It's my birthday & I'm making a wish

#85 - It’s my birthday & I'm making a wish (EDITED

Tue, Aug 20, 2024 9:49AM • 18:33

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

birthday, book, emma, people, share, life, qatar, world, lovell, year, gift, retreat, journey, episodes, bit, celebrate, meant, sri lanka, incredible, love

SPEAKERS

Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00:00

Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love. I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on Yugambeh country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Hello and welcome to today's episode. It is being recorded in the corridor of a hotel in Qatar. It's late and my boys are sleeping, and I wanted to make sure I captured this today, so it's really one of the more random places I've recorded. But we do what we do. So it is the eve of my birthday. It's actually already my birthday in Australia, I am 37 but here in Qatar, for another hour. I am 36 I don't know how time works, but it's my birthday around the world today, so happy birthday to me. And I always love to do episodes on my birthday, because they are a time of reflection, and I think that it's something we could all do on our birthdays, is take the time to reflect and to celebrate. And obviously we're celebrating being here for another year, which means more to me now than it ever did. Age is a gift. Time is a gift, and I'm grateful for the time that I have and the time that I will have. And, yeah, I just have learnt that time is precious, and it's definitely my number one currency. I've talked about it a bit on this podcast, but, yeah, I think we don't take the time to celebrate what we've achieved in the last year, let alone our lives. And so that's what your birthday is. Also a chance to do it's not just about gifts and parties, and you know, it's nice to share that with other people, but it's really about celebrating yourself as well. And I remember having a birthday I was 24 and I just felt like I hadn't done enough. I hadn't achieved enough, or what have I even done this year? And I took myself off on a walk feeling a bit blah. And then I reflected upon, well, I guess I did that, and I guess I did this, and I think it was because the year before I had climbed a mountain. And so it was like, Well, you haven't done anything big like that this year. And when I stopped and reflected, it was like, there were wins throughout the year, and if you actually take the time to write it down, even more so, and it's something I try to do quite often. So whether it's a gratitude practice or it's an achievement practice, I think that's something that we could all embrace. Tonight here in Qatar, we had dinner with my son and my husband and to an amazing Japanese restaurant called Morimoto, which was we're staying at the Mondrian in Doha. And the restaurant Morimoto was next level. I would absolutely stay at this hotel again, and I look forward to trying to stay in more of their series. They have a series around the world. But anyway, we were having dinner. My son was kicking off because he was tired. Did not have enough sleep last night, and it can all just be a bit too hard. I. But we made it through dinner, and it was delicious, and Finn calmed down, and he was really just hungry and tired, but hungry. And then Matthew had organized. He was bit down because he thought we were not going to be able to do my birthday surprise, which they had organized for me, a cake. It was like the most delicious dessert I've had in a while. But as the boys sang happy birthday to me, I just felt quite emotional because I had a thought, and that was despite all that had just happened in the last half an hour before that, and some of the stresses that we've had lately, and the stress that I had even that night with dinner, I'm exactly where I want to be. And that was a nice thought, because I've definitely had thoughts in the past few days or weeks where it's I'm not where I want to be, and you can actually have that same feeling at the same time of I am exactly where I want to be. I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. And one of my girlfriends, Christine, kept saying that to me during this trip, you're exactly where you want need to be, you where you're meant to be, and things are happening for you. They're not happening to you. I think I said that last time, and that can not seem like the right thing when you're going through grief, as I have just and I'm still going through and I will do an episode about grief and and how it clarifies living. But what I mean by where I'm not where I want to be is that I am three days away from my book coming out to the world. I mean, I actually have the E version now, but for me, so I am a published author. The book is published on sites. It's able to be distributed now, but the actual printed version I will get on Thursday, and we will have the launch on Friday. So the one the 22nd I'll have the book in my hand. On the 23rd we will have the book launch. There's I will definitely do some episodes about the pod. The book process, it's a lot more involved. People think writing a book, it's about writing a book. No, no, it's about publishing a book. The writing bit done, but the editing, the, I mean, the concept, the intention, the getting there, the actual writing bit, that's that's words and but the crafting and the molding and the putting it together and then getting it out into the world, and then the promotional journey that's to come. People have to actually buy your book and actually tell them where to buy your book that's all to come. Speaking of you can buy it at Emma lovell.au, forward slash book. But anyway, why I'm not where I want to be is because I just there were a lot more things that I thought I would have been able to do, especially in around the promotion. I didn't think I'd be working on things this late. I think that's always the book journey. But there are just other things I wanted to do, and due to circumstances the last few months, it's not been possible, and that is hard pill to swallow. But then on the flip side, I have to keep reminding myself that I am where I want to be. I have published published, I'm public. I'm going to be a published author. I will say on Friday, I'm an author, and I've said it in a manifesting way, but I will truly be able to say that, which is 18 years in the making, and I don't think I'm actually ready for what that dream being realized will mean for me. Friend Kate toon said, your book is everything and nothing, and I've tried to keep remembering that it's everything in that it is so important to me, and it's so important as a legacy piece, as a message piece, as a core belief, as something I want to share, and that I know will help and I know will change lives. But it's also nothing in that I'm already doing things. I'm already doing the thing the book doesn't make you, it's part of the journey. So I'm trying to remember that, hey, lovely, I want to open the doors to incredible opportunities. For you on an all inclusive luxury retreat, exclusively for people who are ready to live a life they love, I invite you to join me for five inspiring nights in sensational Sri Lanka for the rest and receive retreat hosted from second to seventh of November, 2024 by yours truly, Emma Lovell. I ask you to disconnect your senses and immerse in this exotic culture while you reconnect with yourself, you get to share this luxurious experience with 12 incredible people while forming connections that last a lifetime. I really cannot undersell or overestimate this incredible retreat and the magic of going to a place to give yourself space and time. I want to share it with you, and if you are interested, then please head to my website. Emma lovell.au/sri, Lanka retreat. I'd love to see you there, and I'm happy to chat. If you have any questions whatsoever, please take this opportunity to come along and join me in stunning Sri Lanka. But yeah, tonight I sat there and I thought, I'm exactly where I want to be. I'm exactly where I need to be sitting with my son on my lap, my husband across from me. And it's not always easy. I try to share the realness as well as the beautiful pictures and videos and funny things. But yeah, I'm proud and happy to be 37 I'm grateful for the time that I have celebrating being here, and I choose and I will age gracefully, because age is a gift, and not Everyone, including my nephew, got to have that. And I it's a gift that is the gift getting older is the gift gaining experiences. Is the gift living life. Is the gift getting to be here is the gift today, driving through the sand dunes in the desert of Doha, I felt emotional as well Doha Qatar. I just was like, this world is just so much bigger than us, so much bigger than us, like just endless, endless sand dunes, and even that is such a small part of this country that we saw so much happening around the world, and I want to see and experience as much of it as possible, but I don't know, I like that feeling being small and in this big expanse. It's very meta. I don't know. This is what travel does for me. It gives me that awe and that wonder, seeing things with new eyes, seeing things with new perspective, learning about somebody else's life, experience our driver, Jamir, talking to us, getting to see my son ride a camel for the first time, or see a falcon and be fascinated by it. You know, getting so excited to see sea stars and fish in a different place and see his dad talk about it. You know, it's childlike wonder, and I have that childlike wonder. I'm thrilled with this hotel. It's every where I turn is mosaics and lights and painting and a staircase to nowhere. It was I'm really happy with this choice. I keep saying I'm so happy with this choice to do a stopover, to not just rush straight home. I get back on the 21st of August at 5:30pm and my launch is on at 6:30pm on the 23rd of August. So yeah, I didn't leave myself heaps of time, but I knew I needed this time as well, and as much as it isn't where I wanted to be in the journey in the lead up, it was always going to be like this. It was always meant to be like this. There's no other way you get what you get. So spending time going it was meant to be like this or that? Well, it hasn't been. And so letting go, surrendering to the journey, understanding that this is a long game, especially with the book, I'm in the middle of a rebrand. It's just a big, big new step, and I'm just trying to myself that I'm grateful for the time I have. That time is precious, and it does go fast, and we do need to do the things that are important, but there's also time, and they take time, so it's like this dual dichotomy of. Uh, the two things at once, but yes, we want to make the most of the time, but also you have time. And I don't know that I don't need to rush things into the world. Now, the book is a huge thing, and I want to soak in this achievement, but I know that that it's, it's gift that's going to keep on giving for many, many years to come, and I can't wait to be somewhere in the world in two years time, on my birthday and somebody's buying my book or telling me about they've read my book, that's going to be a pretty special gift, but my birthday wish on that topic is for you to come and experience the book with me, there's three days left to pre order, then it will just be normal sales, but to be one of the first to get this book and to experience it alongside me, to read it and to get that traveler mindset, to open your door to new opportunities to choose to live a life you love that is the greatest gift to me would be as a writer, we're meant to be read. A writer writes to be read, and for you to read my words is just the greatest gift. So my my birthday wishes for you to buy my book. It would be amazing to wake up on my birthday and the day after my birthday, and you know, see that a bunch of new people are going to get to share this journey, this art of pleasure, traveling the world, making money and living a life you love now, that's what it's about. So I'm 37 I'm gonna be a published author. I have 76 countries under my belt as of today, and I know there's a whole world to still explore, and I can't wait to share the adventures with you. So happy birthday to me, and I would love to hear about your reflections, or how you choose to celebrate yourself on your birthday, and how you choose to mark that milestone of simply being here for another year, it's birthdays are special, and they deserve to be given the time and space of that reflection and recognition. Take care of yourselves. Thank you for listening. Make a wish. Share it out loud, tell people, because they might be able to help you make it come true. Thank you for being part of my dream and my wish. See you next time. Thank you for listening, lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected, come and join the live a life you love, group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom, seeking Now go out there and live a life you love. You.