It’s easy to get bogged down by the hustle and bustle of every day life – but could you leave behind everyone and everything you know and take the plunge into the unknown?
One woman did – and she’s never looked back.
Four years ago Noelle Hancock quit her $95,000-a-year job in Manhattan, moved out of her apartment and bought a ticket to St. John, one of the U.S Virgin Islands.
Writing on Cosmopolitan.com, Noelle said: “It was startlingly simple to dismantle the life I’d spent a decade building: I broke the lease on my apartment, sold my belongings, and brought a one-way plane ticket.
“The hardest part was convincing myself it was OK to do something for no other reason than to change the narrative of my life.”
When Noelle first arrived on the island she took a job in an ice cream parlour – and she insists the simple life made her instantly happier than when she was earning almost six-figures.
She continued: “It was calming to work with my hands. I met new people constantly, talking face-to-face instead of communicating via email and instant messaging.
“When I closed the shop at the end of the shift, my work was done and my time my own.”
Noelle now works as a bartender on the island, a job she took simply because she wanted to try it.
And, while watching her old friends and colleagues build up their successful, conventional lives sometimes makes Noelle doubt her decision, it’s never long before she remembers why she loves island life.
“I have an island. I live in a charmingly ramshackle one-bedroom apartment on a hillside overlooking the sea,” she added.
*How many of us can compete with that? Read Noelle’s full, inspirational article here. *