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    How an impulsive decision can change your life forever

    Karen Espley

    By Karen Espley

    Standing on the top of a wind blasted hill looking out over the Drake Passage glinting in the sun, dotted with icebergs drifting majestically by, I knew that my life had to change. I’ve never felt more alive than I was in that moment.

    Rewind to six months earlier and you would have found me working like a lunatic, burnt out, hugely stressed and with no obvious way out. I was trapped in the corporate rat race having clawed my way to a senior position managing a large IT project.

    But Lady Luck shone her light on me in the form of an A4 flyer inviting applications to join an environmental expedition to the Antarctic. Talk about thunderbolt city – I just knew I had to go.

    Having been through a strenuous selection process, and much to the dismay of my COO, I won one of the two precious places. Which is how I found myself living a less than no frills life on a Russian base on the Antarctic Peninsula for several weeks in 2000.

    What did I learn?

    –          You can change your life

    –          You don’t need all the trappings of luxury to be happy

    –          You can escape to the other side of the world, but you can never escape yourself

    I did change my life. I left my job and began my adventures as a freelance consultant and latterly business owner. I went on further adventures in West Africa a year later and campervanned my way around Australia and New Zealand when I was 50.

    20 years after my return from ‘the Freezer’ I finally finished my book, The Impulsive Explorer, about my experiences.

    My hope is that it inspires others to envisage the possibilities of a different life and to grab unexpected opportunities that may fall in your path.

     

    To find out more – https://www.karenespley.com/