Who is Dean?
I’m Dean, I am also known as son, brother, cheri (my beautiful, intelligent, caring other half is French), dad, friend, and colleague. All of these titles I feel blessed to be given and honour with my utmost ability.
I live with my partner and our family in South West France, in a lovely little medieval village located in between Bergerac and Bordeaux. Literally in the middle of the French wine industry. Surrounded by an ever changing landscape, I love to get outside as much as I can and submerge myself in nature and culture.
As well as being a lifestyle coach, I’m also one of those ‘arty farty’ types. I appreciate art in all its different guises, from music, singing, dancing, painting, poetry… the list goes on. Everything which allows people to put a little bit of their spirit into something which can then bring joy and appreciation to others.
I trained as a graphic designer and I have run my own design agency since 2011. Design, has always been something I have enjoyed and found rewarding, but, without necessarily acknowledging it until recently, I have always carried around an underlying feeling I could be doing more to serve others.
Well done, if you’ve made it this far, you’re possibly thinking, having read the above, this chap seems to have it not too bad. And that is exactly the point! None of the above has changed, I HAVE CHANGED!
I am a little ashamed to write it, but even though I had love, health, career, flow and nature all around me, I just didn’t see it. I had created a reality for myself which was blind to all the beauty around me and instead I painted a life of stress, anger, resentment, regret, anxiety and a good measure of negative talk about myself.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
According to Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, who wrote the quote above, is suggesting we have no control over life’s events. The one thing we can control, is our own thoughts and reactions to events. Be that, death, failed relationships, loosing a job, being diagnosed with a terminal disease or the more trivial things in life like a flat tyre or getting caught in a traffic jam.
Once I grasped this concept, I took the first step in a new direction on a path which has meant I now see, hear and feel totally different. I have created a whole new reality which serves me far better than the one I had previously.
It is whilst I have been on this journey of discovery I have found that thing which has been missing in life. That sense I should be doing more I referred to earlier, is the desire to share what I am learning with others who may benefit from bringing a bit more happiness and meaning and purpose into their own lives.
If any of the above resonates with you, don’t hesitate, take the leap of faith, book yourself a discovery call, you’ve got nothing to loose and potentially so much to gain.