The Most Unhinged Decision I Ever Made..

Story time. Buckle up.

Back in 2019, I was standing on Embankment tube station platform after work, on my way to a friend’s house—you know, the District Line one where you have to stand for approximately 17 hours for your train. Yep. There.

I was weighed down with way too many bags, scrolling on Instagram with my one free hand, while the weight of the bags started to cut into the skin on my forearm.

Scroll. Scroll. Scroll.

Wait, what? A video caught my eye—something about wondering if there was more to life than this.

I clicked through and found myself on the website of a start-up offering 3-month group trips to South America for young professionals who were burnt out and wanting more from life.

Something in my gut flickered.

Oh, be quiet. That’s not for you—you’re the J.P. Morgan VP who flies to Tokyo next week to present to a load of clients.

I shut it down.

But once the idea had sparked, it was always within me, quietly whispering... “What if..?”

Three months later, I found myself at the end of a week-long retreat in Italy, with an extreme case of return-to-work dread.

Part of me knew I had to go back. Part of me was desperate for something more from life.

But as I walked up the stairs of the plane back to London, the smell of kerosene wafting through the air under the hot Italian sun, that idea—the one I’d buried months before—bubbled up to the surface.

South America.

After a week of disconnecting completely from the world, my gut instinct was stronger than ever: “APPLY. DO IT. NOW.”

I wrote my application in row 17 of my Ryanair flight from Bari to London.

I interviewed for the program on the 2nd floor client suites at J.P. Morgan’s London office.

And two weeks later, I turned to my wonderful boss and said: "Can we grab a coffee for 15 minutes?"

At the 17th floor Starbucks, voice trembling, stomach flipping, cheeks flushed... I asked him for a 4-month sabbatical to go to South America.

None of it made sense.

Women working on the trading floor at J.P. Morgan, making 6 figures a year by the age of 28, don’t take sabbaticals.

People like me don’t just take breaks from a job, especially when you have an incredible boss and supportive team.

People like me don’t do things like this.

Until they do.

That trip changed the trajectory of my life.

It was the starting moment of a completely new chapter.

I think back to that moment on the flight back from Italy and wonder...

What would have happened if I hadn’t listened to that little flicker from my gut? What would have happened if I’d listened to all my fears, all my “that’s not for you” chatter?

What would have happened?

Maybe I’d still be at J.P. Morgan.

Maybe I never would have started this business.

Maybe I never would have met the depth of beauty and magic possible for me in my life.

Maybe I never would have met Tomas.

Never moved to Mexico.

Never spent two years living in, the most beautiful city on earth, Cape Town.

Maybe that was the turning point.

There are moments in life when our gut gives us a “go that way” and we block it because we tell ourselves it's not who we are.

But that's the EXACT point. It's not who you are RIGHT NOW. It's an invitation into who you are meant to become.

So what if this time, you just listened?

What if The Liberated Life Retreat was YOUR turning point?

Book a call to find out more here

With love and liberation,

Lucy x x