Why live an ordinary life when you can live an extraordinary life?!
As a child I was always very imaginative, curious, creative, brave, an explorer but I always seemed to feel and see things a lot deeper than others without really understanding why.
As a teenager I grew even more curious about the bigger questions in life; where had we come from, how had we evolved, what was my purpose here?
I was very active as a teenager, starting karate at the age of 10 after seeing The Karate Kid movie. My brother and I annoyed my parents about it so much that they finally took us to our first karate class where I instantly felt at home. I loved participating in musical theatre through drama at school and saw myself as a very creative, quietly confident young woman.
As I reached my adult years, life just seemed to become ordinary, lonely, my life had lost its sparkle. My body started sending me signals that something was wrong, I became quite ill, physically and mentally. At the age of 23 I was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma, I was very fortunate that it was detected early and only had to undergo treatment for a 12 month period. I continued on with my “ordinary” life oblivious to the messages I was being sent.
My body decided that if I wasn’t going to listen it would send me another message, striking at me with debilitating mental illness. From the age of 26 to 31 I spent 5 years going in and out of a psychiatric hospital with 2 attempts at suicide along the way. Those years at Albert Road Clinic saved my life, I am to this day so grateful for the education and support I received from the beautiful staff that helped me to see that life could be lived with mental illness, you just had to put in the hard work.
Then, at the age of 31 my whole world changed through the breakdown of my marriage. I was given the unique opportunity to “re-set” my life, to bring “Michelle” back. With the experience and skills I had developed and researched through the challenges I had faced over the past 10 years, I picked myself up from the black depths of mental illness and started over.
I went back to a career in real estate and back to my soul fulfilling love of marital arts, karate.
Karate was a huge part of my life as a teenager, achieving my first black belt at the age of 17. Sadly, after a terrible experience with a Sensei in my club, I had to give it away. I continued on with other activities like long distance swimming, aikido and boxing. Even throughout the difficult years of unbearable mental illness I recognised and had researched the importance of consistent regular exercise and healthy eating so continued to stay active.
Coming back to karate at the age of 31 was a very humbling experience but I knew I felt at home in the dojo, it was a place of motivation and inspiration. I slowly started to feel like Michelle again.
Over the next couple of years I would be surrounded by some of the most beautifully inspiring and motivational people of my life. People who would move me in a way that made me realise there was an extraordinary life out there just waiting for me to live it. The problem was, I had no idea how to live it but I knew it was there, I could feel it deep in my soul. That feeling that you have so much to give, so much life in you that is just waiting to be let out, like a husky waiting for someone to open the gate so it can run like an absolute lunatic. I started to delve more deeply into Personal Development and with every book I picked up, every CD I listened to, every blog, every YouTube clip I watched I became more curious, more alive. I started to apply things into my life and started to see and feel real change, the extraordinary life was unveiling before my eyes.
With each level or stage of change comes challenge. In 2011 I was diagnosed with a deadly lung disease, which in 98% of cases, is found in men in their late 30’s/early40’s who have been heavy smokers, none of my specialists could understand why I had suddenly and aggressively developed this disease. If it had not been for the amazing people around me, the inner strength I had developed through surviving mental illness, the personal development I was doing, this disease could have taken a hold and ended my life.
In the beginning I tried natural therapies to treat the disease going against my specialist’s recommendations, however, after 12 months my lung capacity had dropped to 23% so I succumbed to my specialist’s wishes and began heavy steroid treatment in conjunction with the natural therapy to attempt to stop the disease in its tracks. For those of you that have been on long term heavy steroid treatment you will understand the terrible side effects it can have on your body, for me; I put on 15 kg’s, I bruised terribly, I had several broken bones during the time I was being treated as my bone mineral density decreased. I would get sick all the time as it derived my body of an immune system, my partner would get a chest infection and I would end up in hospital with pneumonia, to put it simply I felt as though I had a poison in my body.
My specialist would tell me time and time again that I should seriously consider giving up karate, or at least the competitions, that I would never physically be the same again. That all the treatment could do was reduce the inflammation and hopefully the progression of the disease but it couldn’t reverse the damage that had already been done to 51% of my lungs. But I refused to believe that I was one of this diseases statistics. The more I read about the disease the less connected to it I felt, the less I believed the long term life expectancy statistics, that just simply wasn’t me. I had seen it before, there were very special people around me who had beaten the odds, who were fighting their own special fight and winning.
I knew deep down, that I had an important purpose in this life that had not been fulfilled just yet. I knew I needed help to break through the fog that had shrouded me. I knew I was meant for more I just didn’t know how to get the “more”. I had started watching a particular Life Coaches vlogs and felt a strong connection to this person and in my darkest days fighting the disease I would always think of her and how I knew, somehow, that she could help me.
I began seeing this coach in 2015 and, together, we are continuing to unlock the door to my extraordinary life. Making the decision and commitment to take this step has been THE best investment in myself that I have ever made. It’s like when you know that you’re standing on the edge of the cliff of your true potential, your true life and finally, just jumping because your coach is there as your parachute guiding you, supporting you, motivating you, giving you the tools to live that extraordinary life that was out there just waiting for you.
Over the past 20 years I’ve achieved what for some would be a life time of memories and experiences. I’ve worked in 6 different industries, traveled overseas and interstate for karate competitions, become a karate national champion, become a karate club team world champion with 4 other beautiful, fierce women, found the love of my life, survived a deadly lung disease, survived cancer and survived debilitating mental illness.
Now, the time has come to pay it forward.
Well, in actual fact I’ve already been paying it forward without even realising it.
As a karate Sensei you have the unique opportunity to inspire, motivate and mentor those around you. Each time I would engage with someone in this way it would absolutely light my soul on fire. I slowly started to realise that this was it, this was my purpose. I started to “coach” those closest to me, people who I could feel or sense were filled with so much potential, people who had so much to give to this world by simply being the best possible versions of themselves. Then, I started to see results, these people were achieving things they never thought would be possible; sporting results, confidence in themselves, belief in themselves, overcoming anxiety, a 100% success rate in job coaching people. Yep, that’s right, 100% success rate in job coaching. Everyone that I’ve ever coached that did everything that was asked of them have been successful in being offered the job.
I’ll just let that sink in for a minute.
When I got very sick again with my lungs at the end of 2017, after spending 2 weeks in hospital (6 days in intensive care and 7 days in critical care) the message was clear, I could no longer continue my career in real estate, it was time to stop forcing the square peg in the round hole. The time had come to turn this soul burning desire to help others live an extraordinary life into reality by turning it into my career.
It’s time to use all the knowledge that I’ve accumulated over the past 41 years, all my experiences, all my challenges, all my achievements, all my research, my strengths, my passion, my positivity, my compassion, my empathy to lead others to their extraordinary life.
