#73 Overcoming Uncertainty is The Secret to A Fulfilling Life w/ Claire Sanders
If you were to tell me years ago that I’d be living my dream life in Bali, I wouldn’t have believed you. It was too far-fetched of a vision for me to even picture myself creating that kind of reality.
Back when I was working a 9-5 stuck in an office all day, I couldn’t even take a vacation longer than two weeks, let alone relocate to a tropical island somewhere.
It took years of being unhappy, unfulfilled and utterly frustrated with my life to start the process of change. The hardest part for me was knowing that my life wasn’t actually that bad. And if that was the truth, why change?
I was living with my highschool sweetheart in a nice house with our dog. We were talking about marriage and kids. We were both making good money with companies that gave us free lunches, kickboxing classes and our own offices.
People would have loved to be in my situation. So, why was I rejecting something so “great”?
After some soul searching and hiring a coach, I finally discovered the source of my unhappiness. The life I chose to live wasn’t my choice at all. It was an obligation to live according to my family and society’s definition of success.
And the longer I tried to fit myself into the mold, the harder it got.
I had to make some difficult decisions. Ones where the outcome seemed like I was about to blow my life up. I had to say goodbye to the man I thought I was going to marry, all the perks of working for a Fortune 50 company and the comfort of financial certainty. I had to leave all of that for the unknown. It was a big risk.
There were times when I questioned what the hell I was doing. Times of immense doubt if I was making the right decisions or whether I was steering my life in a good direction. It didn’t seem logical to choose uncertainty over comfort.
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Claire Sanders is the queen of being comfortable in uncertain situations. In our conversation, she shares how she made several life changing decisions for the unknown: leaving her high powered career in London, initiating a divorce after 10 years of marriage, starting from scratch and becoming a coach and relocating to Cornwall with a new partner after the age of 40.
She shares her secrets to pivoting successfully and coming out of the other side unscathed.
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I’m glad that I trusted my instincts and left my safe, predictable and unfulfilling life for the unknown. I couldn't have predicted that I’d be here waking up without an alarm clock to the sounds of exotic birds everyday, doing life with an amazing man and creating work that’s meaningful to me.
I’m grateful to my younger self for going with her gut and trusting that no matter what, she was going to be ok.
If I could go back in time and talk to her, I would thank her and let her know that she freaking did it. Everything is more than ok.