The Book that Changed My Life

My friend Jane (not her real name) came to stay the other day and I was reminded of how a book changed both our lives.

Back in 1994, I had just turned 31. I had a successful career as a lawyer and a great flat in London. I had friends and the chance to travel - and I had just fallen in love. It seemed I had everything that a woman might ever want.

Jane also had a great career as an accountant in a famous multinational. She had a great flat, friends and the freedom to do what she wanted after her divorce.

But for both of us, we wanted something more.

Ever since I was a child I had promised myself that I would have a published book by the time I turned 30. Now I was 31 and as every day passed, my childhood goal was receding. Jane had travelled to India on holiday a few times and yearned to go back on a longer trip. She longed to find a more meaningful job than merely “counting lightbulbs”, as I used to tease her.

Angie had just come into my life. She had come over from South Africa with a rucksack and £250 in her pocket, having given up her job and her flat and her life over there. She gave me her well-thumbed copy of Susan Jeffer’s “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway.”

I read it in one sitting and it blew me away. I went out and got a copy for Jane.

I had written many pages of many unfinished novels. They remained unfinished because at some level I was afraid that if I finished them and they were no good, I would have to face the fear of rejection. I had never truly, really risked anything for my passion - for my great love of writing.

I had never truly, really risked anything. I had always done the sensible thing. Studied at school. Passed my exams. I had gone to law school and got a good job and did that job pretty well. So far so ho hum.

After reading the book, Jane and I decided that we could change our lives. We dared each other. I said, “The last one to give up their job is a rotten egg”.

I won the dare by a day.

I resigned with no book contract, no contacts in the publishing world, no book idea in my mind. I had to make a success of writing or I would have thrown away everything for nothing but daytime TV and slobbing around at home. So I am pretty relieved to report that I did achieve my childhood dream of being a published writer, although a few years late!

Jane packed her rucksack for a three month tour of India. In the end, she was away travelling for 18 months. When she came back, she got an job with an international aid agency and was posted to Russia, Nepal and India over the next 5 years. She has hiked the Andes and the Himalayas. She hiked alone from Geneva over the Alps and across southern France to Nice. She discovered Buddhism in her travels and is now travelling a spiritual path after her global travels.

When she came to visit the other day, we sat in the garden and raised a glass to how far we had come.