What a life I've had (so far - I'd like to think I'm only two thirds of the way through with lots more to come). But I'm just sitting here with my first coffee watching the sunrise-skyline, and thoughts just keep flooding in...

  I grew up on a rough council estate - one of the roughest there was at the time, passed the 11+ then went to Hanley High School and hated just about every minute, joined the navy but it wasn't for me, so took my discharge by option after a few months. 

  Moved to London at 19 and got a job at Pinewood film studios working on big films, got seduced into an order of Ceremonial Magic, left Pinewood to go in partnership to make commercial videos, freelanced as an AV tech travelling all over the place. 

   Married into a family as rich as God who insisted I work in The City, so for three years I did, making great money, then we moved to New Zealand and after a year split up.

   But I stayed there, went to University to study Classics and Philosophy and gained my NZ citizenship, had a great time all round, buying a portfolio of houses, getting my advanced scuba diving qualification, owned a couple of great boats, living an easy and fantastic life there, literally doing no work that you would call it...

   ...and this is where I realize that at that time, I'm in my early/mid thirties and everyone else I'd know is stuck in a career, doing 9-5 or whatever other regular hours on the treadmill, while I was living free as a bird! 'd written 2 novels by now too. And then we came back to England. I should mention that my involvement in magic was still a deep and fundamental part of my life even though I was no longer part of a magical order - now it was solo, alchemy, earth magic, then connections with people involved in what most would call witchcraft but not the Wiccan rubbish that so many people today think of, nor the trivial trash that you can find on the internet, then shamanic trance-work, which is a deep dive and potentially dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and rekindling my connection with The Matter of Britain, again a very deep dive that you have to dive very deep to find the entrance to.

   Oh, I've missed out the fact that I was going back and forth to Hollywood where I was writing and developing stories for producers, writing and editing pilot scripts, character development and had tons of books published and wait, I'd made a few bad decisions and got us into a financial hole so I trained as an IT tech and VERY quickly got every qualification so that I could be a freelance network design trainer being flown all over the UK and Europe (I loved Reykyavik and Heidelberg particularly).

And then moved back to New Zealand making more money from a portfolio of houses, making commercial videos, working a couple of days a week in movie and TV producion but really doing bugger all that you'd call work. 

   And then a few years later, we're back in England, living in Newcastle under Lyme, not far from where it all started in that rough council estate. And still doing bugger all work, living easy with no debt and a mortgage free house in a very smart area and running my Lancett Hypnosis / Hypnotherapy practice from my office (the converted garage) on my property so I don't have to commute, and I have Zoom clients all over the world. Doing fabulous group work - especially in the areas of "non-ordinary" reality such as shamanic journey training, Loving The Moon and so on. And I have a truly wonderful network of friends in that world and the world of Hypnosis.

   I should mention that this is just a mere skeleton framework of what my life has been and still is. The detail of all the things I've done and how I've lived each day free from the need to have to "go to work" is enormous. GOD, THERE'S SO MUCH MORE. TONS AND TONS MORE.

   And I keep adding new experiences - for example I'm planning on  trekking up to Mount Everest Base Camp. And I'll be looking for more of that kind of adventure experience too.

   And I guess what this shows is that being static locks in a subconscious belief about how and when you should get old.      BUT... even if you have a 9-5 type of career, you can still find ways to break the static life-style and find areas of freedom that bring satisfaction and joy.

   You CAN do it. You can be the alchemist of your own change.

I can show you how of course. But you have to want to do it.