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The last day of my 100 week odyssey was on 4th July 2010, and the day before I completed my 93rd goal, which was to set up a support forum website which I called "The Blindsided Network". 
Here's the introduction I wrote to the forum, which can be visite by clicking on the image above, or following this link:- www.BlindsidedNetwork.com It was a Wednesday night in November 2005 when life as I knew it unravelled for me. I had married five years earlier, in November 2000, in England, and a year later had moved with my wife to Australia to begin a new life. Things had gone well for us. We built up a great group of friends. we had purchased a block of land, and had built our first house there. It was a fantastic place, much bigger and better than anything we could have hoped to afford back in the UK. We had already bought a second block of land, part of a longer term plan to build some financial security. We both had good jobs. For me, life was fantastic, and I could see a happy future laid out ahead of me. But that November a few tiny things had caused me to ask myself a couple of questions about my wife, and I had a vague uneasiness about how things were between us. I couldn't really put my finger on anything specific, but as days went by, I became more and more certain something was amiss. I trusted my instincts, and late one Wednesday night I could wait no longer. I think had read the same paragraph in the book in front of me several times, my mind not taking the words in, and eventually put the book down and asked the questions I needed to ask. I really hoped, almost believed that I was wrong, and that my suspicions were unfounded. But the answers to my questions stunned me. My wife was seeing someone else, and thought that she no longer loved me. She thought she had been falling out of love with me for a couple of years, but had said nothing. And I, like a fool, had had absolutely no idea! The first few months were terrible, as we tried to figure out what we were going to do. I really have no idea how I got through that time, and when I look back on it, it is somehow dimmed and darkened in my mind, the way physical pain is half forgotten after it is over. In January 2006 I moved out, and we put the house up for sale, eventually managing to divide the proceeds reasonably amicably. I ended up with the new block of land that we owned as a part of the division of assets. For six months I just drifted through life, lost and lonely. I handed in my notice at work, no longer wanting to live a half-hearted version of the life I had had before. I just wanted a big change. In July I moved away from Perth, out to the mining town of Kalgoorlie, where I began a completely new sort of life, working as a truck driver in a huge, open-cut gold mine. I had many new friends, but there was still a huge hole in my life where my wife had been. Six months later the new house in Perth was complete, and I moved back to the city, and into the house i had always expected to share with my wife. I hated it. I got another driving job in a mine, working on a fly-in fly-out basis, which would mean I would be away in the desert for two weeks out of three, which suited me fine. Over the course of 2007 I settled into the house a bit more, and started to live life a little bit more. But there was still a restless uneasiness about me, and still a dulled sadness in my life. Two years after separating from my wife, I had still not fully come to terms with the loss, I don't think, and after living in the new house for a year, I decided it was time to sell it. Again I felt the need for a change, to try to further distance myself from the events of the recent past. I decided that I would sell everything, the house, the furniture, and everything else that seemed to me to be permanent reminders of the past I had lost. And I came up with, what I thought was a brilliant plan. I would sell everything as one big package. Everything! House, contents, clothes, car, motorbike, jet ski. If I added in a job and an introductin to my friends, I could sell my whole lifestyle! I could sell my life! My "ALife4Sale" website was launched on 14th March 2008, and the publicity was huge! I appeared on TV in Australia, then in the UK, USA, and Asia. I was interviewed by radio stations and newspapers all over the world. In the "Why?" section of the website, where I gave some background details on the reasons for my somewhat unconventional decision, I used the phrase "blindsided by life". At the time I had in mind the lyrics of a song by Baz Luhrmann, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)". About one minute into the song, the lyrics suggest:- as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. You can listen to the song, and see the original video by clicking on the play button in the window below:- I received emails from thousands of people all over the world. Most were encouraging and supportive, a few were negative. I received alot of messages from other people who had also been "blindsided" by life. Not just through separation or divorce, some through bereavement, some through diagnosis of severe illness, some through sudden accident resulting in tragic loss. As part of the website I included a forum, where people could come and interact, and one forum visitor suggested that "we should form a blindsided network for people like us." I loved the phrase, and registered the website address www.BlindsidedNetwork.com, not really sure why I did so. During the run up to the auction, which was scheduled to begin on 22nd June 2008, I was asked many times in interviews what I would like to do afterwards. I wasn't really sure, but I knew I wanted to do some travelling, to leave my old life behind completely. Prompted by these questions, and another comment from a forum visitor, I dug out an old list of goals I had written years before. I hadn't ticked many of them off. That's what I wanted to do - go and achieve some of the things I had always wanted to to. And that seed of an idea eventually grew into a list of 100 goals, and a self-imposed target-time of 100 weeks. And one of the goals added to the list was to set up a "Blindsided Network" support forum, as a sort of "thank you" to all the wonderful people who offered support and encouragement to me, and shared their "blindsided" stories with me too. And so here it is, the achievement of Goal Number 93, the Blindsided Network Support Forum, completed and ready for use on 3rd July 2010, just over two years after I took that crazy step which has changed my life beyond anything I ever imagined. For further details on my 100 goals adventures, take a look at www.100goals100weeks.com. Life certainly has surprised me with the direction that it has taken me in, or maybe I should say that I have surprised myself with the direction I have chosen to go? Goal Number 100 is to secure a book deal about the whole adventure, and I hope to have this in print before the end of 2010. Watch this space for more details.... Ian Usher Reviews for "A LIFE SOLD" :-
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_________________________
The book:-
is now on sale at
Amazon sites worldwide
and at other online retailers.
Links here
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