Travel, transformation and the power of an avocado!

So, I’ve been back ten days and it’s back to reality now.  Since returning home, I have followed my own advice and decluttered, rearranged and changed my schedule so I can work on all those changes and ideas I planned while I was away.  The old routine is replaced by a new and energetic one, and I have a couple of very exciting projects on the go, two of which have been long-held dreams of mine!

But while travel is my reset, and, in the past, has led to some major transformations, it was actually an avocado that had the biggest impact on me!

Five years ago, my life changed.  I temporarily left my job and home and moved 200 miles away to support family members.  This became a permanent move but I felt a lot of resentment, bitterness, anger and fed-upness (is that a word?).  I saw myself as a victim, a martyr and hard done by, as I wanted to return to my home and job – but felt trapped.

Then along came the fateful avocado!

There I was, choosing an avocado in a large supermarket when it hit me that I was spending ages choosing the one that felt perfect, just ripe enough to cause that ‘aah’ moment when you cut into it (you know what I mean!).  Yet, when moving to support family, it took only a few seconds to decide to do it, nowhere near as long as it took me to choose that avocado.

I realised that although not a choice I had planned or wanted, moving was my choice.  Mine.  No one forced me, bribed me or in any way influenced me – it was all my own decision and right there, in the avocado aisle, I had a bit of a eureka moment, I said to myself “get over yourself, you chose to do this, you are here, you are in control and now you need to just buy that flipping avocado, finish your shopping and get on with your life”.

Choice.  That is the keyword, it was my choice and my responsibility to now make it work.

So, I followed my own advice.  I made a conscious choice to change my mindset, my environment, and my career.  In the process realised that I was probably just one of many women faced with similar situations – where change happens not because we want or seek it but because we choose (that word again) to support others.

I realised that even at my age (don’t ask but Danny Blanchflower was my hero) life could still be fabulous, full of new choices, new opportunities, and new experiences – a fabulous new life awaited me.

And that is how Fabnewlous came to be, a combination of resentment, avocados and the knowledge that life changes, and so can we!