Choices by Revlon {Empowerment} – The Most Unconventional Empowering Choice I made

Every woman’s life is the sum of all her choices, and Revlon India is here to support that. Choices by Revlon is a platform that will allow every woman to express her opinions and make her choices freely. This month, Revlon talks about Empowerment. This is one of the many articles that aim to inspire women all over India in their choices about Empowerment. Log on to the Choices by Revlon app and start making a choice today.

One who walks in another’s tracks leaves no footprints in life – Anon. 

Growing up in India 2-3 decades ago, there was a unifying message girls got from parents, teachers, and society, beating a drum to the tune of ~

“to be happy and successful, you have to go to a good school, good college, get a good job, marry a nice man, settle down, have kids – before you turn 25, or it will be too late and what will people say?!”

So I asked my father – “would you rather I get married to make people happy and me miserable, or wait till I’m READY and happy to be wed…. and to hell with what society thinks? Who the hell are these ‘people’ anyway and will they be living my life or me?” 

Or something to that effect.

And my dad being the amazing, open minded man that he is, saw it as a no brainer.

“All I want, is for you to be happy”, he said. “That’s the only thing a parent wants for their child”.

And that was that.

I said no thank you to 7 marriage proposals (ranging from “marry me” to “let’s elope”!), packed away my Post Grad Management diploma, and at later at 27, took a flying leap off the corporate-merry-go-and-personal-marry-go-round to travel across the world as a (mostly) single woman for the next 13 years.

Living life MY way, on my own terms. 

Footloose and fiance-free, against the norm of what anyone I knew was doing, especially in India. 

Accepted a totally random job offer in the US while I was there on a 2 week holiday, quit my job in India via email and stayed on for 2 years, starting life from scratch in a foreign country (LEGALLY on a work permit, of course!). 

Integrated into a society that I knew little about apart from Archie comics, found an amazing circle of friends, leaned into spirituality and philosophy, and learned the value of hard work and independence.

From partying like a freak 5 days a week, to the firm going out of business after 9-11, to losing money I’d loaned to an unscrupulous roommate, to letting a friend down by being naive and idiotic and losing her friendship, to gaining scars on my body, mind, and soul, I had a blast but also learned a ton of tough life lessons.

I lived in 6 countries on 5 continents, followed my multiple passions, changed careers every year and followed a passion + adventure path vs a career path.

Travel expands your mind, it changes you and opens your eyes. I passionately believe everyone must travel as much as they can, as early in life as possible.

Studied NLP, Massage Therapy, Reiki, trekked to Everest Base Camp, climbed to 17,353 feet in the Himalayas, drove across New Zealand in a day, skydived, bungy jumped, volunteered as a domestic violence crisis worker, dabbled in advertising, finance, tech, career counselling and more.

Started a blog, became a certified life coach (when few in India had even heard of coaching), did Leadership training in Spain, read 75+ books a year, had my heart broken, had it heal, made money, lost money, was happy, was sad, fell into depression, rose out of it, and.. well, survived.

Nay, THRIVED.

Along the way, I was relieved to find out that I was a multi-passionate Scanner and finally embraced my unique way of being minus the shame I sometimes felt around not being able to choose just ONE thing.

Scanners rock, yo. 

And in a surprising turn of events, I met a lovely man 10 months ago who I ended up marrying within 3 months, shortly after we both turned 40. Proof that it’s NEVER too late to find love, people.

So much for that piece of advice, huh :). 

The journey isn’t always easy – but as long as you stay true to yourself and tune into the part of you that knows, as long as the choices you make are informed by a deeper purpose and vision or gut feel, you’re on the right track.

Life is a result of the choices you make, so make more empowering ones, and make them often, Sparklepants! (click to tweet this!)

Would love to know – what’s an unconventional or empowering choice YOU’VE made? 

Thanks for reading and please share this post if you liked it!

Hi! I’m Tia. Multi-passionate Sparklepants, Life Lover, Curator of Awesome. I run this website featuring kickass inspiration to help you sparkle through life, no matter what! Click here to ignite your Inner Sparkle — that shimmery part of your spirit that says YES to courage + connection, and NO WAY to ‘shoulds’ + restrictions.

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