What I have learned from my travels

The past couple of weeks I have found myself talking a lot about travel.  Places I have been and places I would like to visit.  That final night in Rome, wandering around the city with a bottle of wine with wonderful friends who come from all over the globe.  There was the time I got extremely excited to see the work of Gaudi, that all I could do was grin and run toward it.  There was also the time in Buenos Aires I had a mother, holding her baby and begging at my feet.  Travel brings about a whole string of emotions.  However remembering and planning travel, fills me with a comforting warmth, the wonderful memories and exotic locations around the world.  It makes me happy.  Travel makes me happy.  It has also taught me a lot about life.  Travel has helped me grow up to appreciate my life and everything I have.  This is what I have learned about life, from my travels:

1.     To appreciate what I have.  There are so many people in the world who simply are not as fortunate as I am.  Who haven’t had and will never have the opportunities I have.  I am grateful for my life.

2.     To follow my heart.  If I have a dream, I will go out and get it. 

3.     That adventure and play time is important in everyday life.  Finding spontaneous bursts of joy is important to keep life interesting.

4.     To live for the moment but plan for the future.  I make every second count.  Today needs to be embraced but I’m careful to spend my money on moments rather than things.

5.     To open up.  Rich experiences and endless hours of adventure and exploring makes for easy and meaningful conversation.

6.     To see the beauty in small things.  Stopping to smell the roses, appreciate the sunshine or stare up into the clouds.  It is the little things that make life big.

7.     To live drama free.  Travel has taught me to calm down and not sweat the small stuff.  There are so many more important things happening in the world and to see and do, things that can only enrich your life and knowledge.

8.     Finally, I have learned to travel at every opportunity.  Because there are so many new things to discover and people to meet that you simply can’t experience this in your own backyard.

Liz Xox

2012 - Canyon Swing - Queenstown, New Zealand

2013 - Got caught in the rain - London, England

2013 - Taking time out to admire the view - Sorrento, Italy

2007 - Appreciating the beauty - Iguazu Falls, Argentina

2013 - Totally amazed by the Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, Spain

2007 - Soaking up the culture - Buenos Aires, Argentina

2013 - Totally excited by the Running of the Bulls - Pamplona, Spain

Seriously! WHY?!

Control.  In the past I always felt the need to control everything.  I couldn’t and I didn’t, but I tried.  I have learned to let go and control the controllable and let the rest take care of itself.  Even though I am much more relaxed and generally happy to go with the flow in life, it is now that people THINK I have everything under control.  I certainly don’t!  But I mean, really… does anyone have everything ‘under control’?  I don’t think so.  Unfortunately life doesn’t come with a manual and if for some magical reason you did have everything totally under control, I would have to assume that you are some kind of magical super human.

Anyway, I still can’t help but wonder why people think I have everything in my life under control?  Is it the way I carry myself and talk about myself?  The fact that I manage to balance things out and attend to each aspect of my life be that work, uni, gym, travel, friends, family?  Is it my newfound confidence and independence?  I don’t know, I can only really assume so.  It confuses me!  People confuse me.  Relationships confuse me.  Uni confuses me, and work confuses me.  Sometimes I go through the course of my day, get home, collapse and wonder why I work so hard?  Like seriously, WHY?  Sometimes I feel like everything on paper looks perfect, the perfect life.  But when it comes to reality, I am running around like a crazy person obsessed with… well…everything!  I get: “how do you do it?” “You’re so good!” “You need to take a brake!”  “Do you even breathe?”  A lot of the time the answer is simply, I don’t know, then I think about it and realise that I simply do JFDI!  I have high aspirations and want a lot out of life so I am willing to work my butt off for them.  It just so happens that like everyone else out there, I am running around trying to find the meaning of life.  What even is that?  I mean, why doesn’t life come with a manual?  Should it?  Would that make life boring?  I think it would, it would take away our individuality… we wouldn’t have to opportunities to learn from experience.

This post is a probably a bit hard to follow and confusing to read and I feel for you if you are persisting through the crazy jumbled up words that represent the mess and confusion in my head at the moment.  I know that I am on the right path and I know what I want in life.  I know that to achieve these things I have to work bloody hard!  That is why I do what I do, to set myself up in life, to achieve what I want to achieve.  Because there is no greater feeling than reaching your goals, that’s why!

Liz Xox

A shift in mindset

Ok, so I have not posted for a few weeks now.  Slack I know… It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, or I had forgotten to… I’ve just been super busy!  In the last few weeks I have really marvelled at my mindset and how much different it is.  Like… it’s crazy!!  I am a completely different person to the one I was two years, even eighteen months ago!

I used to HATE change.  Like I really feared it, it used to leave me paralysed with fear of the unknown.  Recently I have been thinking about the change I have made in my life over the past year and a half.  Not just the physical changes but also the mental ones.  I feel like I am a completely different person to the one I once was.  I am super proud of my physical transformation, but even more so of my emotional one.  The biggest change is within me.  I used to get angry very easily.  I was always tired and could be very emotional.  I am now a lot calmer, happier, easy going, relaxed and I am learning to live the life I love and deserve.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Melbourne to catch up with family and friends.  I got to spend some quality time with one of my older cousins who I haven’t seen in a long time.  She was totally blown away with my transformation and how far I have come within myself.  I used to be very self-destructive in the way that I spoke to myself.  I managed to twist every word said to, or about me into the worst possible scenario and I was convinced that I was worthless.  Because of this I was very quiet and tried to avoid talking to people… I hated having the attention on myself, I just wanted to fade into the background and not be noticed.  I thought that because I disgusted myself, that everyone else found me disgusting.  Hearing my cousin say this to me meant the world and it led me to think about how much I have changed on the inside rather than just the outside.  I don’t often stop to think about and appreciate the huge mental changes I have made in my life.  I cannot believe how confident I am.  Like, I would never have had the confidence to publish my struggles, fears and triumphs for the world to read.  I would never have had the confidence to walk into a gym and workout.  I never allowed myself to simply… feel good.  That is the biggest change I have made.  Better than dropping four dress sizes.  I like the person I have become.  I am learning to love myself.

Every time I felt the need to criticise myself I catch myself and immediately flip it.  ‘You’re a fat worthless cow’ soon became, ‘you’re getting so strong’.  ‘Nobody would want to be friends with you’ became, ‘you’re such a good friend’.  A positive mindset is everything when it comes to positive change.  If you want it, work for it.  I decided that I had had enough of being the way I was.  Just like that I decided.  Nothing happened over night.  It took a lot of guts, determination and a lot of strength and will power, but I have succeeded in changing the way I think about myself and about my life.  I am not finished… we are never ‘finished’ changing ourselves.  We change all day, every day until the day we die.  Every day of my life, I commit to being the best version of myself.

Liz Xox

What else have I been up to lately?! 

                                                              I LOVE FLYING!! Jetting off to Melbz for the weekend!

                                       Hotel gyms tend to suck…but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout! No excuses!

                                                                          Heading out for a night on the town!

                                                                                 Another transformation pic =)

                                                                               Climbed Mt. Lofty with my mate =)