Today is Melbourne Cup Day here in Victoria – “The Race That Stops A Nation”. Well clearly it’s not exactly stopping me and I’ll be honest – I’m not a supporter of horse racing in any shape or form (or indeed any sort of animal racing aka greyhounds, camels whatever really) nor gambling. So today is just another day for me – albeit at home as most businesses are closed today owing to a public holiday. Ordinarily I take Tuesdays off and train with my tennis coach and P/T. I decided that after three days’ of competing in the ITF World Tennis Masters Victorian Championships, I am having a day of rest today. I am after all quite sore and a bit tired. So I think I’ve earned it. 
This morning I was reading an e-mail from a lady I am a huge fan of – Denise Duffield-Thomas. You may have heard of her already (author or “Lucky Bitch”, “Get Rich Lucky Bitch”, “Chillpreneur” and Founder of “Money Bootcamp”). Denise graduated from the same exact Life Coaching Academy that I did a year before me so I already knew of her and I think everyone that knew her, knew she was destined for something big. And she’s there – she has built a multi 7 figure business so safe to say she knows a thing or two about business, personal development, work/life balance and making money. 
I choose my Mentors very carefully. Something she said in this e-mail really resonated with me and I felt compelled to share.
Like Denise, I too live on a lifestyle property. She has a farm, I have a farm. The difference is that I actually live on my farm. She farms roses, we farm Llamas – both managed by others. We both come from very similar upbringings – single Mum, not a lot of money and certainly didn’t hear anything particularly uplifting whilst growing up. She grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, me the suburbs of Adelaide. And a lot of our successes are very aligned.
Denise bought her farm pretty much the same way we did and it’s this story that I want to share. The reason I want to share this (and I have shared this story many times before in front of audiences – it’s powerful) is to demonstrate to you that holding on to your vision, making a decision about it and closing off every single exit strategy is your surefire way to getting what you want in life.
When I was 21, I sat down with my then 17 year old boyfriend and drew a map of what our dream property looked like. Keeping in mind that he was a farm boy and I was a city girl both from South Australia and we both equally had a passion for South Australian architecture and maintaining historical structures. I still do although I now live in country Victoria. We drew things like what the homestead looked like, how many acres, what sort of vegetables we would grow, fruit trees we would keep, paddocks, tennis court, pool etc etc etc. You can see what I drew below – I actually kept it all these years in my scrapbook!
In 2014, I was pregnant with son number two. And for those of you reading this who have gone through pregnancy, you will know you get some crazy ideas in your head over that 9 months’. I was in a lot of pain for most of my pregnancies and for that reason, I didn’t work much. I spent the majority of those months’ reading and lying on the couch watching movies, documentaries and You Tube videos. Not a great way to spend one’s time but when you are in constant pain, your mind can’t really cope with much. One day I just decided to hit RealEstate.com.au and started searching for property. Now to be clear, at the time I was living on the Mornington Peninsula – about 70 mins out of Melbourne and was very happy living a few minutes’ from the beach in my two storey home on acreage thank you very much. I was not in anyway looking to move. However something pricked me. I typed in the filter search “spa, tennis, pool, sauna” and fully expected to see properties on Sydney harbour and on the Gold Coast come up for multiple millions of dollars and just was curious to see what was out there. The first property that popped up was actually in Victoria! That was a surprise and again I was expecting it be in Brighton or Toorak or Kew or Templestowe (my Melbourne peeps will know what I’m referring to here). Except it wasn’t. It was in a place I had never heard of before – Koriella! Where on earth was Koriella! So I looked more at the ad. And I was completely blown away! What a beautiful property – I could hardly believe my eyes. And I remember sighing thinking “wouldn’t that be nice?” I scrolled through all of the gorgeous pictures of the Homestead, the pool, the gardens, the enormous chef’s kitchen, stunning herringbone polished floorboards, cathedral ceilings, enormous rooms, open fireplaces, expansive decking, beautiful tennis court and even a separate Cottage for my Mum and her sister. Oh and the VIEWS!!! It was way too perfect. And then I groaned again, thinking again “that would be so amazing – if only we could afford it.” And then I saw the price. I distinctly remember feeling shocked, horrified even. Was that right? It couldn’t be? Hmmmm, perhaps the Agent has made a mistake and there’s a zero missing. I then decided that was it – the Agent had missed a zero off the end of the asking price.
When my hubby arrived home from work that night and I shared with him what I found, he too was horrified. But for different reasons. There was no way in the world he was moving again. At that point we had been living together for two years’ and he had moved in with me after divorcing from his first wife. And we were very happy where we were. We lived on acreage and yet he could still walk to the local train station in 8 minutes’ to get to work in the Melbourne CBD. We lived a lovely life there I must say. I loved walking my German Shepherd Zara around the property in and out of the trees and watching the train fly by 6 times a day in the distance. We lived on a dead end street, meaning hardly any traffic and next to no noise as we only had 4 other neighbours. It was a 3 minute drive to the beach, 8 mins to my Mum and shops and just over an hour to the centre of Melbourne. What else could one want, right?
Somewhere deep inside of me was that picture that I drew when I was 21. I still wanted to create that subconsciously. And despite loving where I lived – it just wasn’t precisely what I wanted – irrespective of all of the renovating plans we had. So I managed to convince hubby to call the Agent the next day simply to alert her to her omission. Which he did agree to do – on the grounds that were not going to move. Which I obviously agreed to.
Turns out there was no zero missing – that was the asking price! Neither of us could believe it. I showed my Mum and she was also in shock. So we all decided to pack the car and drive 2.5 hours’ away to go and have a look. Nothing more – just have a look out of curiosity and it made for a lovely day out. The drive up from Melbourne is stunning if you take the scenic route through the mountains – tall trees and fernery surround the road. It is definitely one of the most spectacular roads I have ever driven on. We found the property – remarkably easily as the property was then being operated as a B&B so there was a sign on the Highway. The moment we drove up the driveway, something happened inside of me. I remembered the map I drew when I was 21 instantly. The driveway – surrounded by stunning purple and white agapanthus – greeted us as we climbed the 50 metre gravel driveway – gorgeous Oak trees, a veggie patch, fruit orchard and other beautiful trees and gardens all around. It was truly breathtaking. Hubby Lars turned to me before we arrived at the Homestead to meet the Agent with “I really hate you right now”. My Mum simply said “wow” and not much else. She was speechless.
We spent around an hour like kids’ in a candy shop almost sprinting from one room to the next. The Homestead was an original late 1940s Soldier’s Settlement home that had been extended in the early 1990s so its originality was maintained as well as being perfectly modernised. It was a synchronistic blend. It really was truly breathtaking. We could barely believe how big it was – it was a labyrinth of bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces that for our expanding family – was beyond perfect. There was even an entire wing for family and friends’ wanting to come and stay. Tennis court, pool, Sauna, 10 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 3 spa baths. We even discovered that the property had been featured in Vogue Homes! It felt like paradise in the mountains and I’ve spent most of life living by the beach so this was very different for me and for hubby coming from Copenhagen Denmark.
That night we drove home half in silence from shock and the other half chatting like happy birds chirping away reflecting on the absolute beauty that stood before us that day. And later that night, sleep was not an option. Lars and I decided that we had to make it happen. It was way too amazing to let it go. The lifestyle it could give us. I could play tennis on my very own court – I mean WHAAAAAAAAAT! Swim in my own pool. Spa in my own spa. Sauna in my own Swedish Sauna. I mean didn’t only the rich and famous live like this??? And yet it was within our grasp – well, maybe just a little outside of it at that time …
I went to my Mum a few days’ later asking if she could see herself living in that converted Woolshed (which was being used as a B&B). She replied it would be absolutely perfect for her and her sister as there were two Cottages – mirror image – so they could live under the same roof but live separately. Precisely what they wanted. And the view from their verandah was spectacular over the valley. It was agreed, she would pitch in some money. We also dragged with us my ex-husband. Given we had shared custody of our son, he obviously wanted to see where our son would be spending half of his time. Believe it or not there was a third Cottage – an enormous one bedroom with a massive bathroom with spa bath and open plan kitchen, dining and living space opening out onto a massive verandah with ‘those views’. He decided that was for him and he too would pitch in some money to pay for it. Our plan was coming together …
We went to the Agent and asked if all of us could come for a second viewing – just to be sure it was going to fulfill everything all of us had planned. And we did. 3 weeks’ later (no idea why I waited that long). And a few days’ following that viewing we made an offer. So we were confronted with our first challenge – the Vendors would not be signing any Contracts that were subject to the sale of another property. A little unusual we thought. But then we decided it was time – time for us to go all in and take a calculated risk in order to secure this once in a lifetime opportunity. So back in July 2014, we signed an Unconditional Contract. So we needed my ex-husband’s money, my Mum’s money and we needed to sell our home on the Mornington Peninsula and settle before our settlement in December. We gave ourselves 5 months’ all up. This was what we had to do in order to secure it. And I was due to have a baby 11 weeks’ before settlement …
Now I’m going to leave the story there. Because you know what happened. I had the baby. We got the money from my ex-husband and my Mum (consequently she didn’t end up moving in but that’s another story for another time). We sold my home, secured the finance and moved in on December 5 2014. We closed off every escape route. We signed an ironclad unconditional Contract that we were not able to back out of – we were going straight to settlement the moment we signed. We made the decision. And we found a way. We did end up selling my house for way less than what I really wanted (like $70k less and made a loss on it), but we knew we would make up that $70k. We bought this property back in July 2014 for $845,000 and it’s just been valued at $1.7 Million. Aside from my childhood home, this is the home I have lived in for the longest. I’ve moved around 20 times in my life and now this is my forever home. And it’s home in every single meaning of that word. Now it hasn’t been easy in any way, shape or form. We had quite literally NO CLUE on how to run a farm. We had no idea about water pumps and satellite internet connection and generators and hay baling and septic tanks and the like. Lars and I grew up and always lived in cities. This was a first and it’s been a monumental learning curve and continues to be so. But it’s been so incredibly worth it. There’s been huge obstacles to overcome and we face challenges here that are very, very different to what we used to face in the City. But we would not trade our lifestyle for anything. This is our paradise and every single day I walk around the yard surrounding our Homestead under the Oaks, I have to pinch myself on how incredible it’s been to be able to live here. This will remain in our family whilst I live and I will pass it on to our sons. It’s given my youngest son the most magical life – a true farm kid who adores nature in all of its beauty and splendour and might. Who truly appreciates how very blessed he is to be able to swim in his own pool and play on his own tennis court every summer and who understands deeply – at the mere age of 8 – that he gets to live a life that most don’t ever get to experience. We don’t take this for granted ever for a single moment nor the immense stress it was to acquire it. Yes there were many sleepless nights. Yes there were many arguments. Yes we had to jump through SO MANY hoops. Yes we had to knock on a lot of doors to secure finance. It certainly was not an easy and stress-free five months’ that is for sure. Probably the most stressful time of my entire life that I would never want to repeat.
I hope you will take this story to heart and know that you were meant to hear it right here, right now. This story is your teacher – it was brought to you to teach you something. It’s not really for me to say what. Perhaps it’s tenacity. Perhaps it’s courage. Perhaps it’s being decisive. Perhaps it’s taking calculated risks. Perhaps it’s stepping into your power. Whatever it is, if you have read this right to the end – I celebrate you and your persistence and commitment to your journey. The property here is far from where we want it to be. In fact, we currently have another property located on the Mornington Peninsula up for sale currently so we can fund further renovations here. We’ve completed renovating the original Homestead and now it’s time to finish the job. We have sheds to replace. A new gym and games room to build. Seal the driveway. Resurface the tennis court. It’s a journey and because we’ve done most of the work ourselves, we are truly and deeply grateful for all of it. In life, you need to hold on to your dreams and goals and desires. Never let them go. Because you just never know when God/Universe/Spirit will show you the way to achieving them. They may come in the most unexpected way. They may initially appear out of your grasp. There will be bumps in the road – no question of that. Stay open. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Recognize the opportunities that come your way. Trust in the process. Because it works. It did for me and continues to. Now my life – like yours – is full of challenges and stress like anyone else. Just because I live in this beautiful place, drive the car that I always wanted and holiday in amazing destinations, it doesn’t mean I live a perfect life. I don’t. I struggle like everyone else with all manner of things. I’m not the number 1 ranked player on the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour. I don’t always win. Everything does not always go my way nor to plan. And not everyone is lovely to me. But that is life. To get what you really want, you need to remain hungry and focussed and never, ever, ever, ever, ever quit. I have kept that map in my scrapbook for 30 years’. Did it matter that it took 22 years’ to find this perfect property? Nope. What matters is that I manifested it. And I continue to Air BnB one of the Cottages and it has brought such love and joy to so many over the years’ it makes my heart swell to be able to share it with so many.
Whatever it is that you are shooting for, know that you have it inside of you to get the job done. You are meant for so much more than you think and you are capable of more than you can imagine. I believe in you and in your dreams. So let’s talk about that. I would LOVE to hear what your big, hairy, audacious goals are. And support and empower you to achieving them. I know you can and you will. But having a Coach on your side to support you through those big decisions and doubts works like nothing else I know in hitting those home runs. You can only read so many books and attend so many webinars. Book in with me here: https://calendly.com/fiona-j-lindsay/work-life-balance-alchemy-10-minute-discovery-session It’s helped people like Gary breakthrough his income barrier and achieve his first $50k month working from home. It’s helped Jen get clear on how she wants to work and live and negotiate a $26k pay increase with her employer. It’s helped Laura have better conversations empowering her to make strong and clear decisions for her and her son following divorce. It’s helped Lisa get clear on what she really wants in life and supported her in moving interstate to follow her dreams. My coaching is powerful, confronting, insightful and personal. If you are ready to manifest your goals, dreams and desires and start your incredible journey, book in a time TODAY! Why wait??