loving and grounding of ways possible:
“All I want to do in this lifetime is to make people believe they can sing and are top notch human beings who can do or be anything they want.”
So that’s my message. And if people start believing in themselves after being in my presence, that makes me pretty bloody happy.
