Lucy's Story

Dear Fiona,

I’m writing to you for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to say thank you. I’ve signed up for two of your online coaching courses, and although they haven’t on their own changed my life, they’ve certainly set me on the right road for success.

Your newsletter is also invaluable, it’s that little bit of motivation and encouragement every Thursday. It’s great that you provide this for free, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve recommended it to. At the moment I’m travelling (more on that later), but I’ve had the most bizarre conversations with all kinds of people and found myself quoting your mantras… Of course I then tell them to look you up.

I’ve found myself coaching people on a bomb ridden road on the bus in Laos, rape victims in Burma, on the Milford track in New Zealand, and now people surrounded by floods. Yes, I’ve been living in a small community that just happened to be the epi-centre of all the flooding that has battered New Zealand. Many an hour has been spent in the community centre making teas and cooking dinners for the flood victims. But, you’ll be pleased to know that the Fiona Harrold magic mantras have been quoted – I’ve been turning people’s misery and lost businesses/houses/farms into opportunities to change their lives! They actually go away smiling for the first time in days. So thank you.

Secondly, I noticed the recycling of success stories in your marvellous newsletter last week, so I thought I should add my two pennies. If you’d have talked to me two years ago, I was a pretty successful online journalist working for a big radio group. I loved my life in radio, I worked with brilliant colleagues, my job was fascinating, dynamic and interesting, and a little showbiz. I had the perks – the gigs, the laptop, the car…. blah, blah. But I wasn’t happy.

I hadn’t been in a relationship EVER (except for the odd fling), I worked 24-7 and never had a holiday. I was probably working 90 hours a week and thought that my life was normal. All my friends worked in radio so I worked, talked, ate, drank and slept radio. I decided to go and see a counsellor, I wanted to refocus my life and I wanted to try and work out why I was petrified of getting a boyfriend. I’d had flings, I’d managed to go on a few dates before being petrified of losing my independence, and being swamped by this relationship.

The counselling didn’t actuallly tackle the boyfriend issue because I was so stressed out with my job that we spent weeks just trying to get me to realise that I needed a holiday.

Eventually I decided to go on a long weekend to North Devon, just me and my dog. I was sitting looking out at the lush green rolling hills and the sea crashing up on to the boulders when I realised. What the hell was I doing with my life? There are so many exciting views in the world (beautiful though North Devon is) and I’m missing out on them. Before I knew it, I’d raced back to my car, typed up my resignation on the laptop and sent it. I’d resigned!

Six weeks later I headed off across Europe in the middle of December (very cold…), I took a train through Russia travelling with diamond smugglers, I trekked in Siberia with indigenous tribes and reindeer, before riding through the Gobi desert in Mongolia. I spent about 5 months in China travelling before teaching poor students in a rural Chinese town. SARS kicked in so I got out. I went to work in the refugee camps on the Thai/Burma border before travelling through south east Asia before catching a boat to Australia (and then getting deported!), and now I’m in New Zealand.

I’m now at a point of my life where I didn’t really know what I want to do… I don’t want to work in the same kind of radio that I worked in before, I’ve been very affected by some of the things that I’ve seen around the world so would like to focus on international journalism. I also wanted to work in the refugee camps, doing something positive for those in need. Plus I also wanted to write a book. In addition I wanted to find a boyfriend – not too much to ask!

I was doing the ‘Great Walks’ of New Zealand and hiking for up to five days, carrying my backpack up and down mountains so I had a great deal of time to think. I printed off the Get Motivated course, and decided to put my hiking time to good use. I realised that actually I have the power to do whatever I want to do! If I want a boyfriend, I’ve got to bloody find one. It’s no point sitting there and using the usual excuses not to get a man: “I’m too fat – I’ll get a boyfriend when I lose weight, I’m never in one place for long enough, I’m not ready for a boyfriend…” blah, blah.

Getting Motivated

So, thanks to Mike Blissett’s course Get Motivated, I joined an online dating agency.

And I’m currently emailing a few potential suitors (I’ll keep you posted). Having talked about writing a book for so long, I really had to stop talking and get on with it. Your course ‘Get Motivated’ enabled me to do that. I’m currently sitting in my beach house in New Zealand and I’ve written four chapters. Yippee! Finding a publisher is my next challenge, but thanks to your courses and newsletter, I’ve got the infrastructure in place to encourage and push myself into getting out there with my manuscript.

With regard to changing direction in my career, I’ve applied to retrain and do a postgrad when I return to the UK. So looking at my wheel of life, it’s still got lots of wobbly bits and areas for improvement, but that’s the fun of life!

So thank you to Mike Blissett, and thank you to you, too. With all the marvellous things that you do for others, I hope that you have enough time to sit back and enjoy your successes – BLOODY MARVELLOUS!

Lucy