How are you feeling?
Gosh, everyone in my circle has been expressing exhaustion and feelings of meh, and I don’t think it’s just because it’s the December end-of-year crazies….
Let’s all acknowledge the washing machine we’ve been in for several years. That is on top of normal life stuff that doesn’t go on hold while the world is going through major shifts.
I have friends dealing with new diagnoses, either theirs or their kid’s or both, co-workers without kids lacking creativity, energy or ambition towards their purpose, marriages ending, and so many people in my life-changing careers, switching to ‘lifestyle’ jobs after many years working in dissatisfying roles.
A lot of my challenges this year, I felt at first, were all due to our huge transition back to Aussie life after many years of living in diverse cultures and travelling the globe raising our family as world citizens. On reflection and decompression with my crew, even those pals who hadn’t left to travel have been dealing with similar discomfort and challenges.
Sometimes too, I wonder if it’s the stage of life I am entering, mid-forties, ageing parents, children heading into teenage years. Occasionally I think that life did seem a lot easier on the other side of the world…or maybe I am romanticising it and forgetting the pain points, ha? Grieving the old and only remembering the better points.
Since 2008 and my arrival to Saudi Arabia as a single woman, feeling isolated and a desire to connect to likeminded folk, I fell into a life online, starting a blog to share my travels as a private flight attendant, living on a compound in Saudi Arabia, my recipe experiments as a then raw vegan, then my event and classes and ebooks and life adapting to motherhood, especially without my homeland village around me.
People found my blog because blogging was so new then, and I was writing about really niched stuff. Raw veganism, a female living in restrictive Saudi Arabia and travelling the world as a corporate jet flight attendant, flying Princes and VVIPs. This life was pretty novel to my readers.
At the time, there were no such things as filters or buying followers; people grew audiences naturally, and it all felt authentic. People I interviewed, emailed and connected with offline were also at the beginning of their online careers, muddling their way through; some are now best-selling authors, TV network anchors, documentary makers etc. I even saw one of them, who invited me to have lunch when we were in LA on holiday in 2012, interviewed on the Harry And Meghan Netflix show. In 2008, it was such an exciting time to be an early adopter online.
It has been fascinating to connect with people I’d never met through my computer, many of which I still chat with online today. Several became clients as I went from hobby blogger to online entrepreneur - again, something that just organically happened and grew.
Lately, I’ve been ruminating on what to do next because I took up a dream full-time job upon returning to Australia last year. That was the perfect job but imperfect timing - it would have been so ideal in my single days or when our lives in Australia had been better established, and my family didn’t need me more than Zoom meetings. Earlier this year, my daughter became severely unwell, and following that, I developed shingles from the stress. After a year of dedicating myself to my job, then my family, and lastly, my self-care, in that order, I sadly had to give up that role.
I’ve been doing a lot this year:
Supporting my children as they navigate a new country and school system culture and make new friends and find new activities
Grieving our old lives and community, building our new one
Supporting my husband as he makes a transition in his career + life
Planning and commencing our house renovation to make our house more suitable to our family needs
Making new friends and taking time to feel out ‘our’ like-minded community
Getting to know our new home and community and all it has to offer
Taking on a low-stress casual job for some paid employment - it’s been so surprisingly enjoyable, and it works with my availability - more than I expected!!!
And yet, I am still lacking consistency with the self-care / management department. I know I have all the tools and the knowledge to have an impact, but the one thing I know that is lacking is accountability.
Having a coach or a community to be accountable to is paramount when wanting to make considerable improvements and habit change - I know this as a client, coach and community manager; this is where real change is impacted.
So this is what I am ruminating on right now, and I am confident that in 2023 more will become clear for us if you’re also feeling a little cloudy about what is in store for your and your life.
As I take more offline time, I feel Substack (here) is where I want to spend most of my online time, as I pull back a little on the other platforms for now.
This is where I’ll be for now…
I hope wherever you are in the world; you’re finding the ease and joy returning and something to look forward to in 2023 :)
As always, I love 2-way conversations, so feel free to reply; I always aim to get back to you (even if it’s slow.)
Lots of love
Robyn