Project Life - Life Coaching & Personal Training

What’s this all about?

This is about helping others overcome their personal demons and move forward into bright, compelling, healthy futures; because EVERYONE deserves happiness, and too many people simply don’t have it or believe they are worthy or capable of it.

One year ago, I was living in Auckland NZ. 32 years old. Miserable in my job. Miserable in myself. Miserable in New Zealand.

I felt I’d exhausted all my options for finding happiness: Back home in England, I’d done everything I was supposed to - got the all the right qualifications, bought a house, had a ‘good’ job, and yet at that time I was deeply, fundamentally, soul-crushingly unhappy. I was drinking a lot. And I mean - A LOT. I was smoking. I was fat. I was up to my eyeballs in debt. I had a catalogue of atrocious relationships trailing behind me. I’d been on and off a series of anti-depressants. I’d even spent a short time in a psychiatric institution. Nothing made any difference.

I reached the stage where I had to sell my flat to pay off all my debts, and decided to take what was left over and travel the world This was in 2003, and was initially intended to be a 3 month sabbatical: I haven’t returned since (except for funerals.)

Travelling was a fantastic, happy, challenging and fulfilling time for me but eventually the money and the visas ran out and it was decision time again. I’d absolutely adored my time in Australia at the end of my round the world journey, but couldn’t see a way to stay, and the only other country with a working visa option available to me was New Zealand. So there I went, thinking - new start! Happiness awaits! No one knows me! I can start afresh! Of course it doesn’t work that way - you see, the trouble with travelling to escape yourself and your woes is, everywhere you go - YOU’RE there! I landed in Auckland more lost and confused than ever, shortly after this I turned 30, and felt completely hopeless. How come I hadn’t figured out my life yet?! How come everyone else was so settled?! What’s WRONG with me?!

I thought I’d reached rock bottom in the UK - I was wrong. I got myself into circumstances in NZ that make me feel ill just sitting here writing about them. I’m lucky to be alive - lucky not to have been seriously hurt. I guess sometimes you really have to hit crisis point in order to gain clarity. Even though on the surface everything should have been fine in my NZ life: good job, good friends, good home, beautiful country - the demons within were hard at work. Chronically low self-esteem. Depression. Anxiety. Alcohol abuse. Binge eating. Dangerous relationships. I knew I’d been here before, and that something had to change.

I tried more counselling, I visited naturopaths, I tried to open up to friends, I went to meetings for alcoholics. Nothing changed.

And then my mother tragically and horrifically died from the damage she’d wrought on her body through decades of alcohol abuse and I knew without doubt that the same thing was going to happen to me if I didn’t learn from her life, and her death.

It was during a trip back to the UK (actually not for a funeral that time, for a wedding) that I had a moment of crystal clarity. I honestly can’t tell you where it came from or why, but I can describe exactly where I was and what I was doing! I was on a treadmill in Camden Town, London, staying with an old schoolfriend. I’d come via the States where I’d managed to put on an astonishing 5kgs in 3 weeks and was in the local Fitness First attempting to burn some of it off. It was on the treadmill where I suddenly knew without any doubt that I was going to move back to Australia and become a Personal Trainer and Life Coach. I announced this to several friends and family members over the coming days. They avoided eye contact and changed the subject. There’s simply no way Victoria Judge, fat, alcoholic, dysfunctional f*ck up could ever achieve such a turnaround.

Well, now I work at Fitness First as a Personal Trainer here on the spectacular Central Coast of Australia and also run my own business - Project Life - as a Life Coach.

Today I launch this site with great pride, knowing deep in my heart and my soul that the following are true:

- all people are fundamentally good and are doing the best that they can
- all people deserve happiness and love
- the knowledge and the power lies within each and every one of us to live our ideal lives
- those of us who are feeling lost and alone need to know that there is hope and help to guide you onto your right track
- there is no true fulfilment except through contribution to others
- there is no failure, only feedback
- anything is possible through the power of thoughts and beliefs

And if you are sitting reading this thinking ’she’s different, I couldn’t do that’ - no she isn’t, and yes you can. It’s simply that once you make a decision and commit to it, heart and soul, the universe conspires to help you get there.

I chose Personal Training because I have learned that you need a healthy body in order to have a truly healthy mind. I chose Life Coaching because I have learned that emotional happiness, health and fulfilment don’t come from giving yourself a label of illness, or having someone agree with you that you have a problem then talking about it for $hundreds an hour. They come from accepting yourself for who you are, shifting your focus, letting go of the past, and empowering yourself with the option of CHOICE when it comes to everything you feel and everything you do.

“Go confidentally in the direction of your dreams - live the life you have imagined.”

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About Victoria Judge:

Originally from the UK, Victoria Judge is a qualified Life Coach, NLP Practitioner and Personal Trainer living on the Central Coast of NSW. After travelling the world for several years she settled in Australia and enrolled in a Diploma of Life Coaching, NLP Practitioner Certification, and a Certificate IV in Fitness, and with great pride launched her company: Project Life.

For more information on Victoria, please see the About Project Life page on this website. You can also follow @ProjectLifeAus on Twitter or subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.