About Me — Lewis Connell
My Journey From Corporate To Creative
Who Am I?
Starting my Medium journey with the question “Who am I?” seems rather fitting, given I’ve spent the last 3 years obsessing over the topic, and honestly, I still find it incredibly hard to answer!
Defining who I am and owning my story has become a key meditation of mine. I believe that answering this question honestly is one of the most powerful ways to positively influence our lives.
So, in short, my answer is below:
I’m Lewis. I’m passionate about living the most fulfilling life possible, being driven by curiosity and connecting with others along the way.
Specifically:
- I’m a huge romantic, I simply love love, whether it’s a poetic love story or a simple tale of someone following their passion;
- I’m a financial accountant by trade, having spent nearly a decade in the industry;
- My greatest passion project was running a small wedding photography and videography business in my early twenties;
- I love dogs and I can’t wait to meet my very first pup, whenever the time is right;
- I currently live in London, where for the first time in my life I’ve decided to live life on my terms;
- I’m in the process of co-writing my first self-help book with a close friend;
- and I run self-development workshops where we focus on creating structure and self-guidance in order to live a deeply fulfilling life.
But let’s go back a little bit
Like many, I started my adult life completely on autopilot, without ever questioning who I was. Equipped with a determined mindset, a clear vision and even clearer goals I had a life planned out ahead of me that would undoubtedly tick all the boxes that I was ‘supposed to’ tick.
I was a high achiever in school and, at the age of 18, I was lucky enough to be accepted onto a school-leaver programme of one of the world’s largest professional services companies. As my CV clearly showed, I was hard-working, enthusiastic, well-mannered, and keen to succeed in a corporate career.
I had a great group of friends, an amazing girlfriend and a supportive family. From the outside looking in, my life sounded pretty stellar! I was making quick progress on my “life checklist” and everything seemed to be going my way.
But then it all started to go wrong
By my mid-twenties, I began to realise that things weren’t so great. I started to hate my career, my relationship came to an end, my friendships started to falter and my relationships with my family took a turn. I started to feel insanely isolated but I also couldn’t help but feel like it was all my fault.
I tried to pick myself up and dust myself off, but I came to the huge realisation that I didn’t know who I was.
I started to question everything I had believed about myself, the values I’d held and the goals I’d been chasing.
At first, I was angry. My so-called “life checklist” had been a lie. I’d followed the rules and ticked all the boxes but here I was, at what felt like rock-bottom.
But slowly it dawned on me. I’d been living a life that wasn’t mine. I’d been living to a checklist full of other people’s ideas.
But what the hell was I supposed to do?
At age 26, I moved to my third corporate employer, still unclear of where I belonged in the working world and not entirely sure of what I was looking for. Looking back at this part of my life I can see I was kind of floating along as I had no idea what to do. Something was missing and I knew I had to find out what it was — a feeling I know many others know well!
I struggled at this third job and almost immediately my manager sat me down to issue some well-needed criticism: I was struggling to keep all my plates spinning.
Luckily for me, my manager knew exactly how to help. She suggested I look into project management or productivity and encouraged me to build routines and systems to stay on top of my workload.
She helped me learn and develop mental models to take control of my responsibilities. She helped me realise that I didn’t have to hide my imperfections and that asking for help when I was struggling was always the right thing to do. All of this was news to me!
Within a few months, she was amazed by my progress and I too couldn’t believe the effect it had. I was slowly learning that the world wasn’t the way I had assumed and I’d completely underestimated my own ability to take control of the things around me.
I felt so liberated!
And this is when I had a brainwave; if I could overhaul my work-life, could the same happen in my personal life?
I dived deeper down the rabbit hole of productivity and self-development reading some life-altering books such as Solve For Happy, The Last Lecture, The Pathless Path, and The Third Door to name a few.
I made the decision to take control of my entire life, not just my career.
After years of running on an autopilot that I didn’t even know existed, I decided to wrestle with my identity and choose a new direction for myself. I decided to start living life on my terms!
I moved cities and eventually left the corporate world to pursue a more creative lifestyle. I started trying new hobbies and interests that were more aligned with who I was and my life began to feel deeply fulfilling.
For the first time in my life, I felt aligned to my core. I was pursuing the goals that were most important to my inner self and I had complete certainty that I was on the right path.
But the most surprising change was one that I had completely overlooked in my search for change: I began to feel human.
I started to feel connected to the world in a completely new way. I was more accepting of myself, kinder to myself, and able to approach the world with a completely new method — one of kindness, curiosity and purpose.
The world started to reflect back at me who I was and I finally felt like I belonged.
So here we are
Today, I’m experimenting with a new balanced lifestyle. One full of connection and creativity. I’m pursuing my deepest interests of reading, writing and helping others and I hope my journey on Medium will be a great addition to this lifestyle.
I’m hoping to share the details of everything I’ve learned over the past few years, whether that’s in the form of book reviews, stories of my own life, or the frameworks and systems I’ve built along the way.
I’ve come to learn that storytelling is a key part of the human experience and I can’t wait to learn the craft and be inspired by all the great authors here on Medium.
I’m hoping to publish content once a week to start and I’d love to connect with like-minded readers, wherever you may be on your journey!
If my story resonates with you at all please reach out to me, or if you have any tips or advice, I’m all ears.
Thank you for reading my content. I’m on a personal mission to help 1,000 people build a deeply fulfilling lifestyle, helping them define their own self-guidance and transformative structure to start living a life that’s aligned to their core.
I have a series of online courses and a monthly newsletter where I share in-depth ideas with an audience that passionately cares about building a lifestyle they love.
Join the 250+ people already in the community and receive a free copy of the Life Design Framework — Life on Your Terms:
https://truepath.me
Early access to my book 365 Days to Change Your Life:
https://truepath.me/book
Isn’t it about time you became the person that you know you’re capable of becoming?
