An Interview with

Thea Westra

For 23 years I worked in education. I'd also enjoyed the single life and had terrific male companions at various times through my life. I bought a beautiful home overlooking the bay in Melbourne, on the side of Arthur's Seat and spent lots of spare time revamping the house and nurturing the garden as well as arranging fun weekends with friends, while continuing to work long hours in my teaching career. I'd trained my peers in the Ed. Dept. for a few years and completed three more university degrees. All this while working full time as a teacher.

I had no idea about the "how", or even really the "what", yet for quite some time I was living with this idea that I could live any life I choose. It began to really bug me and niggle away at me till I could stand it no longer. It became a very powerful "Now or when?" question for me. The seemingly mandatory chains of having a mortgage and the secure, steady career could no longer hold me. What I wanted for the rest of my life had to be tested.

My years of senior Landmark Education training and several other self development courses, plus all the exploration I had done into personal development, constantly exposed me to the possibility of recreating my life, living my life by my own design rather than the grooves that are "sold to us" everywhere we turn. I guess I rebelled!

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During my years as a life coach, I noticed that a lot of people want someone else to tell them what to do. From my own experience I could see this was taking the easy way out of being responsible. There really is no one person who can give the answer. No matter who you are or what you do in life, you are the answer you have been looking for. Remember who you are and continue working on getting in touch with that authentic core of you. Create the remainder of your life experience, from where you find yourself today.

It is important to recognize that I can only share my version of wisdom and what works well for me, from my personal perspective and based on my experiences or knowledge gleaned over time.

When we come to realise our own potential and grow an urge to share our gifts, it changes our reality just as it certainly changed mine.

I'm still in the middle of finding "the perfect label" which encapsulates the essence of what I do, however for now the personal development and self improvement titles will do. They are terms that are familiar to most who are looking to take their lives to another level and helps people who are looking for inspiration online, to find me easily.

Just as habits can keep us stuck, even though we say that we want change, shifts in our habits can move us in a direction of our choosing. Our habits might well be really excellent ones, like going for a jog each morning and having a healthy breakfast or mediating for an hour each day. Yet it is still vital to challenge ourselves, even just a little each day, for opening up fresh perspectives or new experiences, if we want to grow, expand and develop beyond status quo.

I knew that this supported me in my own life yet I had trouble finding something which "hit the spot" for me when it came to a tool that I could use each day for that purpose. I wanted something that could give me new focus each new day as I moved forward with my goals. I was looking for something that might support me in not falling into a groove again and keep me on my toes with "right thinking".

The other thing I was searching for was something easily accessible and would help counter all the negative stuff that bombards us every day in the news media, through advertising or in some of the conversations we find ourselves.

"I still do a ton of online work because I absolutely love it. However, now that I have those seven brilliant sponsors, I never need to concern myself with generating income from my work. That just happens all by itself, with those annual cheques they send. I only need to have their seven links on each of my content pages and violá, I’m done! I don’t mind at all because they each have such quality, high-end products related to what I already provide. Heck, I even get a good percentage commission when a sale originates from my sites, and that’s on top of their annual sponsor payments to me. Those alone, provide enough income for several households combined.

I do so much at Kiva.org/team/forwardsteps now. I’m in there every day. It’s the most fun of my online activities. I get to support so many small businesses to keep going, with the hundreds of micro-loans that I can contribute. Not just me either! You should see how many members that the Forward Steps Kiva Team has now. You’d be shocked! I think last count was around 20,000."

Personally, I see that Greg and I are enjoying life very much and often go away on little trips together with the occasional overseas jaunt to meet up with friends. In my ten year into the future exercise I wrote lots more about our personal goals and our future life, that I won't expand on it here. It's quite lengthy.

I recommend anyone to try that exercise for themselves, and soon. It really helped to get my projects crystal clear.

To answer this question I will leave you with a link to that Unlocking The Law Of Attraction video. Watch it two or three times if needed and really take in the messages on each frame. I think this video does a great job of answering your very question.

In a nutshell, get to know what you truly want, continue to clarify it with more and more detail, find ways you can express this in your life and take the first step toward manifesting it, then keep stepping forward towards what you want. Always keep your target(s) in mind and in clear view, each day.

Change happens when we do, and we change when we take action in the face of fear, along the journey you find opportunities to work on debunking beliefs firmly entrenched over time, those beliefs that might be keeping us pinned down. Every time doubt creeps in, take another step forward -even if small- and bust it loose!

The main element is wanting it, if you love the status quo then keep doing what you've always been doing.

When facing in the right direction, all we need do is keep on walking and each forward step enhances the value of our first step. Continued forward movement in an intentioned direction has an exponential, compounded effect over time. My own history exemplified that and it's for that reason that I named my business, Forward Steps.

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