Deborah Craig

2 months in Italy - golden tan
1 day in Scotland - burnt

Go figure 🤷‍♀️

Anyway a lot has been happening recently

Birthday celebrations
Plans for a summer in Oxford
Flat for autumn in Italy sorted

Business getting turned on its head too, watch this space…

My 2 months in Italy was for

Living
Receiving
Integration

Now it’s time for the next phase

Catch me tonight on YouTube for Sofa Chats where I share some of this and more

It’s read from my book Uncertainty is Your Superpower

It’s for anyone navigating uncertainty, reinvention, and the in-between phases of life - deets below 👇🏻

Still celebrating in the garden yesterday 🥳🥳🇮🇹

50, you didn’t disappoint 🥳

Tbh I feel more like 30 but with the life lessons of 50

My feet haven’t touched the ground since arriving back in Scotland last week

What a week of birthday fun with friends and family and still more to come!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, messages, gifts and to my family for the never ending surprises

I had one request for my birthday

I want to feel like the queen of the world for a day - mission accomplished

Thanks Joanna Craig Amanda Craig

Topped with a day trip to Dublin

Paul Mori Lynn Mahon

I barely recognise my life even just one year ago…

Life in Italy has taken over and I’m excited to see what’s in store for my 50th year on this planet 🫶🏻🥰🇮🇹

Few pics of the birthday fun 🤩

Love you all
Debbie ❤️

Liking yourself and your life is underrated

The older I get

the less impressed I am by status, titles, image, the ‘performance’ of success

and the more impressed I am by people who genuinely like themselves and their life

people who feel at peace in who they are

people who’ve built a life that actually fits them
instead of one that just looks good from the outside

because I’ve realised something

you can have the

relationship
the money
the career
the house

and still feel like you’re dying inside because you dread your own life

you can also have uncertainty
a less traditional path
a life that doesn’t make sense to everyone else

and still feel deeply fulfilled by it

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about moving abroad or changing your whole life overnight

I’m talking about being honest enough to ask yourself:

does my life actually feel good to me?

do I even like who I’ve become inside it?

the older I get, the more I value:

✔️ honesty > performance
✔️ integrity > people pleasing
✔️ real connection > lots of people
✔️ inner peace > constant stimulation
✔️ truth > avoidance
✔️ freedom > fitting in
✔️ acceptance of who I am > trying to be impressive
✔️ self-trust > needing everyone else to understand my choices

What’s something you value more now than you did 10 years ago?



PS: I talk more about this kind of stuff in Sofa Chats every Tuesday night and inside my book, deets 👇🏻

The cost of choosing me: missing people 😢

I think some people stay stuck because they’re terrified of the ache that comes with change

New jobs
New countries
New relationships

But living fully and choosing to be happy means you’ll miss people

when I’m in Italy
I miss people from home
I miss sitting beside my sisters talking trash for hours

Now I’m packing my case ready to leave Italy in 3 days
I already feel the sadness for what I’m going to miss…

the people
the coastline
the version of me that exists here

but if you avoid moving on because you’re scared of the ache afterwards

what happens then?

Do you just stay where you are forever?

You’ll never build a bigger life
if you can’t tolerate missing parts of the old one

For me, I’ve learned how to cope with missing people
rather than spend my whole life avoiding experiences that could change me

Image: from my niece who is counting down the days until we meet again ❤️🥳🇮🇹



PS: have you ever missed something/someone and known it was still worth it?

PPS in 2017 I left corporate, terrified I’d miss the stability - I still did it and have no regrets

The hardest thing you’ll ever do
is stop lying to yourself

Most people already know what’s hurting them

they just don’t want the consequences of admitting it

Most people think the problem is external

the job
the relationship
the money
the stress
the pressure

but deep down

they know something internally isn’t right

and that’s the part people avoid

because when you stop
when you really look in the mirror

you start seeing the things you’ve spent years trying not to face

relationships that drains you
careers that no longer fits you
habits that numb you
ways you’ve neglected yourself physically and mentally
ways you speak to yourself
the life you slowly stopped recognising yourself in

and that would scare the bejesus out of anyone

because once you see it
you can’t unsee it

that’s why people stay busy
why they distract themselves
why they focus on fixing everyone else

because facing yourself might mean admitting

your life doesn’t actually fit you anymore

and that doesn’t mean you need to burn your whole life down overnight

but it does mean this:

if you want your outside world to feel different

you’ll eventually have to be honest about your inside one

most people aren’t stuck because they don’t know

they’re stuck because they do know

and they’re terrified of what comes next if they finally admit it

I’m curious, tell me something you knew deep down long before you admitted it to yourself?



PS: this is exactly the kind of honest conversations we every week on Sofa Chats - there’s a seat for you 🛋️ 👇🏻

PPS photo of 2 friends who did the inner work then built themselves a new life

She was this close to settling for a life that didn’t feel right

Sure, she had options but she felt tied to everything around her

- her relationships
- the expectations
- a version of herself she thought she ‘had’ to be

And when you’re in that place you don’t feel free to choose differently

So when she reached out to work with me, that’s where we started

the truth of what wasn’t working

letting go of her toxic relationship

stop pretending things were fine

starting to make decisions that didn’t suit everyone else

It wasn’t easy and I watched her wrangle with herself for weeks

but it changed everything

once she stopped holding herself in place

she got vulnerable and was honest about what she wanted

to travel
to live differently
to experience more

This is the most important bit of the journey though

this is where most people stop

yes they feel it
but they don’t act on it

She did

She went to Thailand

And that one decision shifted the direction of her entire life

now she’s built a life in Australia

a business that fits how she wants to live

a relationship that’s healthy, not something she has to manage

None of that existed before

And it didn’t come from having a perfect plan

It came from doing the work

and then backing herself in what came next

That’s the part people don’t always see

It’s not just about feeling better

it’s about what becomes possible when you stop holding yourself back



PS if you’re ready to stop holding yourself back, that’s where this work starts

I’m always open to that conversation in my DMs 🫶🏻🇮🇹

PS I’ll be sitting with her this week talking about her life on my new YouTube series ‘Off the Record’ - deets coming soon

I didn’t expect a Pandora charm to hit me like that

I was just walking past the store in Venice airport, minding my own business

and then I saw it

A little heart with the Italian flag colours on the front

and it was like something in me just stopped

It was a body response not brain

I stared at it

It’s odd because I wasn’t thinking “that would be nice for my nieces”

It was more like a wave of… oh my God

things are really changing in my life and I’m going to be gone more than I’m in Scotland

I’m building something somewhere else

and it just hit me in my body all at once

I think that’s why it got me

because it wasn’t planned

I didn’t go on a little trip to Venice thinking
“this is the moment my life shifts”

but between realising Monopoli feels like home now

and then that… standing in a shop, staring at the charms

it was like everything just clicked into place

I wanted them to have something

not as a gift

but as a reminder

I’m still here
I’m always thinking of you

even if I’m not there as much

I bought 2 straight away

no second thought

and walked out a bit like…

right

this is happening

it’s crazy how it’s not always the big moments that create awareness

But often it’s something small

that just pulls something out of you

and you feel it before you can even explain it

I’m sure you’ve had a moment like that too

I’m all ears for any stories you’ve got to share 👇🏻

Some people envy my life
some think they’d want it
most couldn’t think of anything worse

and all of that can be true at the same time

because this life…
isn’t what I imagined
it’s not what I planned

but it’s what’s here now

and I feel a responsibility to live it fully

I do work that matters
not just to me, but to my clients

I see more of the world than I ever have
not as a tourist… but actually living in it

Italy was always a pull for me
but I didn’t understand it
until I got here

and now I do

the last 7–10 years have been the most disruptive of my life

but there’s nothing about my life today
that even resembles the one I had back then

and that’s the part people don’t always see

the version of you that exists now after you’ve changed everything

it won’t make sense to some people who only knew the old you

some will have followed the journey and understand it

others will watch from the sidelines and not recognise you at all

and that’s okay

because you’re not here to stay recognisable
you’re here to live your life your way

PS thought I’d be married with kids but nope

Currently like the littlest hobo figuring out her next move one baby step at a time 🤷‍♀️

PPS I talk about my journey, past present and future in my book and every Tuesday night on Sofa Chats.

There’s a seat for you 🛋️

She felt like her life was imploding

but didn’t realise how much was about to change when we started working together

Most people don’t

She arrived stressed, overwhelmed and couldn’t see a way through it

Everything felt like a lot

and she was constantly in her head trying to figure it all out

But the real issue wasn’t just what was going on around her

it was how much she was overriding herself

Saying yes when she meant no

Avoiding conversations she knew she needed to have

Worrying about how other people would react

Putting herself last just to keep the peace

That’s exhausting

And it keeps you stuck

But over time she learned not to stay there

She started setting boundaries

making decisions that didn’t suit everyone else

having conversations she would’ve avoided before

Not because it was easy

but because it was right for her

That’s where things began to shift

Now when you look at her life

it’s easy to focus on what’s happened since

the job
the promotion
managing people
working on big brands
the level she’s now playing at

doing things she never thought she’d be capable of

But that didn’t just happen

It came from her starting to trust herself

back herself

and handle situations differently when things felt uncertain

instead of letting it take her out

She still has moments where her confidence dips

of course she does

But it doesn’t spiral the same way

she catches it
steadies herself
keeps going

That’s the work

Not fixing everything overnight

but becoming someone who can handle it when life gets hard

And that’s why it lasts



PS she’s booked in for a reset session with me to regroup, ready for her next level up 🥳

PPS if you read this and thought “that’s me” you’ll find your way to me

Do you ever wonder how you made it this far?

Life, business, career..any of it

I left corporate in 2017
Graduated in 2019

Started a business in 2019 where the money goes up and down

I’ve partly moved to another country

hosted my first ever retreat in Italy

wrote a book

pivoted more times than I can count

and I’m now looking at visas to make Italy more permanent 🇮🇹

but I still have sacrifices
I have to say no to things
I don’t see my family as often
Mostly days I don’t feel secure

but by the grace of god

I’m still here 🤷‍♀️

there’s been so many points I thought I was going to snap

but I didn’t
I just didn’t quit

that’s it, that’s the secret

and I think sometimes
we overcomplicate what it takes

we think it’s confidence
certainty
having it all mapped out

it’s not

it’s staying when it would be easier to leave

Or leaving when its easier to stay

it’s keeping going when it doesn’t make sense yet but you trust your gut

my life isn’t the norm but it’s built around what actually matters to me

Time and location freedom

I still don’t fully know how I got here or how it will turn out long term

I just know
I didn’t stop
I won’t stop



PS who else has been close to breaking point but somehow made it out the other side?

PPS I talk about my journey in my book and every Tuesday night on Sofa Chats 🛋️