How Does Change Occur?

For many years I dreamed of a more fulfilling lifestyle. I liked nursing, yet I hated the system. Looking after people was great but dealing with management dogma and ridiculous targets was unnecessarily stressful at times. Elevated management would only ever seem to appear when there was a problem. The irony of a health-care system that provided very little care for the workers within it was puzzling to me.

However, my life was comfortable enough for me to do nothing about the rut that I was in for several years. I did plenty of travelling and my work was just a means to the next trip away. I liked the idea of change but had never really had the focus or persistence to pursue any sort of profoundly transitional career activity. However, my training in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) had helped me to challenge my model of the world and shift my focus in more challenging directions.

Whilst watching Match of the Day around the Christmas/New Year period of 2006-2007 I saw an interview with Aidy Boothroyd, the Watford Football Club manager. His team were in a seemingly impossible position in the Premiership, yet he was full of optimism. I watched his interview and a light went on for me.

Since Watford trained less than a mile from where I lived I decided that it would be a great idea to offer to help them stay in the Premiership. I had trained in NLP, Hypnotherapy and Reiki and thought that I had the tools to motivate the team enough to keep them in the top division. It was a lofty goal but I was ready to give it my best shot.

Then I started thinking that Adam the nurse was not much of a sales pitch. I needed a new identity and a new focus - and I needed it quick. I had no idea how I was going to create this new me, I just knew that it needed to occur fast, in order to give me time to rescue Watford.

I phoned business link the next day and they arranged to see me two days later. They asked me what particular aspects of setting up my own business that I needed to know about. I told them - everything.

This interview was very interesting and I received meticulous instructions from my business link advisor, who happened to be a Watford season ticket holder, on how to set myself up as a sole trader. When I told him my idea he smiled and told me that he hoped that I succeeded in my goal for Watford.

The same day I went to my bank and set up a business account and decided upon the name of my business. Things were moving swiftly and I was full of excitement. Then I started to tell friends and family what I was doing.

This proved to be an interesting process. Whilst some of my family and friends were caught up in my optimism, others projected their own limitations and negative beliefs upon me. This triggered my own issues about whether I could really help Watford stay in the Premiership. Did I have what it takes?

I toyed with the idea for about ten days and finally wrote a letter to Aidy Boothroyd. I told him that I was so sure that I could keep him in the Premiership that if my intervention did not work then there would be no charge for my service.

I waited eagerly by the phone for the next few days, wondering whether I would be contacted and wondering how exactly I would motivate the Watford football team enough to keep them up. This period proved to be a rollercoaster ride of soaring confidence and self-doubt as my issues surfaced like popcorn on a hot stove.

Watford never contacted me, leaving me wondering what I would do next. I had passed the point of no return.

The old me would have seen that as a sign that it was not meant to be and moved straight back into my comfort zone. However, an instinct told me that this was just the first step in something much bigger.

My years of nursing had made me realise that my questioning process had led many others to making profound change at pivotal moments in their life. Usually this was precipitated by a serious health issue, which had led to a hospital admission. This had indicated that something was profoundly wrong in their lives.

I decided that since I would be in the business of transforming lives that I needed to start with a big investment in myself. I cashed in all of my assets, which added up to about seven thousand pounds, and decided that I was going to do whatever it took for me to succeed in my new venture.

The first stage of this process involved booking myself on all of the courses that I wanted to do in order that I could claim the expenses against my business. I had not thought beyond that plan just then.

Over one year down the line, having supported myself with work from a nurse agency for the first few months, I have now broken links with my old life as a nurse and am prepared to move into my new one, as a Health Consultant.

Since burning all of my bridges to my old life, numerous opportunities have presented themselves - as my serendipitous path unfolds. It is a win-win scenario where helping others leads to my own personal growth.

During this journey I have realised numerous things about myself that I had ignored in the past. Namely, that I have more to offer than I realised. My potential is unfolding every day and I am learning, growing and helping many people that I come into contact with.

Throughout this process I have opened myself up to being challenged. Only through this has it been possible for me to evolve. What I once saw as my greatest difficulties, I now see as my best friends. Only through these demands and questions have I been able to realise that I have what it takes to succeed and move out of my comfort zone - permanently.

I have since gone onto discovering a new form of walking therapy and used it as part of an insight workshop that I have developed. The Walk Innovation project that I have formulated through this process is the most powerful tool for personal insight that I have ever experienced. If I had not put myself so far outside of my comfort zone, I would never have found this method. The thought of teaching this to others fills me with excitement and enables me to a fulfilling life way beyond my initial expectations.

Every day I now give thanks to the Universe for enabling me to live the life that I had only ever dreamed of before. The irony is that I already had the lifestyle, just not the perspective to appreciate it. Profound change happened for me in the instant that I decided that I could do it and that I was worth it

Unfortunately, Watford went down that season. Fortunately, I did not.