Sometime in Spring, 2004, on a train from London to Cardiff, I woke up.
I had been touring with Welsh National Opera for a month or so, singing the leading role of Adina in Donizetti’s opera “L’Elisir D’Amore”. Because we were touring, I spent most of my time sitting on trains, going back and forth to Liverpool, Oxford, Bristol, Birmingham. I sat where I could, ate my sandwiches from Pret, and read a few books that my partner Antonio insisted would change my life.
One of these books was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. By the time I had turned the final page, sitting on that Great Western train service to Cardiff, I was well and truly awake.
It wasn’t like waking up from a nightmare. No screaming or sweating or scaring the other passengers. (My London followers will know that this kind of thing only happens on the Tube.)
But I had really, really scared myself.
I realised that where I was going was not where I wanted to be.
I wanted to be wealthy. Wealthy enough, at least, to pay all my expenses without having to work every day to do it. To choose what I wanted to do and have the financial freedom to do it. To take a singing gig because I wanted it, not because I needed it.
Here were the facts staring me in the face:
- After 6 years of formal education, I was barely earning 20k a year.
- If I cancelled a show because I was too unwell to sing, I didn’t get paid.
- If I ever lost or damaged my voice, my livelihood was gone. Completely.
- I couldn’t pay someone else do to my job.
- My cheese had most definitely moved.
Now that I was awake, I had questions. LOTS of questions. What had I been doing with my life? Where the hell was I going? Did I even know? What did I really want? And how on earth was I going to get myself there?
I describe this as sleepwalking through life.
When we wake up, we discover our lives as if we are observing it for the first time, from outside ourselves. It is the first step in a delicious and inspiring journey that allows us to transform what is causing us to feel miserable or frustrated and instead learn to choose that which makes us feel better.
Because you absolutely MUST do things differently to start getting a different life.
I believe it was that crazy-haired über-genius Enstein who once said the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.
If you want something different to what you are getting, you must start behaving like a different person. You must get yourself “inside the head” of the person you want to be. The kind of person who is already living the life you want.
Waking up is really just the first step, the tiny moment where you understand there is a potential forest lurking in the little acorn that you have seen inside you.
Are you ready to face up to making the tiny changes that will give you the massive difference you are looking for? Check out my 10 Powerful Resources for more inspiration.
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