From leaving home to finding home within myself - 15 lessons on courage, change & starting over

Two years ago, I moved to the UK. I didn't expect it to change my life as much as it did.

Here are 15 lessons I'm taking with me.

1. Upgrade your bingo card.

If you had shown me my life today five years ago, I wouldn't have believed you.

I never thought I'd be able to live and work abroad.

And now? I've quit my corporate job in the UK to travel the world and build my own business.

None of that was on my bingo card.

Which makes me wonder: how many things seem impossible simply because I haven't experienced them yet?

2. You're braver than you think you are.

I never considered myself brave. I was the child who was scared of almost everything.

Then people started calling me brave. I remember constantly wondering why.

At some point, I stopped arguing with them.

Maybe courage isn't who you are. Maybe it's what you do.

3. Do what makes you scared.

If you have the choice between the easy path and the scary one, choose the scary one.

Every scary thing I've done has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.

I've noticed that the scary option often comes with a little spark.

Curiosity. Excitement. A feeling of being alive.

I've learned to pay attention to that feeling.

4. Growth begins where certainty ends.

I like having a plan. I'm not particularly spontaneous.

But life keeps teaching me that the most interesting things happen outside of my comfort zone.

Unfortunately, growth rarely sends a calendar invite first.

5. Nobody cares about your mistakes as much as you do.

I've said strange things in English. Mispronounced words. (I still can't properly say "determined".)

Used expressions that made absolutely no sense.

The world kept turning. Nobody cared.

It's really not that deep.

6. You can reinvent yourself.

Moving abroad was surprisingly freeing.

Nobody knew who I used to be. Nobody had expectations of who I should become.

For the first time, it felt like I could reinvent myself.

And honestly? I loved that.

7. Be kind - pay it forward.

When you've been the new person in the room, you notice who makes an effort to include others.

Some of my closest friends in the UK started with a simple invitation into their circle.

Those friendships became family.

Now I try to pay that forward whenever I can.

8. Distance makes gratitude louder.

Living abroad made me appreciate time with my family more.

After all, you miss important events constantly - weddings, birthdays, holidays..

If you're lucky enough to live close to the people you love, don't take it for granted.

9. You'll miss the weirdest things.

German bread. :-(

Every single day.

Enough said.

10. The journey matters more than the destination.

Yoga taught me this.

The pose is never really the point. Neither is the destination.

It's what you learn on the way there.

Looking back, the UK wasn't the destination either.

It was a stepping stone that taught me lessons I couldn't have learned any other way.

11. Slow down long enough to hear yourself.

You have to break the pattern.

You have to slow down long enough to hear yourself.

Whether that's a ten-minute meditation or spending three weeks in a yoga teacher training bubble in Bali like I did.

For me, it was somewhere between three hours of yoga and an extra-long shavasana that I realised I have to leave the corporate world.

12. Your intuition whispers before life starts shouting.

Looking back, I knew long before I admitted it.

The signs were there. I was just busy explaining them away.

The funny thing is, once you really see the truth, you can't unsee it.

13. Becoming yourself often requires leaving something behind.

Every meaningful chapter of my life started with a goodbye.

A place. A role. An expectation. An old version of myself.

Something had to go to make space for something new.

14. You only need to be a few steps ahead to inspire someone.

Many of the people who inspired me weren't experts.

They were simply people who had gone first.

People who moved abroad. Changed careers. Started over.

They made me ask myself: "If they can do it, why can't I?"

15. Don't wait for the happy ending.

I used to think I needed all the answers before sharing my experiences.

Now I think the messy middle is often the most interesting part.

Because that's where the learning happens.

So here I am, sharing my messy story.

Not because I've figured everything out. Far from it.

If anything, I currently have more questions than answers.

But many of the biggest decisions in my life started with someone else's story.

Someone who went first.

Their story gave me permission to believe that maybe I could do it too.

Sometimes all we need is a tiny spark.

A little proof that something is possible.

Maybe this story can be that spark for someone else.

And if not, it will still be a nice reminder for me when I look back on these last couple of years and wonder how on earth I ended up here. :-)

Namaste, Sarah x