First there is a mountain...

I was made redundant from my first job out of university. It was a shock, even a little humiliating. At 25, my career was over before it began. I took a step back. Maybe this was a gift. I loved the job, but didn’t really see myself there long term anyway. What would I really like to be doing, say, 5 years from now?

My passion had always been politics. By the time I’m 30, I decided, I want to work in government. Four years later, I got my first job advising ministers. Working in government was scary, with a very steep learning curve. Within a decade, though, the curve had flattened out. I was uncomfortably comfortable. I felt I’d climbed a mountain. Now what? What would I really like to be doing, say, 5 years from now?

I wanted to live abroad, do something different, with an enlarged life and more challenging work. I quit government and flew out to Hong Kong. Within ten years later, I had a wonderful wife, two amazing children, and a successful career in financial services. I’d climbed another mountain. Now what? I took a step back. What would I really love to be doing 5 years from now?

What I really loved, I realised, was helping others develop their gifts. What if there was a career for me doing that, I wondered – what would that look like? I quit the job, relocated the family to the UK, and retrained as a professional and life coach. In my late 40s, I was back at the foothills. 

In a recent conversation with my own coach I reflected, “I’ve climbed two mountains. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to pull it off a third time”. He corrected me: “You’ve climbed two mountains. So you know you can climb mountains. And this is just another mountain”. 

Can I climb a third mountain? I don’t know. But for me, I know now it’s not about climbing mountains at all. It’s about the life I’m busy living along the way. A life of rich experiences, deeper relationships, and being able to look back on a life of no regrets.

In fact, there are no mountains. That’s just an image in my head. I can choose a different image. I choose a stream. My stream, coursing through the river of life, taking me where I need to be, to the people I can serve. I can just let go and allow it.