Reaching a new life milestone (60 years young!), Elle shares the learnings that built her success and foundation for her next decade, living her best life ever.
As I approach this new decade, I have a powerful sense of gratitude for all I have learnt on my journey to date. WelleCo aims to empower you in your own unique wellness journey and I aim to help you to navigate your journey of life and live the best version of yourself.
At 60, I actually feel I am at the brink of a brand new beginning, rather than complying with society’s conventional notion that it’s a time to ‘slow down’ or even ‘it’s the beginning of the end’!
The longer we are in this world, the more opportunity we have to gain and share true wisdom. Our self growth is experiential, not conceptual, and authentic wisdom is gained from learning through experience, unlike knowledge which is just information in the head. Wisdom is expansive whereas knowledge itself just makes us THINK we know, and any real value or use it might have is not proven until that knowledge is put to the test, and that test is real life situations. I learned through the years that no matter what situations and events look like to us, they invariably offer wonderful, valuable lessons that serve us well in future circumstances.
I have always given things a go and found out what truly works and what does not. So I place great value on gathering wisdom through actually living life. And my life to date has been a natural tapestry of both celebrations and frustrations through which I’ve come to realise that it is all happening ’through me’ and ‘for me’, not ‘to me’, teaching me to recognise what resonates with me and what doesn’t. So all experiences became successes because they taught me valuable tools that helped me in my next steps in life and business.
Realise in challenging times that you are in the process of learning something valuable, and in that way you are truly doing life's work. This is not to say that it’s easy, but it does get easier and more effective and fulfilling every time you learn and apply the wisdom.
As a child, I learned from my grandmother that there’s a higher power in the Universe for the benefit of us all — and that making a difference in this world will always be my North Star. As I willingly trusted the natural unfolding of life — trusting my own inner power and uniqueness, trusting life itself to be my friend and support — I became aware of doing everything for a greater purpose. This gives a sense of fulfilment and direction — it gives meaning to life. I highly recommend finding your purpose and doing everything with that purpose guiding your every step.
And today, having now turned sixty, it’s beautiful to realise I am now my grandmother's age and I get to share my learnings with my sons and our WelleCommunity. I feel enriched, grateful, loved and loving like never before. It is wonderful. And I feel more relaxed than ever with the real me that gets to be in the world more and more fully each year. I want to remind everyone of the wonderful and vital wisdoms gathered and the contributions that we all make to the world as we spend more time in it.
As for ageing… what we focus our attention on becomes our reality so I prefer to consistently live with purpose and service, and in wellness. And they have become my reality. It’s very fulfilling. I truly feel like this is a beginning.
Thankfully, I’m a shareholder, Creative Director and board member of WelleCo, a business created as a result of my own personal wellness journey. I’m so grateful for the path I have walked. Dubbed “The Body“ by Time Magazine in 1986 and, through my modelling career, the art and skill required to become excellent at my work took me on a journey beyond the body and into the world of awareness and motivation — the spirit of who I am and why I was doing what I was doing.
Today, I care about life and about how I and others live it. I care more about what resonates deeply with me and about what is achieved for a bigger cause and I care less about trying to be what people expect or demand of me. And I have learned that conventional business aims are more efficiently achieved ultimately by striving towards a greater purpose.
For anyone approaching a birthday, think healthy and supportive and loving thoughts about yourself and your life, and your life will bring you the evidence to prove it to you. If you think it’s all downhill, it will be. Because the truth is, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right! Strive to find what you love and do it — you will feel like you never work another day in your life.