This week on the Unconventional Life Show is Debra Wanger. Debra is a former actress who has performed in theaters and cabarets from Boston to Los Angeles but when some would say she was at the “peak of her career”, Debra decided to leave the acting world. Debra shares that she “was doing well professionally, but I was personally a mess. I was overweight, I was depressed, I was lonely and when I wasn’t working I didn’t have any sense of direction”
The constant hustle of always auditioning and looking for the next gig as an actress was draining but she was able to press the pause button and contemplate…
“Is this even what I want?”
From answering this simple question, Debra made some major life shifts, returned to school and received her BA in sociology, worked on the other side of the business, became a health coach, singer and is the author two books.
In this episode, Debra shares how to bring all the parts of yourself to the table to live a diverse and exciting life.
“it’s okay to be the weird hyphenate”
In this new Unconventional paradigm, we are no longer glued to single career labels. We don’t have to be settled in one career for an entire lifetime. Debra studied under Dave Asprey and the 2nd Law from his 46 Laws is “do not passively discover who you are. Actively decide and create who you are.” If we keep saying yes to the things that life gives us then we will never have an opportunity to say yes to the things that we truly want.
You can be the person who is the Wellness Coach-Dancer-Blog Writer and Designer. The combination of things is what makes you unique, diverse and able to live a more exciting life.
Are you actively discovering and trying new things that excite you or are you just following what you think you should be doing?
Is this even what I want in life?
Admitting that your life isn’t fulfilling you the way it used to and trying something new is a very brave step. Debra did a lot of visioning when she was trying to bring more happiness and balance into her life and always returned to this question; If I was happy what would my life look like?
Try this exercise out for yourself, where would you be waking up, how would you be fulling your day, what would you be talking about, what would you do in your free time?
begin with the end in mind.
If you are pondering these questions yourself, she encourages you to reverse engineer how you are going to get there. The reverse engineering process starts with asking yourself “what needs to happen in order to realize this goal?”Once we find an answer to the question above, we use deductive questioning until we come up with an action step that can be immediately executed.
Realize that this life is the only one you have and it’s never too late to make adjustments!
Giveaway!
Debra is giving away some of her books including ” The Resilient Actor- How to Kick Ass in the Business, Without it Kicking Your Ass” along with the workbook planner that just came out on Amazon, check out the books here. To be entered to win the giveaway, click here. A winner will be selected next week.
