I found myself at the Berlin airport at the end of 2018, going to Paris to teach classes for a few days.
At the time, I had come out of a breakup with a famous ballet dancer (when I say “come out”, I actually mean 10 months prior, but while I am super quick at some stuff, I am equally as slow at others. For example: at getting over breakups 😂)
For the 2.5 years we lived together, he was always traveling for work, almost 6 months out of the year. He was one of the only ones in the world able to travel that much as a dancer, and I always thought that was very cool (though it took a toll on our relationship at times)
Funny enough, it is exactly when we broke up that my career in NY “exploded” (french person way of saying it got crazy), because that is when Equinox released The Muse campaign (just an encouraging thought for everyone going through a romantic disappointment)
Anyway 10 months after this, I had moved to Berlin and as I was at the airport, suitcase in hand, I remember thinking:
“You are going to Paris to teach right now. You are going to be guest teaching in another country, and then you are coming back to teach here. Wouldn’t it be so cool if you could teach your classes internationally ? You’d be an international Guest teacher !”
At the time, star fitness trainers did not exist in Europe AT ALL. There were a few in the US, but nobody knew of them here. Thinking you could be traveling as an international guest trainer, particularly in Europe, was a completely far-fetched idea.
Well we now know how much of my life started from far-fetched ideas.
Fast forward a few years, we find ourselves in 2022: I am asked to teach my classes in Milan, Geneva, Saint Barth, Saint Tropez, and Bodrum. And today in March 2023, I am talking about going to teach them in London soon, and am currently planing 2 retreats for the year ahead.
I live in Lisbon, but I travel to Paris once a month to teach my at Special Events.
Last week, I was honoured to be invited by Nike to teach the first concept I ever created, Brooklyn Flow® during their huge “Feel by night” event.
NI.KE
Don’t get me wrong: traveling to teach is sometimes (all the time) exhausting.
You take 6am planes to go straight to an event. You don’t sleep at home. You stress out about packing the right stuff so you don’t forget anything (how many times can one forget their iPhone charger seriously?)
Then you have to prepare each event. It’s not about just showing up. You have to make each event special and adapt to the constraints: the room, the number of people, the length of the class, the level of participants, the brand you are working with, the language you have to teach in …
And then once you’re done, you hop on the first plane back, and you have to resume your life as if nothing happened
Sometimes that makes me feel lonely
And that’s where we go full circle:
Back in 2018 at that Berlin airport that no longer exists (yes, airports disappear, too!) when I was only dreaming of having the life I have now, I knew it was a lonely life: I had experienced it first end with the traveling dancer boyfriend, who was always weird when he came back.
But the point of this post is this: I came to an interesting realisation lately.
Sometimes, living your dreams doesn’t mean that once you do, everything will be perfect.
When you have a dream you only see the positive of it, but you might not see what it entails.
Or, like me, maybe you do and you decide to go for it anyway.
A few weeks ago I sat down and asked myself “Julie, be honest. Life isn’t always easy. But is there anything you have not done in your life that you wish you had done ?”
The answer is: no
If I disappeared tomorrow like that Berlin airport, I can say I would have taken all the chances I could have taken. I would know there is not a day I should have been working and was not working. A trip I should have gone on. A dream I should have worked harder for.
If I disappeared tomorrow, I would have lived my life to the fullest. I would have done my max. I would have done my best. I would have gone for it
So as I am sitting here at a Parisian coffee shop, I am realising that: yes I am tired, yes my body hurts, yes I don’t remember where I live, and yes I’m sad to live Paris, and yes I’ll feel weird to be back in Lisbon. Until I don’t. Until I feel good in Lisbon. Which is probably when I’ll have to leave again.
But through all these phases I would have made my dreams come true.
And until I have new dreams and long for something different, I will keep doing just that
I hope you find your dreams and go through the hardships that make them become true. I hope you find satisfaction and fulfilment in that. I hope you realise that dreams aren’t about having THE perfect life. They are about trying to have the life you want for yourself.
It won’t be perfect, but it will be YOURS
And that, friends, is PRICELESS
