A forced semi-retirement enabled Sylvie Siprut-Waxman to follow her bliss. She is now alternating her time between Nerja and U.S.A. and sharing her transition to a plant-based lifestyle. Read her story.
Why Spain?
Following my bliss . . .
It was a forced semi-retirement, a.k.a. “lay-off” from a large corporation that provided me with the mixed blessing of re-inventing a career and livelihood. In hindsight, the loss of a job that I absolutely loved has been one of the most humbling and profound life experiences!
Instinctively, before I would be able to move on with life, I knew that allowing time to grieve and letting go was an important part of a process I needed to consciously travel through. Simple kernels of wisdom received from friends such as “Never place your eggs in one basket” and “When one door closes, another one opens” have been helpful and am immensely grateful for this. These adages are so very true.
It is the intangible support I’ve received in multitude ways these past few years, which has lifted my spirits, created positive energy and reinforced my belief in the genuine meaning of friendship and community.
Experience…
My past career includes technology system software training, troubleshooting, program and document development and a good number of years as a travel and meeting planner for large corporations. From the Middle East to Asia, I handled very complex global accounts as well as training of personnel. All this required attention to detail, combined with good intuitive social and emotional intelligence skills, a good dose of humor, equipped with lots of patience and a healthy dose of solid business acumen. All of which provided me with the ability to create above and beyond relationships with clients.
The online world of networking was never a stranger because of the type of work I did. In my previous career, I communicated with clients from all over the world daily and so jumping directly into the job of developing an online business networking community was the natural next step. In 2008 social media was just beginning to take off and I connected with the numerous techie friends who early on had embraced that the notion of building high quality business relationships on the web can be built using online engagement platforms with integrity, transparency and ethics.
Personally, the whole experience of watching entrepreneurial (many of them “mompreneurs”) communities from all over the world grow online business presence with success, was a phenomenal one. It was all very exciting to watch it unfold and evolve into what it is today. I feel blessed and grateful for the opportunity to participate in this techie world. So many of us have a mission to do good and change the world view wherever we can. For myself, this meant that I needed to find a way to integrate all my expertise, knowledge and skills into a multi-service holistic lifestyle and business coaching career. So, I launched Tools for Health Coaches™ several years ago and am on a mission to teach other health coaches how to reach out to others using online tools. My passion for plant-based living and the desire to coach you through the transition process led me to launch several plant-based transition coaching programs and this website. Everything that I offer you’ll find on this website.
When life hands you lemons…Make lemonade…
…And trust me, I’ve made many jugs of lemonade…Equipped with a passion for technology, healthy living and cooking, my website was given a home to grow my passions into an online business presence when I decided to invest in myself and my business. Having already established my online presence, this site was created to serve as my permanent online home. It integrates harmoniously with my mission of being of service while fulfilling the need to make a living using multiple skills. I’ve devoted most of my time building my online presence while also volunteering for non-profit organizations, creating a similar presence for them so that their very important messages could be broadcast to the wider community.
Self-care and following my bliss…
Recently I decided to make my vision of working on my laptop while in my pj’s or bathing suit, with a view of the sea as a backdrop, a reality. I was working nearly 12 hours per day and not getting much closer to the image of a vision I had been carrying around in my head and vision board for years. Then one day I decided to act and the photograph above is the view as I work from my laptop. This image says it all about the ability to drive our own destiny. To be clear, for those who think this is out of their reach, I did this with minimal funds and the willingness to let go of attachment to “stuff”. I only needed to pack my bag with the clothes I needed. Once my mind was made up, I took the steps I needed and after that a whole new energy evolved and I knew that this is what “following one’s bliss” means… I believe that having a personal life coach was the primary key to my own personal development. Doing the internal work is a crucial component on the road to a healthy lifestyle.
And where are you now?
I alternate between Nerja and US. Nerja is a lovely small seaside town of about 25K people. Its main attraction is its famous cave, beautiful coastline beaches and relaxed atmosphere. It has a new deportivo which is used for both local, national and recently, international sports events and concerts. Nerja, is located 45 minutes from Granada and 1 hour from Malaga by car.
What was the biggest challenge for your move?
Spanish language. Ongoing. Biggest challenge was the Andalusian dialect.
Do you have any advice for Women thinking about making the move?
First, visit different locations you are considering, focus on what is important to you, schools, spiritual and social community, proximity to nature parks, coastline beaches with easy access. Access to medical facilities. Consider all the same things you would look for as if you are moving to another location in your home country. If you are dependent on public transportation, does location have easy access to a well-planned travel infrastructure travel whether this be foot, bicycles, car, train, air.
Share a typical day
Mornings, I create me time with self-care activities for about an hour. Exercise, relaxing breakfast and then begin on a variety of tasks such as coaching client prep or working on my book and wellness programs. I do volunteer online work for several organizations working on their websites, emailing or social media design.
What is something spectacular you would like to achieve in just one day?
Finish my book / wellness program and being happy with a less than perfect state.
Something you are grateful for?
Extremely grateful for my network of online connections. Offline as well but it is the online connection that has provided inspiration, support and many new friends who help each other with business building, brainstorming and encouragement.
Who would be at your special dinner party?
Being Dutch: Queen Maxima – her involvement with projects that empower women to start their own businesses with a focus on life balance.
2. Malala Yousafzai – admire her courage to fight for the rights of females to receive a formal education.
3. Maimonides – to ask him to collaborate and brainstorm for my book.
4. Sigmund Freud with Carl Jung – to bring them up to speed about the life of the empowered woman in today’s world. 🙂
What’s your secret weapon or accomplishment?
Focus! Both a secret weapon and responsible for potential accomplishments on a daily basis
What mantra do you live by?
Perfection is boring. Challenged my perception of “perfect” and learning that is rarely perfect but that once in the space of perceptually “perfect”, it gets boring very quickly. Am much happier now with letting go of the perfectionist in me.
One thing you had to bring to Spain and could never give away?
Buddha collection and digitized photo card providing a connection to previous journeys.
Do you have a favourite book?
“Contact” by Carl Sagan. Both book and film. Quest for the unknown and spirituality.
Recently, since the outbreak of the Ukranian War, any book by Timothy Snyder which finds me completely immersed in the history of the region.
“Bloodlands”. Why? Passion for histories of different regions around the world.
Something you would tell your younger self?
To stay in each location traveled to around the world, for at least 1 year to explore.
Thank you Sylvie Siprut-Waxman where can we find out more?
Instagram: @jbdesigncreations and @plantbasedtransitioncoach
