Shoot Your Shot, Take the Leap

I’m Coach Nomie born and bred in the beautiful city of Durban. I taught at APAX English, one of the biggest language centres in all of Vietnam (north and south).

Before I decided to take the TEFL course I was doing my postgraduate studies in Psychology contemplating my future and looking at how plausible some of these things were. I decided that I would dictate how my life was going to go, and living a “mediocre”, “average”, “normal” life just wasn’t seeming appealing to me. So I went for it!

I did my TEFL and started a new life in Hanoi, Vietnam. I was able to live the life I want, travel and start my own Life Coaching business. The children I taught absolutely stole my heart and even taught me some things about myself. I got clients from all over the globe (USA, UK, Ireland, SA etc) which is an experience I cannot replace for someone who does want to create a global conglomerate business.

“So shoot your shot and take that leap. Don’t be the one to hold yourself back from your wildest dreams.”

Starting fresh in a new country and new culture all by yourself is an experience that you can only understand if you’ve been through it. You learn a lot about yourself, you do a lot of internal growing, you find freedom, you find independence, you learn about people, you learn about life. It’s an absolutely invaluable experience that I would not trade for anything!

Asia is a very beautiful country with a beautiful culture. I loved Thailand so much I went back! I attended two traditional Vietnamese weddings which I found to be so similar to traditional Zulu weddings in South Africa. Being in Asia made me appreciate my own country and its people in a new way.

Working with children is a very rewarding job. As much as in some language centres you do not get to set your own lessons, you still get to personalise them and make them your own. Building that rapport with your students, getting to know them, seeing them grow as people and making progress in speaking English is gratifying. You get to see the outcome of your efforts first hand. Seeing those children change their mindset and behaviour based on what they have learned from you, learn to understand a whole new different culture the way you have since moving to a new country, picking up on ad-libs and native phrases and teaching you some of their own. I can now have a decent small talk in Vietnamese.

It’s not all unicorns and rainbows, I had more motorbike accidents than I can count, but I got back on every single time! Growth has never been smooth, it’s never been linear, it’s never been a walk in the park BUT when you get to the other side, all that knowledge and battle scars earned come in handy to create this version 2.0 upgraded version of you that MAKES life happen, that LIVES life to the fullest, that is THAT much closer to the person you want to be and strive to be every single day.

So shoot your shot and take that leap. Don’t be the one to hold yourself back from your wildest dreams.

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