The Smart Expat

Remember those moments.  The moments in life where everything changes.  There might be an epiphany; the course of your life is inexorably changed and everything that comes after is driven by a sense of clarity and purpose that didn’t previously exist.  Or there might be some insignificant event; one which alters your perspective which in turn leads to a distinctly different set of actions.  Though the changes are more subtle,  it’s clear that life would have been different had that moment not occurred.

My own turning point took the latter form.  I was comforting a fellow accompanying partner whose youngest child had just flown the nest for university.  She was devastated.  Her whole life, her purpose and her identity were tied up in being a mother to her children.  She had few interests of her own.  She had done little for herself in almost 20 years.  Her life was so focused on others that she had completely lost sight of her own dreams and ambitions.  Her youngest child had left taking his mother’s purpose in life with him and she was lost.  At the time, I was already uncomfortable that I had not worked for the last 7 years and at that moment, knew precisely where I didn’t want to be when my children left home.  In the course of that one conversation, I strengthened my resolve to reconnect with my own dreams and develop a career (paid or not) which gave me a sense of purpose beyond my family.  The journey is ongoing and there have been a couple of major detours along the way, but I can pinpoint that moment as a turning point in my life.

In her new book “Turning Points”, launched today, Women’s Development Coach Kate Cobb brings together the stories of 25 women entrepreneurs and the moments that changed their lives.  In the introduction, Kate looks at how we can recognize turning points and how we can maximise their power of transformation.   Each of the 25 entrepreneurs tell their own stories, sharing not only the moments that sparked change in their lives but also how they made the change happen, what they learned along the way and what resources they used to inspire their journeys.  Two of my favourite expats are featured in the book.  Fellow expat coach Louise Wiles, with whom I am currently collaborating on an exciting new project (more about that in a couple of weeks) tells the story of how she created her own business so that she could have a meaningful career which accommodated her peripatetic life. Also featured is Linda Janssen who writes for a number of expat publications and is the author of the Adventures in Expatland blog.

If you’d like to read these inspiring stories, Turning Points can be purchased from Amazon and, as if the stories, tips and resources are not reasons enough to buy the book, the authors have committed 10% of the royalties from the book to the charity Seeds for Development which supports farming families in Uganda.

P.S. I’m a bit slow in getting my blog post out today, but if you do buy the book before the end of the day today, log your purchase at http://www.theturningpointsbook.com to be eligible for some amazing launch day bonuses.

Filed under: Uncategorized