Shannon Ward literally blew me out of the water with her story. It’s a two-fold tale about courage to start from ground zero and taking on the sharks as you do it.

She writes:

“My business partner, Diana and I spent 4 years building up our ‘dream’ business of a marketing company with beautiful offices and lots of staff. We looked very successful on the outside, but on the inside we were miserable and the demands of the business were taking a huge toll on us and our young families. So, one day we decided to make a drastic change. We let go of all our staff but one, moved out of the office to work from home and started rebuilding our business with a different definition of success in mind; one that focused on time wealth rather than money. Now, we travel 4 months of the year with our families, have lots of flexibility to be with our children and also enjoy a thriving work life.”

It took them 5 years to rebuild everything from the ground up, but, as she says “we wouldn’t change it for the world! We feel like we are really ‘living the dream’ these days. We call our lifestyle Pretirement – not waiting until you’re retired to do all the cool things you’ve always wanted to do!”

Remember Angelia Petitt from Day #6? She walked away from her corporate life and toward her real one. You can, too!

Since part of their Pretirement mission is to live life now and not put off dong all the things you’ve dreamed of until later, she let me know that she wrote to mefrom a cafe at the side of a dusty road in the village of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica where she recently learned to surf.

“It may not seem like such a big deal, but here are some of the ways I’ve stretched beyond my previously per to fulfill this dream: – moving my family to Central America from Canada for three months was disconcerting (I have a two year old son) – surfing is VERY physically demanding. There is a reason you rarely see anyone over 30 surfing and women are very under-represented – I’m terrified of sharks and think about that every minute I’m in the water – I recently received a blow to the head while surfing that resulted in 8 stitches. It has not deterred me.”

She is embracing the power of slow as she seeks out new adventures. Sharks or no sharks, she is ready to take life on by the scruff of the neck and shake it for all it’s worth.

Are you ready to ride that wave? It doesn’t have to be in a wet suit, either!