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As I share my life journey with you, I have used these experiences to guide and mould me into the person that I am today.
As I share my life journey with you, I have used these experiences to guide and mould me into the person that I am today.
Our journey through life is not easy and yet we have the power to use them either to build us up or break us. My journey has taken me through, under, around and over many obstacles and experiences in my life. Some of these experiences have been extremely painful and difficult to deal with, not being able to grasp the reasons why.
I would like to share a few of my defining journeys’ I have been through in my life.
For me the first, was being bullied by other girls in primary school. I never really felt like I fitted in at school, I was teased because I was curvier than most and I found myself alone during breaks. These impacted my self-confidence, my ability to open up and make friends and I preferred to be the quiet girl at the back of the classroom.
During these years, I found myself drawn to sport, giving me an escape from school. I found that I was a good swimmer and loved playing netball. Even though I was good at swimming, I found it very monotonous and boring. It was more fun for me to be under the water. When I was 10 and at swimming training, another parent recommended to my mom that I try synchronised swimming.
This was the start to my first passion and love in life. I found that I excelled in it from very early on and used this as my focus to drive me through school.
At the age of 11, I represented KwaZulu-Natal for the first time, which then lead to representing South Africa at my first Junior World Champs at the age of 14. I then went on to represent South Africa at the Pan African International Open Championship in Egypt, followed another Junior World Championship and then the World Aquatic Championships in Australia in 1998.
My youth was driven by my passion for my sport and to excel to the best of my abilities. Even with my achievements within synchronised swimming, I was still extremely self-conscious, lacked confidence within myself and developed an eating disorder.
After school, I had no clear vision or direction for my life. I felt lost and had no idea who I was and where I wanted to be as a young adult.
I found myself drawing direction for my life from the passion of my sport and studied multiple areas in the sporting field, from Sport and Event Management, to Sports Massage, Swimming teaching and then into my BA Sports Science degree.
Once I completed my Sports Science degree, I still had no clear vision or direction for my life and an opportunity arose for me to apply to work on international cruise liners as a fitness director and massage therapist.
I was excited by this opportunity as I developed a love for international travel and exploring different cultures, countries and people from my international sport travels during my teenage. I worked on international cruise liners for 2 years, exploring over 90 countries around the world.
When I returned from my travels, I realised that I still did not know who I was, what my vision was for my life and what I wanted to create for my life…
This is when I shifted my search inwards, towards myself and asking myself
“Who am I?”
“What is it that I want to create for my life?”
“What is my vision for my life?”
During this journey, I explored personal growth and development workshops, life coaching training and working within the applied psychology field. Continually, working on myself, support others and training these personal growth and development workshops. After many years, I found myself taking a step back as this world seemed to have consumed my life and I had started to lose myself within the support and training of others. I had lost my own personal balance.
I took this step back to re-evaluate my life and find balance. In doing this, I enrolled the support of a colleague, another life coaching, to support me design my future. This opportunity, I stepped out of my life and observed my journey to that point. What I got to observe, link up and identify my passions:
I, myself enlisted the support of coaches, psychologists and other professionals to assist me in being able to use each and every experience in my life, to guide me into a clear vision and direction for my life.
I hold the power to my life and this comes from my personal journey, experiences and obstacles. These have empowered me to find and stand in my true, authentic self. I am also a human being knowing that, I do not always get things right, therefore continually learning and striving for excellence in my journey.