One of the things I love most about this page is being able to share stories from people across Wigan doing something positive, creative or inspiring, and here’s another one.
Abi, a mum-of-two from Ashton, got in touch after writing and self-publishing her own book following what she describes as one of the hardest periods of her life.
After walking away from the career she’d spent years building, Abi started writing late at night as a way of dealing with everything going on in her head. Those notes eventually became a book to help other women who might be struggling too.
Here’s Abi’s story in her own words:
Last summer there was a shift. I didn’t feel it at the time but I was lost. Having walked out on a role I had worked my whole adult life towards, I felt like I had failed. The decision to leave my job wasn’t thought out or deliberate, it was sudden. It was the result of trusting my gut and refusing to sacrifice my values. It left me feeling lost, a little broken and exhausted.
Over the next few months after several amazing job opportunities and re-evaluation, I decided to make the plunge and step into something new. Something I had more control over and would work better around my current life and circumstances. I set up my own business and put all my energy into juggling this new path and being a present mum to my two young children.
As a way to deal with the ups and downs of this new chapter I began writing notes. In my phone mainly, late at night while everyone was sleeping and my mind was loud. Doing so helped me navigate through every possible emotion. It also led me to unpick old habits and rules I felt most women lived by, but did nothing to serve us. Like permission, comparison, boundaries and fear, as well as what success and failure really meant.
Then came an idea. If I felt this way, surely others did too? But why was no-one talking about it? And so my book was born. From late night notes to chapters and personal stories, Do It Anyway! The Manifesto for the Modern Woman was written.
After a whirlwind year, releasing such an honest and raw account of my life was completely terrifying. But if I had learnt anything it was that fear didn’t always need to win. This book felt important. It felt like it needed to exist for other women to see themselves for who they are and what they could be capable of if they rewrote the rules they were once handed but no longer served them. So I self-published. A book accidentally written in the shadows, in secret, as a survival tool.
The feedback I have received so far has been overwhelming. Women sharing their own personal accounts, recognising themselves in the pages and telling me how this book has completely reshaped the way they look at themselves and the way they want to live.
Designed to be read in one sitting for time poor mothers, career women, or any woman struggling and calling it juggling, my goal now is to reach as many women as possible and have Do It Anyway! become the mantra we all live by. Because for me, every woman should be the star of their own story, beyond any other title.
You can buy the book here.
If you’ve got a story to share, please email me. Let’s fill the internet with everything that makes Wigan shine.
