What will it take you to stop putting things off and start living
your meaningful life - now? It took a few years for Lisa
Garvey-Williams, but as she told me about her new life, dividing time
between creating a life of teaching yoga and meditation whilst
building a house in the Greek countryside and continuing the parts she
loved about her management consultant past, I really got the sense
that you can have it all - you just need to go out, find your balance
and get it!
How would you describe yourself? Who is Lisa?
That's really difficult to answer, and I find myself constantly asking
that. Is this really me? What's my purpose? What do I really believe
in? Am I being influenced and have I lost who I am? I know I have a
tendency to sometimes do this. What are my "practices"? What's my
contribution to community? What's my Work?
What are you working on now?
Several things at the same time actually.
First, I'm in a constant state of exploration on what and who is
Lisa. Sounds a bit selfish but then if I don't do this, I can't
understand the world - as Peck says "we know the world only through
our relationship to it. Therefore, to know the world, we must not only
examine it, but we must simultaneously examine the examiner". I ask
myself what it means to be in a relationship with people, nature, my
higher self and a universal consciousness. What am I responsible for
and what should I be doing with my life? What's missing? What's my
calling exactly? What can I do to help people, the earth, animals?
What are my mental maps - how are they changing?
Second, in relation to all the above, I'm building a life with my
husband, Richard, in Greece. We're building a house, a community, in
the south Peloponnese. This includes teaching yoga, and meditation and
learning to garden organically. I'm also learning the stories behind
Greek 'things': our village and how it came to be, the buildings, the
people. And we're forming relationships with people of all
nationalities, whom we didn't expect to encounter, but who have
provided for a far richer experience. We're also building a guest
annex which we hope to rent out to holiday makers, and a treatment
room so we can provide yoga lessons, and osteopathy and homeopathy
consultations.
Within all this, I'm also thinking about how to earn money and
wondering do we actually have to? I have started talks with some
people about the possibility of forming a community of exchange -
could there be a world without paper money? I get very buzzed about
this! Is money dirty? I love getting back to the roots with this kind
of stuff!
Third, I am continuing some of the work I used to do in my
'previous life'. I'm working with corporate organisations, but I am
focused in my choices of who to work with and to make sure to work
with issues that match my personal values.
I coach about 15 executives, with whom I've been working anywhere
from 10 months to 3-4 years. We've grown up together - we're of a
similar age and have shared the ups and downs of life, and I've seen
them evolve into responsible leaders by gaining a better sense of what
being a leader means in terms of acting for the greater good. I get a
lot of satisfaction helping people to discover more about themselves
and to realise what their real contribution can be.
I am also involved in several leadership development programmes.
There, I see my work as being a bridge between the corporate and other
worlds - helping people to see that they are not separate, that there
is a possibility of combining these worlds. It's about integration -
seeing connectedness and oneness. One of the programmes is with
PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the big accountancy/consultancy firms.
It involves taking junior partners out of the business for 3 months,
instigating a deep personal learning journey and enabling them to work
together on small multi- national teams in a completely different
culture with NGOs and the UN in countries such as Uganda, Peru, East
Timor. On return from their experience, I work with them on how they
can facilitate more effective public:private partnerships back in
their home environments; how they can be the catalysts for a more
satisfying, responsible way of working and living, which is more
sustainable and respectful of the earth, the animal kingdom and for
communities of people.
Lastly, I see it as part of my work to bring ,my UK life to Greece
and vice versa - like teaching yoga and meditation to the business
world. Contrary to my expectations, most people have been really open
to it and have loved their experiences. I am encouraging my business
contacts to come to Greece, to really nurture their bodies and
spirits, and to explore deeper ethical questions such as: am I doing
enough to make a difference to my own life and that of others around
me, and what about my business, my business ethics and how can I
extend meaning to a wider stakeholder community?
What has been your journey to what you are doing now?
I grew up in Wales in a family that values animals, nature and
relationships with each other. My dad worked for the water board. I
remember having long conversations with him in my late teens when
Margaret Thatcher started privatising public services. How do you
privatise something that doesn't belong to anybody? - we would get
quite emotional about that!. Perhaps then my social and environmental
consciousness was kicking in. Dad's a philosopher at heart and has had
a great influence on my life. My mum is the top carer in the whole
world and has taught me a lot in that regard! And my grandma continues
to be a little bundle of magic and sunshine. She is a good reminder to
me about always having a positive outlook, and really loving and
appreciating the smallest things. My sister is my best friend,
providing support and encouragement in a very special way. I feel very
blessed with the family I was born into.
Almost 11 years ago, we lost our other sister in a tragic accident,
and our world has never really been the same. It was a real wake-up
call for me. There I was on the corporate ladder, in the race without
really knowing what the prize was. I had stopped thinking about the
environment, the outdoors, the activities I loved, the people
involved. My ego had overtaken me as the bright lights and glitter
attracted me further up the ladder.
I met Richard in 2000, in Greece! We had so much in common with
this questioning what we really wanted to do, how we wanted to be,
what's the purpose of life. I'd planned to leave my job, but lacked
the confidence to venture out on my own, even though in my work I had
always had to find my own internal clients.
On September 11th, 2001, I was in New York City. Ironically, I was
on my way to present ideas about multi-cultural values to a bank in
the World Trade Centre, and saw the attacks from a colleagues'
bedroom. I lost all my personal belongings I had with me in the
evacuation, and found myself living with fear and with even more
questions around what is it that I am doing with my life.
I took two months off work with counselling and coaching - to deal
with the impact of witnessing the tragic events and to uncover why I
felt so stuck. I wanted to escape and have more control over my life.
So I left my job in November 2001 and went freelance. Richard was, and
continues to be, a tremendous source of strength, helping me through
my various transitions.
Free, Richard and I set out to find our new home and life, and
ventured from Sri Lanka to Turkey to eventually find what feels like
the right place - our piece of land in southern Greece, where we are
now building our lives.
How are you feeling now? How do you see the future?
Very bright, things are coming together. I am taking an organic
approach to life, and things are happening when they need to. I've
never really grown anything before in a garden, so it's all very
magical, like an adventure to a new world to which I am opening up.
I'm feeling really creative - and I keep meeting people with brilliant
ideas who make things happen.
What advice would you give to other people in similar situations
as you were in?
· Don't put things off - we save things for a weekends, but if you
calculate how many you actually have left compared with everything you
want to do, you will realise that you are going to run out of time.
· Build what you want to do into your everyday existence - know your
own practices for continuously learning about yourself, do something
for your community, and always check your Work - your life's purpose
or lesson
· Challenge yourself if money is what's holding you back - why do I
really need to earn this? What's it really bringing me?
· Don't create a separation between work and play - what's the ideal
balance today?
· Imagine every day is your last day on earth - what would be the most
perfect day - let's have it now!
You can contact Lisa at www.olivegardenretreat.com and email info@olivegardenretreat.com
