On 23rd march a brand-new magazine is going to be launched.
It will be the UK’s first digital publication empowering a community of women with life challenging conditions. It’s called Uplifted for a reason because it will do just that uplift you when you receive it.
What a wonderful idea.
I woke early this morning with the thought – what gives me… infact what gives anyone the ability or even the right to be able to reply to questions that may be of a most personal and sensitive of nature.
I am going to attempt to explain.
I had a wonderful childhood growing up and from the time I could utter my first words I was off talking to someone. I was given the gift of being able to hear what is and isn’t being said by someone and have always loved people and hearing their stories.
I knew from when I read my first ladybird book as a tiny little girl that was called ‘the nurse’ that is what I wanted to do. Nursing wasn’t a degree course when I started my training, but I did study a preliminary certificate in social care with my psychology and sociology ‘A’ levels before starting my 3 year nurse training at the teaching hospital Addenbrookes in Cambridge 1985.
Loving people I of course thrived on the wards. At the beginning of my training, I would know someone was in shock because I had taken their pulse and blood pressure. I would know that someone was having a hypoglycaemic diabetic attack by doing their blood sugar levels but at the end of my training I just knew by looking at someone intuitively what was happening to them.
My career in Nursing which eventually included midwifery (a further 18 months training), spanned 20+ years and I loved every minute of it.
I reached almost the top grade in what I specialised in at the end of my career. It was an unusual path that I had taken when my youngest daughter Polly was born. I saw a little advert in the Gp surgery for triage nursing sisters at a brand new out of hours service. Yes, Gps did used to go out to see their own patients at night. This only started to change in 1996.
I had free reign to triage 100s of patients. Make life saving decisions about what they needed and directed the shifts with skill I had learned over many years. This eventually transferred when I began my high-grade role with NHS Direct.
So
Why did I leave a job I loved so much?
Good question and I will attempt to answer it as succinctly as I can.
I have always believed it’s important to find the right people to help us on our journey through life. I had received counselling for quite a while after some difficult changes in my personal life over a long period of time. and then as if by magic a good friend became a life coach. I knew I had some changes that I needed to make. I was very over weight, feeling rubbish about myself and desperately unhappy in my marriage with someone I no longer trusted or respected.
It was that very coach that asked me the fateful question – ‘have YOU ever thought about becoming a coach Julie’? I genuinely till that moment had never considered leaving the job I loved so much but it set me thinking and the rest as they say is history. I trained for a year and got 100s of hours of pro bono coaching under my belt. I started my business ‘Changes Forever’ in March 2006. 14 years on and it is a decision I have never regretted. People trust me with their lives and it is something I will never take for granted or take lightly.
Change is forever but the pain doesn’t have to be if you are prepared to do the work it takes to heal. To find the right people to help you. My New Chapter program is cutting edge coaching leading people forward when they are ready after difficult and sometimes traumatic life change.
I didn’t go to university to study for a degree but I guess for the past 30 years I have been to the university of life, got a first class honours in it, masters and currently about to receive my PHD!!!
End of the day I am just me. That is why it is said I have unconditional positive regard. I see everyone as equal and am ready and waiting to hear YOUR story. Help you to find a way forward. Navigate a path towards finding happiness and joy despite the pain you are in right now.
