76 AWW.COM.AUAUGUST 2017
GETTY IMAGES. POSED FOR BY MODELS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS STORY. CAROL HOFFKE: PHOTOGRAPH BY JO HAMMOND PHOTOGRAPHY. KARA LANDAU PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION.symptoms. Of course, spontaneity isn’t the sole
cure for our high rates of stress but reintroducing
it into our lives could certainly go a long way
towards reducing it.
Life-changing
For dietitian Kara Landau, 30, an impetuous
decision proved to be a game changer. She gave up
her settled life in Sydney to move to New York on
a whim after she met a man there in September
- While she says she’s someone who “believes
the world has a way of guiding you exactly where
you’re meant to be”, uprooting her whole life to
move across the world wasn’t part of her plan
- until she met Irishman James Forkan. “I tend to
follow my gut instinct but this was a huge decision.
I didn’t really have any ‘I can’t do this’ voices but
I did have reluctance from a career perspective to
uproot. But then I asked myself ‘what’s the worst
that can happen? Just give it a try.’”
Kara extended her initial holiday in New York
by two weeks. She then returned to Sydney,
wrapped up her life and moved in March. Nine
months after they met, the couple are now
engaged. “Moving to be with James was a totally
spontaneous decision but it’s the best one I’ve
ever made. From the moment we met he made me
feel like the only woman in the room. I trusted my
instinct and took the leap. I couldn’t be happier.”
Spontaneity isn’t just for young and free gen Yers,
either. “It can have positive outcomes for
everyone, even those of us most ruled by routine
or the ‘shoulds’,” says Danielle.
Former fundraising manager turned shoe store
owner Carol Haffke, 49, says she completely
changed her life “in four hours” simply after
a bad day at work six years ago. In November
2011, after a fundraising event she’d organised
didn’t go as well as she’d hoped, she decided to
walk away from the career she’d been in for a
decade and open The Shoe Garden in Brisbane,
a store specialising in “longer” sizes. Because
she wears a size 44 shoe herself, Carol believed
there was a market, but otherwise she’d never
harboured any ambition to own a specialist shoe
shop. “It was crazy. I had no retail experience.
I didn’t know how to order stock, but when the
idea literally popped into my head, it simply felt
right and so I decided to go for it,” she explains.
Carol had to make some major sacrifices to
realise her dream. Eleven days after she had the
initial idea, she resigned from her secure and
well-paid job and then sold her townhouse. Just
five months later, in April 2012, she flipped the
open sign on the store’s door. “I’ll never forget
how I felt when I sold my first pair of shoes,”
she recalls. “It was incredibly emotional. I felt
relieved, proud – and exhilarated.”
Six years on, The Shoe Garden is thriving and
Carol – who’s accompanied to work every day by
her beloved Maltese, CC – cherishes helping her
clientele and being her own boss. “My advice
would be don’t fear spontaneity. Yes, it has been
hard at times. I work six days a week and selling
my home to fund the business was a huge sacrifice
but I chose to back myself and go for it. Seeing this
spontaneous decision through has taught me that“
35%
of us report
having “a
significant
level of
distress in
our lives,”
and26%
report
having
above
normal
anxiety and
depression
symptoms.”
Switching off digital
devices can increase time
for spontaneous activities.