My story
So here comes my story. Even if I feel quite vulnerable putting this out here to the world, I sincerely want to share it so you know you are not alone. No one has it totally figured out and life can be much easier sometimes when you don’t need to fight on your own.
Everything I share with you is with absolute honesty. Being an academic in what seems to be my past life, I could have researched my brain out to introduce myself the “right” way 😉 but I prefer to just open up and tell you my true story. Like everything else in my website and in my general life, the messy unfiltered truth!
Oh yeah, and this is me as the little happy kid I was one of our many road trips with my awesome family.
Growing up and Academic career!
As a kid, I had a lot of fun, living every child’s dream with freedom and the idea that anything is possible. I was told I’m very smart and soon realized to fit in the “more, higher, tougher, better” education system and society what I needed to do, was to be the best.
Fast forward, as a “high achiever”, after my bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering, I moved to Sweden and did my Masters and afterwards Doctoral Licentiate Engineering degree one after each other in Biomedical and Nano science. During the PhD study years, I started to struggle and feel the toll on my body and mind, always trying to push forward. I ended up having a “burnout” or what they called “hitting the wall” back then. Having been advised to see a therapist, I was told I’m the “victim” of anxiety and depression and best is to quit and rest.
I did take the advice to rest but being the perfectionist I was back then, I continued after months of sick leave to finish up my Licentiate degree before I quit academia for good.
The photo is my last two academic degrees and thesis titles, but all they are now, are just pieces of paper gathering dust somewhere, however they are the reason I experienced what you and the older version of myself might call failure, and what I now call learning, packed with lessons to learn and paths taken rather than regrets of not trying it out.
Career change!
Having suffered enough in the competitive academic world , I thought I would feel better if I change to industry. Took me some time to get a job as I was told I was either over qualified or without enough experience!! This interval took a toll on my confidence and self-worth until I finally started working as a system engineer, and then climbing up “the ladder” towards more management and leadership roles in a very short time.
Having what everyone dreams of, a great job, great social status and great partner, I was still unhappy, something was missing and it had been missing for very long time.
Some people have it easier, born to love what they do and some like me had to try and test so many times to figure out their path. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted but I definitely knew what I didn’t want to do anymore! This came together with an inner need to change where I lived, what I did and how I lived.
I took this photo in one of the freezing winter days in February, on my birthday, during my regular “keep me sane” lunch walks as a reminder.
Having lived in Sweden for so many years, long, cold and dark winters and a sea that I actually couldn’t swim in, made it to the point to say “That’s it, we are going to move to Australia!!!”
COVID and Pause!
Lucky for me, when we moved to Australia, I took a sabbatical to go visit my parents properly in my home country as I was always busy with work before, and boom, COVID happened!
Being stuck for 9 months, gave me the opportunity to rethink my life and my values. With the help of an amazing coach, I realized all my life I was unconsciously following the “rules” of some kind of invisible social norm rule book that promised successful and happy life.
The problem with that, was that the society, education system, etc. didn’t know what I wanted and what made me happy. Even I had lost track of what made me happy as I was just busy “climbing up the ladder”, never really pausing to think if this is even the right one for me.
It took me thirty six years, real deep dive into my values, beliefs and programs and more importantly COACHING, to figure things out, DARE TO CHANGE gears and start all over again. I finally did it, took me some time but I’m happier than I’ve ever been.
Finally home!
Wait a minute, of course this is not a Cinderella story. What were you thinking? 😉
I had to work hard to rebuild myself. Since I didn’t have enough education already under my belt I decided to study again 🙂 I took another year and a half to study a totally new subject very close to my heart and yes very irrelevant of what I studied before. Finally I felt I’m where I’m meant to be and where I really want to be! This time purely based on my inner desire to help anyone like me to fight for what they truly want and achieve it.
Now, I’m happy to say I have finished my International Coaching Federation Education as a professional life coach, took the extra time to learn and practice the art of NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programing, and got certified in that too but more importantly, gained lots of experience by coaching many wonderful clients achieving their goals.
It took some time, yes, but here I am. Finally! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have everything figured out, I truly believe no one does. But fortunately, I have learned a lot from my own experience and all the amazing coaching techniques now available to me to help myself and those like me to live a bit lighter, brighter, with more joy and contentment, more gratitude and awe for what we already have and internal desire to grow and learn authentically.
Where are you on your path?
You have gotten as far as you could have on your own and it’s time to get that help you’ve been wanting to get to move forward and change gears. As Einstein said, “To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome is the definition of insanity”.
Let this be the beginning of a new journey, a different one with paths not taken, fears faced head on and beliefs challenged wholeheartedly so you can look back and feel truly satisfied with the journey you’ve had rather than feeling regret asking yourself “Was that it?”
Let’s begin to live your life with your “whole” self rather than only the head, the shoulds, the rules, the roles, etc. Coming from personal experience, there’s nothing I regret now and I truly want to help as many people as possible to feel the same empowerment and joy in life. At the end, life is too short to live unsatisfied, don’t you think?
What stops you?
I offer A FREE FIRST SESSION, so you really have nothing to worry about, if you like to continue you do, if not, you don’t. Truly no pressure! Don’t believe me? Try it! Leave me a message or email when you want to chat. What do you have to lose?
