So, I did a thing!
My biggest goal for 2026 was ticked off in just over one month. In fact, we went from having a conversation with our broker to buying in just over 3 weeks. That’s how quickly this all happened.
As stated in my plans for the year, I anticipated buying a home to be a year-long project. After looking at rentals less than a year ago, I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I had been putting it off. But once the year started, I felt a strong sense of Groundhog Day. I couldn’t go another year of the grind without feeling I was grinding myself away.
I took some small steps. And before I knew it, I was lost in a hyperfocus rabbit hole. That’s when I needed to hit pause.
I felt I was operating from a place of survival and scarcity. I felt pressure to get to new listings first. If I slowed down, an amazing opportunity would be missed.
When I spoke to my friends, they assured me this is normal. And that I have to go at a sustainable pace, as the journey of buying a home is usually a long one.
We got lucky.
From meeting someone at a house party who recommended a broker, who called me right away from his overseas holiday, to ending up against first-home buyers rather than property investors or older downsizers, everything lined up.
But there’s a saying: good luck is when preparation (hard work) meets opportunity.
That’s actually why I’m writing this. Because there’s so, so much more to this photo with a sold sign – which itself carries a sense of guilt, given how tough people have it. So I hope this isn’t received as bragging.
The story is that while I’ll leave my 30s next year with a huge milestone ticked off, I entered this decade feeling anything but proud. So much so, I didn’t even celebrate my 30th. I felt like a complete failure. I had lost the job I had moved to Melbourne for and felt more out of place in the world than I ever had.
In tears, I confided my feelings to my father during a visit to Brisbane. His response, as migrant parents do, was to respond logistically. He said that he and Mum would support me. That, in the worst case, I could have the family home.
It’s not that I didn’t appreciate their support. I did, but something was still amiss. What I wanted more than anything was not to have to ask for it. I wanted to feel capable. To have my own sense of victory. To stand on my own two feet.
Many years later, I have it. I did it. But it’s not just this moment that I’m celebrating. There’s: going through the process of understanding myself, eventually getting diagnosed with ADHD. Then, finding the courage to enter the job market again. Doing that successfully by getting a role made for me after I wasn’t successful at another position.
This bought me time to think. After a trip through the outback in 2018, I decided to take the risk of changing career by studying counselling.
Working four days a week while studying pushed me to work harder than I ever had. 12-hour days on both Saturday and Sunday were the only way to stay in Melbourne while studying.
For the most part, everything was on track until a big fucking spanner called COVID-19 got thrown into the works. I got made redundant and had to live off Centrelink while both myself and the world figured out what the hell was going on.
Eventually, I did get a job, which again was meant to be a short-lived 5-month contract. But after working hard to prove my value, I’ve ticked over 5 years. It’s actually related to my original qualifications in the digital content space – which I was planning to leave behind. Funny how life works.
This work provides some distance from my other work as a therapist and youth worker. These were jobs I picked up after identifying and going after opportunities. Again, hard work meeting opportunity.
A lot of sacrifices were made, working a combination of weekdays, weeknights, and weekends, but I had set myself a target. And I had a whole lot of drive to get there. I constantly thought about that moment in front of my dad. And how, as hard as it was, made me one hard motherfucker. The saying that comes to mind: rock bottom can be the most fertile ground.
There’s also this gem from Steve Jobs:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
I feel this. From losing my job at 30, to again during COVID, to even last year when my partner and I unexpectedly had to move out of a rented place we loved. It all makes sense.
I definitely don’t want to say everything happens for a reason. I believe that undermines the tragedy of life. But sometimes things do.
Whether they do or don’t, our approach should be the same either way. Which is the very message I held onto when I felt lost, and the same message I hope you take away from this post:
Just keep going. You have no idea what you’re capable of. Or how much life can change.
