Welcome to my story.
My name is Kim Masters and I started this blog after two blood clots on the lungs made me stop, take stock and look at my dreams, my passions, and what I really wanted to do with my life.
I grew up in South Africa, and I guess I always
wanted to be a writer. After school, I looked into the possibility of doing a
journalism course at Rhodes University which was in Grahamstown, but decided
against it because my folks couldn’t afford it.
At the time, my parents told me that journalism was no way to make a
living. They sent me to see their various journalist friends who all told me the
same story.
I trusted what they told me instead of following my heart, so I did a Bachelor of Arts in English and Industrial Psychology, followed by a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. All of this eventually led me to a career in finance. I started out in Johannesburg, and then moved to London, where I spent ten years working in finance.
My parents were right to a certain extent, because working in finance has been a very good way to earn a living. However, my heart has never been in it, and after spending a whole year incapacitated by the blood clots I feel that the price for living the life someone else wants you to live is just too high.
So, I always wanted to be a writer, but writing about what?
I grew up in South Africa towards the end of the apartheid years and one of the defining moments of my life was in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.
I realised early on that I wanted to make a real and practical difference through my writing.
But how could I make a real and practical difference?
I believe that I can make a difference by writing about my passions; the areas which have fascinated me and inspired me since I was a teenager. I have always been passionate about learning and about self improvement. I think this is where ‘being the best you can be’ comes from.
So what do I know about Work and Wealth, Health and Fitness, and Relationships?
As you can see my Work journey so far has been divided between my head and my heart. I still earn most of my money from finance, but I can see that things are changing; and that as I follow my dream and my heart, people are taking an interest. Part of the reason I do some of my interviews is to prove (to myself) and to you that it is possible to earn a living from doing what you love. As I have discovered there is no one route to this way of life; everyone seems to do it a little differently. Coach and Mentor, Ann Strong said, “I love that idea that if you never give up you can’t fail.”
It seems to me that the journey of making a living from doing what you love is a step by step process. My husband says, “If it was easy everyone would be doing it!” That’s the truth.
However, you just got to keep taking those steps, even when you don’t quite know where you are going. My Metro blogging story shows me that you never know where you are going to end up; just keep doing what you love and miracles can happen.
My wealth journey started when my dad taught me how to do a monthly budget when I was about eighteen and he told me it would be one of the most valuable things I ever learned. He was right. It was my budgeting skills that kept me in good financial shape when I arrived in London with £600 to my name and a job for £10 per hour. My budgeting helped me to build my savings and as a result I was able to live on those savings when I couldn’t work for a year.
In the past couple of years I have also learnt more about debt and about loans. I am currently paying off a personal loan. This is a big area of learning for me at the moment as I was always taught never to get into debt, and as a result there is a lot of stress around that. I am doing a lot of learning and work around money and prosperity.
I truly believe that there is a better way to earn a living than the ‘hard’ way most of us are doing it at the moment. I am on the journey and am a work in progress, but I hope to prove that although it isn’t easy, it is possible to earn a living doing what you love.
My interest in Health and Fitness started when my brother had horrendous asthma and he would end up in hospital more often than not, after an asthma attack. My mom eventually took him to see a Homeopath who was really able to help him and he started to improve dramatically after his sessions with Dr Lilly. I poo pooed the whole thing until Dr Lilly was able to help me with my severe acne.
While working at my first ‘fulltime’ job, I undertook a year-long Shiatsu course. This started my love affair with massage, my fascination with energy pathways and my discovery of all things energetic. I followed my Shiatsu course, with a Swedish massage course, a Reiki 1 course and a basic counselling course. Reiki is one of the most simple and wonderful things I have ever learned and I’ll never forget being able to help my dad get to sleep with Reiki when he suffered from the most awful insomnia year after year. During that same period I started doing Chi Kung which is the soft form of Kung Fu and learned a lot more about healing and energy.
My next huge health learning started when I was stuck at home for almost a year after being diagnosed with two blood clots on the lungs.
I had always been interested in nutrition and how it affected our health but when I was able to change the quality of my blood through nutrition and subsequently give the NHS no reason to keep me on Warfarin, this really showed me the power of healing through foods.
During this year, I discovered that I chronically suffered from anxiety and panic attacks. This led me to face my fears and my stress head on. This is when I started writing the Hope Notes to help me when I was feeling anxious or afraid. It was my way of helping myself reframe the situation and change my beliefs. I do believe that relaxation is one of the keys to health and I continue to learn about relaxing moment by moment.
I worked over the phone with a great healer called Becky for six months of this time. She taught me about the importance of living here and now (I was very skilled at living at least five years in the future...). She also taught me how vital it is to accept where you are here and now. We did a lot of work on feeling and healing. I was very aware of my blood by this stage and was amazed at how stuck emotions can change the chemistry of the blood.
Health and Fitness will always be close to my heart. Without our health we have nothing.
That brings me on to Relationships. When I was ill for that year, I realised that it is people who are the real treasures in our lives. Yes, money is nice, but for me without the friendship and support of people who love you, it means nothing.
Let me talk briefly about family here. We can’t choose our families. Some of us are lucky to have close, loving, supportive families but some of us aren’t so lucky and our families can be a great source of pain. No matter what we have, we can still build the good, supportive relationships we need in our lives. We have the choice to bring beautiful people into our lives and let go of people who do not support us.
I leave the best for last...LOVE. I was a single gal for a very long time in London. I had many boyfriends; some of whom were nice, some of whom were horrible. I had moments when I thought I would be single forever. I really really wanted to meet my soul mate and to have a great relationship. After a particularly bad relationship, I knew that I needed to change and I discovered this great book called, ‘Meeting Mr Right.’ Highly recommend it! Six months after reading it, I met my husband Paul at a painting party. Our meeting was a ‘set-up’ by our two best friends who were dating at the time. Paul is one of the best things in my life.
Suffice to say my life is one big learning curve and that while I’ll always be impatient for change, I’m learning that accepting where you are, is just as important as looking forward towards a different you.
On the dark nights during my clots, I realised that I wanted to do something that I could be proud of, that would be a legacy when I was no longer around. Dream On is that thing and I hope that it helps you as much as it is helping me.
I trusted what they told me instead of following my heart, so I did a Bachelor of Arts in English and Industrial Psychology, followed by a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. All of this eventually led me to a career in finance. I started out in Johannesburg, and then moved to London, where I spent ten years working in finance.
My parents were right to a certain extent, because working in finance has been a very good way to earn a living. However, my heart has never been in it, and after spending a whole year incapacitated by the blood clots I feel that the price for living the life someone else wants you to live is just too high.
So, I always wanted to be a writer, but writing about what?
I grew up in South Africa towards the end of the apartheid years and one of the defining moments of my life was in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.
I realised early on that I wanted to make a real and practical difference through my writing.
But how could I make a real and practical difference?
I believe that I can make a difference by writing about my passions; the areas which have fascinated me and inspired me since I was a teenager. I have always been passionate about learning and about self improvement. I think this is where ‘being the best you can be’ comes from.
So what do I know about Work and Wealth, Health and Fitness, and Relationships?
As you can see my Work journey so far has been divided between my head and my heart. I still earn most of my money from finance, but I can see that things are changing; and that as I follow my dream and my heart, people are taking an interest. Part of the reason I do some of my interviews is to prove (to myself) and to you that it is possible to earn a living from doing what you love. As I have discovered there is no one route to this way of life; everyone seems to do it a little differently. Coach and Mentor, Ann Strong said, “I love that idea that if you never give up you can’t fail.”
It seems to me that the journey of making a living from doing what you love is a step by step process. My husband says, “If it was easy everyone would be doing it!” That’s the truth.
However, you just got to keep taking those steps, even when you don’t quite know where you are going. My Metro blogging story shows me that you never know where you are going to end up; just keep doing what you love and miracles can happen.
My wealth journey started when my dad taught me how to do a monthly budget when I was about eighteen and he told me it would be one of the most valuable things I ever learned. He was right. It was my budgeting skills that kept me in good financial shape when I arrived in London with £600 to my name and a job for £10 per hour. My budgeting helped me to build my savings and as a result I was able to live on those savings when I couldn’t work for a year.
In the past couple of years I have also learnt more about debt and about loans. I am currently paying off a personal loan. This is a big area of learning for me at the moment as I was always taught never to get into debt, and as a result there is a lot of stress around that. I am doing a lot of learning and work around money and prosperity.
I truly believe that there is a better way to earn a living than the ‘hard’ way most of us are doing it at the moment. I am on the journey and am a work in progress, but I hope to prove that although it isn’t easy, it is possible to earn a living doing what you love.
My interest in Health and Fitness started when my brother had horrendous asthma and he would end up in hospital more often than not, after an asthma attack. My mom eventually took him to see a Homeopath who was really able to help him and he started to improve dramatically after his sessions with Dr Lilly. I poo pooed the whole thing until Dr Lilly was able to help me with my severe acne.
While working at my first ‘fulltime’ job, I undertook a year-long Shiatsu course. This started my love affair with massage, my fascination with energy pathways and my discovery of all things energetic. I followed my Shiatsu course, with a Swedish massage course, a Reiki 1 course and a basic counselling course. Reiki is one of the most simple and wonderful things I have ever learned and I’ll never forget being able to help my dad get to sleep with Reiki when he suffered from the most awful insomnia year after year. During that same period I started doing Chi Kung which is the soft form of Kung Fu and learned a lot more about healing and energy.
My next huge health learning started when I was stuck at home for almost a year after being diagnosed with two blood clots on the lungs.
I had always been interested in nutrition and how it affected our health but when I was able to change the quality of my blood through nutrition and subsequently give the NHS no reason to keep me on Warfarin, this really showed me the power of healing through foods.
During this year, I discovered that I chronically suffered from anxiety and panic attacks. This led me to face my fears and my stress head on. This is when I started writing the Hope Notes to help me when I was feeling anxious or afraid. It was my way of helping myself reframe the situation and change my beliefs. I do believe that relaxation is one of the keys to health and I continue to learn about relaxing moment by moment.
I worked over the phone with a great healer called Becky for six months of this time. She taught me about the importance of living here and now (I was very skilled at living at least five years in the future...). She also taught me how vital it is to accept where you are here and now. We did a lot of work on feeling and healing. I was very aware of my blood by this stage and was amazed at how stuck emotions can change the chemistry of the blood.
Health and Fitness will always be close to my heart. Without our health we have nothing.
That brings me on to Relationships. When I was ill for that year, I realised that it is people who are the real treasures in our lives. Yes, money is nice, but for me without the friendship and support of people who love you, it means nothing.
Let me talk briefly about family here. We can’t choose our families. Some of us are lucky to have close, loving, supportive families but some of us aren’t so lucky and our families can be a great source of pain. No matter what we have, we can still build the good, supportive relationships we need in our lives. We have the choice to bring beautiful people into our lives and let go of people who do not support us.
I leave the best for last...LOVE. I was a single gal for a very long time in London. I had many boyfriends; some of whom were nice, some of whom were horrible. I had moments when I thought I would be single forever. I really really wanted to meet my soul mate and to have a great relationship. After a particularly bad relationship, I knew that I needed to change and I discovered this great book called, ‘Meeting Mr Right.’ Highly recommend it! Six months after reading it, I met my husband Paul at a painting party. Our meeting was a ‘set-up’ by our two best friends who were dating at the time. Paul is one of the best things in my life.
Suffice to say my life is one big learning curve and that while I’ll always be impatient for change, I’m learning that accepting where you are, is just as important as looking forward towards a different you.
On the dark nights during my clots, I realised that I wanted to do something that I could be proud of, that would be a legacy when I was no longer around. Dream On is that thing and I hope that it helps you as much as it is helping me.
