August - Finding purpose, rising above fear

“The art of life lies in a constant adjustment to our surroundings”, Kakuzo Okakura

August 2025 marked a turning point; it was tough, but the real work was just beginning. My mind was full of bright ideas and an emerging vision of what I wanted, yet those thoughts were overshadowed by deep-seated doubts and a paralysing fear of failure.

These emotions held me back from fully owning and expressing my plans for a life change. The thought of moving on meant my work environment had become suffocating, leaving me feeling irrelevant and embarrassed. To make the situation worse, I was really worried about the health of a family member.

Strangely enough, finding clarity in dreams has become a recurring theme of this period of my life. Though I rarely dream, when I do, they are vivid and powerful. A particularly haunting three-part saga particularly stands out.

In the first scene, I wake up in my parents' house, surrounded by crocodiles. Fear paralyses me, and as one approaches with its jaw wide open, I silently scream awake.

The second part sweeps me to a party at a residential compound in the Middle East, where a devastating earthquake strikes. Panicking, I run for safety, yet I realise I’ve left others behind in the chaos; I rush back to help lift a lifeless body into a large net, while around onlookers watch without joining in.

The final chapter is a struggle to avoid violent looters and get away from an imminent aftershock. I race to escape with others, but we are blocked from moving over a seemingly trivial issue - a debt in US dollars. No one can figure out the local currency conversion, leaving us unable to pay and trapped.

While I am no dream interpreter, I had to capture this story as soon as I woke up. What was my subconscious trying to reveal? Did my feeling of being trapped reflect how I felt about redundancy? Was the death theme symbolic of my career ending? Or did the frantic running reflect my struggle to navigate this life-changing period? It all boiled down to anxiety and stress, and a pressing need to make progress on my new path.

So what to do? The answer lay in transitioning from preparation to action, being brave enough to try new things, cultivating self-awareness, and permitting myself to experience my emotions fully.

My work in coaching and helping others provided a vital anchor, grounding me in the present and fuelling optimism about my journey. Creating a safe space for others to help them think and advance in their lives is incredibly rewarding. I understood that many people out there long for a little help to light their way.

This amazing experience of writing, coaching, and supporting others, paired with the powerful challenge of making it financially sustainable, gives me the strength to confront my fears and drives me to embrace the exciting path ahead.