What is the biggest personal change you've ever made?

Zippie84

What is the biggest personal change you've ever made?

Been a few for me. Obvious one of emigrating from Ireland and starting a new life in a new country.

More recently, leaving my full-time, permanent job for self-employment in an unrelated career.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

White sheets for blue ones this morning. Massive!

GerB40

I gave up drinking after the doctor told me I'd be dead in ten years if I kept going the way I was. 9 months sober exactly today, I'm pretty happy with that..

Dr Turk Turkelton

Lost 200lbs-i dumped that fat bitch good!

Bio Mech

Changed a hundred euro note for a guy once that was pretty big. Wanted all tenners.

SadieSue

I lost about 80 pounds.. I'm nearly half the person I used to be!

D Trent

GerB40 wrote: »

I gave up drinking after the doctor told me I'd be dead in ten years if I kept going the way I was. 9 months sober exactly today, I'm pretty happy with that..

All liquids or just alcohol?

Macavity.

Giving up my job as a neuroscientist and becoming a crack whore.

lazeedaisy

Gave up full time career for a part time job, love life 3 day week,

GerB40

D Trent wrote: »

All liquids or just alcohol?

Just alcohol. If I gave up drinking all liquids then I wouldn't be alive and you wouldn't be reading this post..

Zippie84

GerB40 wrote: »

I gave up drinking after the doctor told me I'd be dead in ten years if I kept going the way I was. 9 months sober exactly today, I'm pretty happy with that..

*high five*

Aongus Von Bismarck

Two stand out.
One involved leaving a secure, if dull, job in Ireland and moving to Germany to work in the career I always wanted to have. I suffered some knock backs along the way, but persisted. Now loving what I do and what I've achieved.

The second was integrating mindfulness practice into my life. An hour a day is spent carrying out meditation and being fully aware of the present. I can now 'lean into' and explore difficult thoughts and emotions. I'm far more relaxed and self-aware as a result. I'd recommend it to everyone.

Macavity.

Two stand out.
One involved leaving a secure, if dull, job in Ireland and moving to Germany to work in the career I always wanted to have. I suffered some knock backs along the way, but persisted. Now loving what I do and what I've achieved.

The second was integrating mindfulness practice into my life. An hour a day is spent carrying out meditation and being fully aware of the present. I can now 'lean into' and explore difficult thoughts and emotions. I'm far more relaxed and self-aware as a result. I'd recommend it to everyone.

CJ Haughey

Two stand out.
One involved leaving a secure, if dull, job in Ireland and moving to Germany to work in the career I always wanted to have. I suffered some knock backs along the way, but persisted. Now loving what I do and what I've achieved.

The second was integrating mindfulness practice into my life. An hour a day is spent carrying out meditation and being fully aware of the present. I can now 'lean into' and explore difficult thoughts and emotions. I'm far more relaxed and self-aware as a result. I'd recommend it to everyone.

whupdedo

GerB40 wrote: »

I gave up drinking after the doctor told me I'd be dead in ten years if I kept going the way I was. 9 months sober exactly today, I'm pretty happy with that..

So your saying that you could have drank for another 9 years without dying :pac:

anncoates

I started with the man in the mirror and took it from there.

Zippie84

whupdedo wrote: »

So your saying that you could have drank for another 9 years without dying :pac:

Nah he says he'd 'be dead in ten years' not that he'll 'die in ten years'

You could die at any point in the next ten years e.g. in 18 months and be dead 'in ten years' :P

hallo dare

Coming to terms that I was suffering with depression and seeking help through counselling to try and get my life back on track.

ancapailldorcha

Moving abroad to find work in my field. It was only to the UK but it still involved leaving people behind.

Links234

Came to terms with being transgender, which was insanely difficult, stopped drinking the crazy amounts that I used to, lost loads of weight, and started my transition. Yeah, pretty big personal change

Completely changed careers at 31.
Got fit.
Started thinking I'm deadly and believing I can achieve anything.

greenfrogs

I have gotten help with my mental health. For years I just thought I was this horrible strange person. It got to the stage where I lost my job and I was encouraged by others to go see a doctor. I was in a very dark place at that time. I found working, maintaining friends, socialising with others and day to day life very difficult. To be diagnosed with depression was a weight off my shoulders. Now I am on the road to recovery. I still have a long way to go but I know I am improving.

Andy-Pandy

Turning my back on a unwanted sales career when i was 32 and going back into full time education for 4 years. The single toughest but rewarding decision ive ever made. The smile and pride my mother had towards me when I graduated made it all worth while.

Contacting my father just after i started college was up there as well. It had been on my mind that he was getting old and could pass away. If i had never done it and he had passed away i would never have gotten over it. We have a relationship now.

eviltwin

Leaving a well paid, high status job to work with vulnerable adults and children as a volunteer. I haven't two cents to rub together but I've never felt more at peace and fulfilled.

Zippie84

eviltwin wrote: »

Leaving a well paid, high status job to work with vulnerable adults and children as a volunteer. I haven't two cents to rub together but I've never felt more at peace and fulfilled.

I feel similar about my new self-employment career. Only earn a fraction of what I did. First year I really struggled to get by, and still do at times, but so much happier.

xLisaBx

Losing who I thought was a best friend, turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Often wonder how different things would be if we were still friends, but then I probably wouldn't be in college!

stimpson

After all these years, I've only recently come to accept that Marathons are now called Snickers. I've never been happier.

TheBeardedLady

I suppose moving here to Madrid 5 and a half years ago on my own to a city I'd never been to before with a very basic grasp of a lingo, no mates, nowhere to live and no job (more down to my laziness than my bravery tbh) and it all* working out in the end.




Edit: *well not all, but most things. It didn't turn out to be a fooking disaster anyway.

dinorebel

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Moving abroad to find work in my field. It was only to the UK but it still involved leaving people behind.

Big field.

osarusan

Moving to Japan.

Got married, but that came about as a result of moving to Japan, so yeah, moving to Japan.

massdebater

Recently packed in my nice, safe (but boring) career, moving out of my house, getting rid of most of my possessions and moving full time into a motorhome and will be travelling around for the foreseeable future. Something I've always wanted to do but have only recently gotten the courage to.

ShadowHearth

Came to live to Ireland. I am here 10 years so far and loving it.

Split up after 10 years together with a girl. We were engaged and all.

Lost 6.7 Stone in about 6 months. People are barely recognising me now.

Perspective change. I remember the day when I decided to stop judging my life based on the expectations of others - and by judging myself against others like siblings and peers.

On that day I decided I would never judge the me today against anyone else except the me from yesterday. And my goal in life would forever to reach for no goal each day except be a little better than that guy from yesterday.

And then one day I woke up to a life where people around me in and out of my family tell me I am living the life they would want to live given the choice.

So I just keep doing it. And by the time most of you read this - that guy who wrote it was so yesterday

Kerrigooney

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Came to live to Ireland. I am here 10 years so far and loving it.

Split up after 10 years together with a girl. We were engaged and all.

Lost 6.7 Stone in about 6 months. People are barely recognising me now.

Is losing that amount of weight in such a short time not really dangerous?

ShooterSF

The biggest change I've made was almost a decade ago and yet it was an extremely subtle change. I along with I'm sure many, if not all of you, have this metaphorical mask growing up we wore around teachers, other kid's parents and maybe even our own family. The nice, polite, emotionless, safe but sterile mask. Well through my teens and the struggles that go with, I found myself donning that mask more and more around anyone that wasn't my closest few friends. The people who got to see the real me grew less and less as the friends I had drifted away (as school and many childhood friends do). People had to audition with the mask before they ever got to know me and in hindsight, I can see why few bothered. And then and I'll qualify it now before someone thinks I'm marketing something, I don't follow it anymore, but I ended up on some Pick Up Artist forums and while I laugh at some of the stuff thinking back now it did one thing for me. It though me to put that mask aside for only the rarest of occasions. Now when I meet someone new they talk to the same guy my friends talk to, joke with same guy my friends joke with, and hopefully have fun with the same guy my friends have fun with.

Everything else I've done stems from that. I've spent over a year now living in Canada after coming here on my own. If I'd packed that mask I'd have been home in 2 months. I'm bartending here now and loving it because unlike a lot of people who work in the industry here and who wear that mask to work I never do and it stands me well. They see customer x, y, z and I see Carey who I suspect makes her living selling drugs, John with his silly dad jokes and JRod the native with the weird Scottish twang because his step mom is from Scotland.

TL;DR?
I've put my personality out there take it or leave it rather than hide behind a sterile mask while trying to judge if someone would get on well with the real me.

mickstupp

Biggest change I made was when I was at a spectacularly low place in my life. Quit drinking and smoking and applied to go to college as a mature student. It's been great ever since then, happiest years of my life so far.

gazzamc

This morning I've decided to become a shark, so I too can dance with the Katy Perry's of this world :P

username000

Quit a 20 year smoking habit. 3 years and 1 month off them now.

One that was imposed upon me - I was made redundant. I was really really worried about it and then it turned out that it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I decided to take 2 years off and do something I really wanted to do. It was the best 2 years of my life!

rainbow kirby

Kicked a 40 hour a week MMO addiction six and a half years ago, started running and lost 32kg in the process.

Sunnyisland

Quit drinking over six years ago, quit smoking over nine years ago, best decisions I have made in my over 50 years on this earth. :-)

Egginacup

GerB40 wrote: »

I gave up drinking after the doctor told me I'd be dead in ten years if I kept going the way I was. 9 months sober exactly today, I'm pretty happy with that..

Ten years???
Could you not have enjoyed the gargle a little longer until he told you you've only got 6 months??

wretcheddomain

Moving to a halting site about four months ago. Best decision I ever made.

Kim Lardassian

massdebater wrote: »

Recently packed in my nice, safe (but boring) career, moving out of my house, getting rid of most of my possessions and moving full time into a motorhome and will be travelling around for the foreseeable future. Something I've always wanted to do but have only recently gotten the courage to.

That is AWESOME!!

Brave move, I salute thee!

Mine is packing in a job I hated and moving to Berlin. Then moving to London from there to be with my now fiancee!

Also, giving up cigarettes after years of smoking and applying to go back to college this September despite being 33.

Roosterreid

Losing 4.5 stone was huge.....

But moving to a new job after 14 years in my old one was the bravest / scariest thing I have ever done and I don't regret it one bit.

TheBeardedLady

massdebater wrote: »

Recently packed in my nice, safe (but boring) career, moving out of my house, getting rid of most of my possessions and moving full time into a motorhome and will be travelling around for the foreseeable future. Something I've always wanted to do but have only recently gotten the courage to.

You lucky, lucky bastid! Can I come? You can stick me a cupboard or something - you won't even notice me! Where are you heading?

TheBeardedLady

osarusan wrote: »

Moving to Japan.

Got married, but that came about as a result of moving to Japan, so yeah, moving to Japan.

Why did you originally move to Japan, if ye don't mind me asking?

Magico Gonzalez

Got married, suggested to the OH that we could move back to her family in Argentina. She went for it. Had to learn Spanish, now a long way from home speaking Spanish all day and get all hysterical about a bit of rain and slightly fresh weather.

Still a work in progress, working on escaping our jobs and starting our own company.

BeerWolf

Ever since I learnt that Santa wasn't real I became a hardcore cynic...

hallo dare

BeerWolf wrote: »

Ever since I learnt that Santa wasn't real...

WTF???!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Asarlai

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

Why did you originally move to Japan, if ye don't mind me asking?

It was just after my divorce. My ex-wife kept hounding me for money, so I had to skip the country very quickly......:pac:

Capt'n Midnight

hallo dare wrote: »

WTF???!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Oh you didn't know ?


I'm afraid your parents have lied to you all these years. All the presents were delivered by the tooth fairy.