About Me

Contents:

1. My journey

2. My Focus

3. My Work

4. Passion & Purpose

5. A balanced life

6. Family

7. Projects I’m working on

My Journey:

I had my life pretty set, I wanted to be an engineer growing up.

I used to build things in my garage and would love the process of building and tinkering, I came up with ways to make money in the 90s before the dotcom era, but then when I hit my teenage years, family and society told me to buckle down and concentrate on education.

I went through the education factory and studied hard. I was nurtured to believe as long as I had a good education and landed a stable job I’d be secure and I’d be happy.

I did everything I could to get a good start, working after school on the fish counter, at the weekends and during university holidays. (I could never get rid of the fish smell!)

I chased an internship in another city to give myself a better chance commuting long distance every day. It paid off, I managed to land a job in engineering, my dream career, and so the story should end.

I entered the workforce at an interesting time, 2007.

I realised I was using NOTHING from my university education in my new day job, but it didn’t matter.

My colleagues had plenty of time to help me and show me the ropes.

There was little concern about ensuring company revenue and profits, the company was doing well….

This of course was the peak of the financial bubble… and I had no idea what was about to hit.

The next few years were trying times.

My time had come as my uselessness was realised, and I desperately tried to make my way as a dependent in the workforce with little practical skill.

The paradigm had shifted from a “take your time to learn” approach, to “we need to cut all learning and development to survive” attitude.

I would wake up fearing my job, every day.

Our rival companies were folding on a daily basis and as we were called into board rooms each week, one or more of my colleagues were being told to leave.

I didn’t understand, I was told years earlier that this wouldn’t happen, I did everything I was told to do I was secure?

Back to the story…

Colleagues crying as they could no longer support their families and pay their mortgage.

I remember working 38 days straight one year without any overtime simply out of fear.

It was a dark period.

I eventually came out the other side, hardened from the experience.

I thought this was it and I was good.

I worked my way up slowly and enjoyed my role as a low carbon engineering consultant, I played an advisory role in the environmental design for the education authority for schools. I thought I had finally made it.

but then a problem started to emerge.

The job wasn’t what I had signed up for.

The salary was good and the work was ok, but it wasn’t the creation, design, and problem solving I was lead to believe.

It was filled with bureaucracy, politics and protecting yourself, more than creative design.

I would go in, dreading my work, it was grey, project after project, they were all the same. I got little fulfilment from it and even less thanks from anyone.

During some overtime, I was working the weekend, and it dawned on me, I sat in my boss’s chair and thought, this is what I’ve got to look forward to in 20 years.

It was at that moment, I realised I’m going to be doing this same routine for the next 20 years, with bigger projects, a slightly better status and a bit more money but fundamentally, nothing is going to change.

I could in that moment know what I would be doing, 20 years from now on a miserable Tuesday morning. Waking up at 7am getting ready to come here sit in this chair doing the same work and that would be a best case!

Maybe I’d have had some nice holidays but in essence my life would be similar to what it is now. I asked myself,

Am I ok with this?

I wasn’t

something had to change.

Meanwhile, experiencing the financial crisis, piqued my interest in other areas outside my linear and grey career bubble.

I was scared, I had got so used to the steady income and I always carried the fear from what I saw during the financial crisis.

I couldn’t’ do anything that would rock the boat.

but, I had these ideas and I knew if I didn’t change anything, I would be trapped, stuck in this grey life, motivation and lust for life fading each and every day.

I would watch my more couragourgs friends start businesses change jobs and try new things.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t move, I was stuck.

One day, I reached breaking point.

I decided I would plan a way out.

I made exploits into side projects jobs and other sources of income even started my own food business (I have a love for all things tasty!)

I did all this while maintaining a steady income.

I carefully designed my approach so I would not rock the “steady job” boat

I used my engineering mindset to build frameworks that would allow me to efficiently design the life I wanted and test ideas I had without the risk and the overwhelming feeling.

Over time, each step started to feel exciting, rather than overwhelming.

That allowed me to explore these new areas with a positive, excited feeling.

Some things worked others didn’t, but I was finally trying, and exploring, I felt free.

I learnt the delicate and subtle shifts in mindset required to make these changes without going into the panic and overwhelm zone where you can easily suffer paralysis as I witnessed some of my peers do.

Jumping too far made me freeze, there was a sweet spot.

No one else seemed to understand this.

I was relentless with my processes and methods, testing framework after framework until it yielded want I wanted.

I battled with the fear and anxiety of changing my life and not knowing how best to approach it.

I read piles of self-help books, took courses and reached out to mentors.

All of which were useful.

But one pattern that slowly emerged was they rarely dug deep on the HOW

what to do at, what each stage

and what to do if you didn’t have the courage….

I found many of the methods were a poor fit with my specific character traits.

I was risk-averse, generally shy and introverted, and highly sensitive, so being bold and putting myself out there was not as easy as they made out.

I’d get exhausted from trying to exercises.

They failed to work over a period of time as I struggled to keep motivated.

I eventually found my own way and realised there really was an approach you could use that would get you the progress you wanted without risking everything or quitting your job.

I discovered ways you could explore new avenues without the fear of losing what you have, and the anxiety that goes along with it.

After years of developing my own methods, systems and tools I realised I could help others do the same.

As I slowly developed my own methods to help me, others around me wanted the same.

I started helping the first few people at this point, and the approach was working.

I realised I could expand this and help more like-minded people navigate their way from a feeling stagnation to finding their way…

and to do this while minimising risk, keeping the risk-averse part of their character within reach at all times.

It has since been my mission to enable people to take action in the way they are comfortable with and find what they were meant to do.

If you want to learn from me read on….

Alternatively dive in to your own self help rabbit hole and see how far it goes. Maybe this has been enough to light your fire.

It took me over 10 years to build all the frameworks I use now and including all the refinements I’ve made with the clients I work with.

If you are interested in guidance from me, check out my coaching packages.

You choose!