After years working as a Management Consultant, I was hankering after something else. The work was full-on; there were long hours, challenging clients, and it didn’t feel so meaningful anymore. I was a bit stuck and didn’t know what to do next. So, I thought I’d chat to a few people who had shifted careers, to see how they had gone about it.

Quite quickly the calls seemed to take on a life of their own and soon I found myself running a research project. As the conversations went from 5, to 10, to 20, I realised I wasn’t just gathering information for myself anymore; people were also finding comfort from sharing their stories. Many came away with insights about their lives and some saw repeated patterns over the years. Quite a few had real epiphanies.

As I continued, the topics broadened out from career to all sorts of life shifts, such as health, relationships, money, moving city or country. After 10 months I realised I had spent 75 hours talking to 100+ people from all over the world. When I reviewed their stories, I found there were similar topics, whatever the age, location, or change they were going through. I also discovered themes about what helped and hindered them making successful change in their lives.

If you’d like to jump in yourself and find out more, then you can download 30 pages of the book for free. If you’d prefer personalised help, then why not check out my coaching services - you’ll even get a free copy of the book if we work together.

If you’re in the UK and would like to buy the book it’s on Amazon UK (digital or paperback) and on this Swim Jump Fly website (paperback only). If you’re anywhere else in the world, then please just search for Swim Jump Fly on your local Amazon site.

Or why not just get in touch with me here.

I started writing about this in a blog that I called Spoon by Spoon. All the while I was putting my two degrees in psychology to good use, since I was training to be a coach. A few years on and I do work on consulting projects from time to time. However, I mostly coach people at crossroads in their lives - those who want to make real and sustainable change. I have also spent time turning all of this research into a book; the result is Swim Jump Fly: A Guide to Changing Your Life.

All cartoons and illustrations by Simon Pearsall

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