alice dartnell
England
A big thing for me was struggling to identify with my Japanese side. This not
only created issues with my relationship with my mum, because of language and
cultural barriers, but it also caused my own insecurities and self-doubt. (I am
now very proud of my Japanese heritage, but this led to emotions I wasn’t
equipped to deal with as a teenager). Because of this, I was often labelled a
troublemaker at school. I even got expelled from my lessons just a few weeks
before my GSCEs! Despite actually scoring well on the GCSEs, I did manage to
spectacularly fail my AS levels. I worked extra hard to get into a good
university (the first from both my mum and dad’s family, whoop! You’ve always
got to celebrate your wins!), and that is when I started to love education. In
my final term of university, I learned that I was in fact dyslexic, rather than
just a “trouble-maker.” My teenage years and early adulthood were plagued with
severe depression, and I endured battles with an eating disorder that consumed
my life for a decade. Then, after getting married, I became a military wife and
was so proud of him and felt like such a team… but had to endure having zero
contact with my partner for months at a time when he was on deployment. I won’t
lie, it was tough being a military wife! My life has been littered with a lot of
setbacks (Oh, let’s not forget I also ‘failed’ at being a landlady in my early
20s, as well as a business owning a bar in SE Asia, and did I mention that I
lost my job on the same day the offer on our first home got accepted?! All that
excitement and build-up, only to have to let it go… It was a lot). So, with all
these setbacks, the thing that pushed me through was mindset work and personal
development…. And that is what led me to realising knowing what I really wanted
to do. I wanted to help others tackle their own setbacks and be the support that
I needed and create a life they love. When I started my coaching diploma in
2016, I didn’t look back. I was focused on creating my own life by design, not
by default, and was determined to help others do the same But I still had
hurdles. I won’t pretend the road to building a successful business I love has
been plain sailing… I attempted to start my business in 2019, resulting in a
false start (my burnout forced me to prioritise my health and take a break) and
my marriage unexpectedly during 2020 when we were all going through the
pandemic. So, no, my story isn’t perfect. I’m not perfect. But I know it’s also
possible to restart and redefine your life, on your own terms. I learned that a
good life doesn’t come from avoiding the bad times, but from learning to
overcome them and become better from them. I’m not a product of my past or any
situation and neither are you. I had to realise that I still had the power to
create the life I wanted – just like you do!
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