how taekwondo changes our lives...forever!

How much can a chance meeting affect a family's life?

Can it set the wheels of change in motion forever?

Can it make a family stop dead in their tracks. Pull up all their roots. Make a massive U-turn. And take their lives down a totally different path.

The answer is...

...absolutely it can!

We know because it happens to us.

Our story starts outside the fruit shop in an English village one gray Wednesday afternoon. Deb bumps (literally) into Rachel, a Mum she remembers from Leah's pre-school.

We decide an impromptu coffee would be fun. We sip our cappuccinos and make small talk.

Deb explains she's a local veterinary surgeon, married to Neil an engineer and Mum to Leah.

'And what do you do?' Deb asks

'I teach taekwondo' replies Rachel.

'Really!' Deb says 'That sounds interesting'. Images of gently flowing tai-chi-like-moves float around Deb's head.

'Sounds fun. Yes I'm sure Leah would love to try it.'

not quite tai chi!...but one kick and we are hooked!

For 6 months we drop Leah at her taekwondo class and dutifully trudge off to the gym.

When we collect Leah we peek at the end of her session. Our shy 5 year old is kicking targets and yelling at the top of her voice.

It isn't quite what we imagined!

But it looks fun. Heaps more fun than the rowing machine!

In the end we can't resist it. We turn up at our first taekwondo class in track-pants and baggy t-shirts. We are the unfit, unflexible and uncoordinated pair at the back.

Everyone else seems to know exactly what to do. Whereas we have absolutely no idea what to do. Or how to do it. Or even why we are there.

We contemplate making this our last class. Until Rachel holds out a target.

'OK. Just bend your knee up towards the target. And kick it. As hard as you like!'

'Really? As hard as we like?' We don't need to be asked twice!

BAM! We hit the target.

What a feeling! Primitive. Unrefined. And great fun!

And that's it.

We are both hooked after that very first kick. At the end of the session we find ourselves grinning at each other like kids.

'Taekwondo will change your lives you know.' Rachel smiles as she hands us each a uniform.

we find taekwondo brings us unexpected benefits

We try the Saturday morning class. Two hours of hard physical and mental exercise together as a family. We kick, we punch, we stretch, we make friends and we laugh.

What a way to start the weekend!

After lunch we linger over coffee. The stress from our working week is gone from our bodies and minds. We are relaxed and chilled.

We look at each other and realize we haven't felt this good for a long, long time.

Our physical health alters dramatically and quickly.

'Wow! You two look well!' is the classic comment from friends. 'Have you lost weight?'

We find being physically fit and strong helps us in our day to day lives. Deb finds it easier to stand all day at work. And Neil now climbs up and down ladders with ease.

We are surprised and pleased to find our self-confidence and self-esteem grow as we train.

For Deb this means the confidence to say 'No' sometimes. For Neil this means the confidence to speak up about what he can do. And for Leah it's the confidence to stand up for herself at school.

We find ourselves doing new things.

Neil buys a digital SLR camera and photo-shop. Deb starts painting pictures and writing stories. And Leah brings different friends home for tea.

We book a 3 week adventure in Australia.

the winds of change start to blow stronger...and we look deeper

Australia is very important to us because it's where we fell in love 20 years ago. And as we enjoy our holiday and re-trace our old steps with our daughter we marvel once again at Australia's natural beauty.

And we take a very long, very deep look at our lives. Taekwondo's eastern philosophies have opened our minds to different ways of thinking.

We have great careers, a gorgeous home and a decent(ish) bank balance.

The thing we don't have...

...is time.

Empty time.

A space in the diary where nothing is planned. Time when we are not rushing to work, to school or to taekwondo.

We realize that we can earn all the money in the world...

...but we can never get back even one second of the time we spent earning it.

We talk about Deb's job. The strain of being a health professional is starting to take it's toll. She is having stress related health problems. She feels she can't do what she is doing for many more years.

We sit looking at the opera house under a typical Sydney high blue sky and make a huge decision.

We sell everything.

And in less than a year we are back in Australia for good with 3 suitcases.

And plans for a very different life.

we discover it's tough to run against the traffic

We discover pretty quickly that we have grossly underestimated the enormity of pulling up all our roots and moving half-way round the world. The stress of day to day life is huge.

Simple things like getting a drivers license, finding food shops and registering with a doctor seem complicated and drain our energy.

Every conversation we have is with a stranger.

Leah finds school different and struggles to fit in. We worry about her. And we miss our friends and family.

Taekwondo helps. It's a constant in our lives. We register with Spirit taekwondo and immediately we have new friends and a sense of belonging somewhere.

Even if it is only for few hours each week.

'To get
where you never have been before,
you must do
what you have never done.'

We decide not to go back to our old jobs. We figure there is little point in traveling half-way round the world do the same thing we did before.

We take a deep breath and run against the traffic.

It seems the forty-something traffic is running the other way. Our contemporaries are going out to work. Building careers and businesses. And moving up the property ladder.

We're going in the opposite direction. It feels very alien.

We discover that if you take a break from work for a while to decide what you really want to do, you can lose that sense of purpose that a job gives you.

Everyone you meet asks what you do. And you don't know yourself. So you can't really answer.

You worry about spending your savings.

You try one direction. Realize that's not right. Pick yourself up. And desperately try to think of another option.

But you don't know the answers. And in the meantime time ticks by... Your confidence drops...You start to argue...

We don't see this one coming.

We always had the strongest of marriages. We don't expect to almost lose each other.

We dig deep.

Very deep.

We draw on the inner strength our martial arts training gives us. And we fight to save our marriage.

We talk. We walk the beaches.

We fight. And we walk some more.

We drop our egos. And we bare our souls.

And our marriage slowly recovers.

We talk about our passions. What are they?

Taekwondo- both of us. Writing- Deb. Photography- Neil.

There must be a way we can we combine them and make a basic living?

'If I had to choose my driving force...

...it would be passion.'

Anita Roddick

We remember a friend in the UK making money from a website about walking her dogs. We look her up.

And there it is. The solution might just be there in front of us.

Within a few days we are registered with SBI and researching our first site.

We check out taekwondo as a subject for a website. The numbers stack up. We start writing and taking photos and realize we love it!

And now?...

...we're on our way.

We're working together from home as a team. Our taekwondo site is steadily making it's way up the Google rankings. Our second site is about to go live.

We're growing our own business together. Doing what we are passionate about.

Bounching ideas off each other.

Being creative.

And having fun!

And best of all...?

...we have time.

We have time to walk the beaches. Time for friends. Time for each other. And time for our daughter.

Can we make it work financially?...

...Who knows?

We're going to have fun trying.

Taekwondo has given us the confidence to go for it.

A great company called SBI gives us the tools we need to build an online business.

And we provide the ideas, brains and motivation.

Watch this space...

...and we'll keep you posted!

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