In 2007 I injured my back in a workplace accident and although I got back on my feet, it was a struggle. I ended up working in a service station in a not so good part of town and got held up at work.

I studied to change my life’s path and in the mean time, I had a really bad work boss, so I threw caution to the wind and tried to take on my new career full time. After subcontracting to a bunch of not so nice employees, I found myself in a rather big financial mess, to the point where I had to leave my residence of 4 years as I couldn’t keep up with the rent. I ended up living in a granny flat under a strangers house.

Things didn’t look too good at all. Each week I was wondering if I would make it to the next, working and on welfare to make ends meet.

I was was working one Saturday and not having a very good day. This happy-go- lucky lady ended up on my massage table for 90 minutes. She started talking to me about how she was walking a similar path to the one I had a few years before and how she came across The Secret book and it had changed her life. She said she felt she had come to me for a purpose. At first I though she was a bit out there, but by the end of the 90 minute massage, I didn’t want her to leave, I wanted to hear and know more. I wish I could remember this lady’s’ name, I would love to thank her for putting me on the right path.

I was looking for the book on Ebay and was so broke I couldn’t afford the hard copy, so I bought the digital copy. I downloaded it on my phone and my computer. Every chance I got, I was reading it. I had nothing to lose.

It was around the time Paul Walker was killed and the guy I was seeing dumped me via text at the precise time that I was watching the news break. This moment put everything into prospective for me. Life was too short. Seize the day. Tyrese Gibson recorded some rather powerful posts for FB, I still have the most powerful one recorded on my phone 12 months later. It was like he was speaking to me and me alone. Sounds crazy, I know.

After listening and reading over and over, the way I thought about things changed. I was tired of being unhappy and in a rut that I couldn’t get out of. I was determined 2014 was going to be a great year, and it has been, except for my grandmother dying in January.

The money I had to move, I used to drive 14 hours each way to be with her for her final 3 hours. I will treasure that forever.

Two days after getting home I hired a truck, packed up my stuff and moved to a small country town 5 hours from the city. A fresh start and something I had never done before. I knew no one and I had no job. But the people in this town believed in me and gave me a chance to prove myself by leasing me a house, even with my bad rental run because I was honest with them.

I started my own business out here and I am doing better than I ever dreamed I would. After being single for 15 years after divorce, I am in a relationship with a really great guy. Unfortunately, my parents no longer speak to me, for reasons that are not my fault. I don’t dwell on them. I have moved forward, to be honest, I don’t miss the negativity that they generated.

Onward to the new year and it can only get better!