(Updated June 2024)
FSince the end of 2014, I have lived my life working, life coaching, volunteering, travelling, writing, house and pet sitting… and doing many other things!
I have loved the freedom and the adventure of living my life in new ways – ways where I have needed to move to, and experience, much higher levels of trust, guidance, and resilience in my life.
As I move towards 2025, I am still enjoying the freedom in living in ways that continue to provide more choice and options in my life.
Apart from being a professional house sitter, I am also a Life Coach, former long term public servant with the Tasmanian government, passionate fisherman, writer, blogger, author, minimalist, and a handy gardener as well – amongst many other interests in my life.
I have a growth mindset approach to life – I am always living, learning and growing. I love living a life where my results and rewards are commensurate with my effort and my work and play rate.
In short, the quality of my life is determined by me. There is personal power and there is responsibility and accountability in that.
Background:
At the end of 2014 I decided to leave a wonderful workplace and career in the Tasmanian Government in the Department of Treasury and Finance. After more than 10 years working in the Liquor and Gaming Branch in both the Operations and the Compliance teams, I decided that I needed to change up a few things in my life (one of the catalysts for that decision being a bowel operation in 2014 – reminding me that I wasn’t quite as bullet proof as I thought I was…) as I approached the age of fifty.
It was much more than that though, as I genuinely wanted to break new ground, and experience new ways of being in, and seeing the world. For me, life has always been much, much more than 9 to 5 and the expectations and assumptions that go with it. Living and being on the hamster wheel was not ticking boxes for me. It was blatantly clear to me that life was getting harder and faster in a broken global system with increasing debt and higher levels of inflation and taxation and a dollar that was losing purchasing power.
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a love of freedom in life and the 9 to 5 routine never ever seemed to make a lot of sense to me… almost from day one I might add.
Conventional living, as wonderful and comfortable as it is, can be stifling and repetitive at times. The need for safety and security, although important, can paralyse us from taking risks or truly living our lives. And living means taking risks… as I continue to find out.
Despite the fact that I would be experiencing different ways of living without the security or the certainty that goes with it, I knew that this change was much more aligned to my values and aspirations, and a wonderful way to further develop my spirituality, life coaching, my writing, and the quality of my life going forward.
For someone as relatively free spirited, and as free thinking as I am, I simply needed to experience more and test myself in new ways. Prior to this change, I was comfortable but restless. The simple fact was that following the well worn path of a career, was not ticking all the boxes for me, at least at that point in my life.
In short, I wanted to further develop my resilience, intuition, and instinct. I wanted to create new pathways of living and experiencing the world – spoken perhaps like a true coach! But then by my own admission, I don’t like to define myself too much with any label/s too tightly – labels change… and so do I.
[To put the above (and me) into a little more context perhaps, I value IQ, I really value EQ – and then there is SQ. For me SQ is the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is what drives me on a deeper level. That said, I don’t like any intelligence measure/s or numbers associated to people – they are limiting.]
Throughout the following year (2015) I decided to travel throughout the UK doing Workaway (similar to Woofing – see my ‘Travel Testimonials’ on the Testimonials drop down menu to read about it) in Ireland, Wales and throughout England.
I was also fortunate enough to spend several months in the beautiful Isles of Scilly during this time doing both Workaway and working on what was the other side of the bar (my previous role in Treasury had been working for 10 years as a Liquor and Gaming Compliance Inspector where I audited licensees and directed proceedings in front of the bar). An interesting, contrasting, and valuable experience.
I returned to Tasmania for Christmas 2015 with an open mind to what was next for me. My intent and vision to keep creating new ways of living and to continue trusting in life….without floaties so to speak, meant that I needed to keep open to opportunities – and to create them.
In simple terms, I continued living my free range lifestyle fully self funded and independent of, and from, structured secure day to day employment, and the safety net. I then created my house sitting business, and further developed my life coaching business.
One of my mantras in life is to keep open to possibilities….and never say never. Life changes – and so do I. It is reassuring and life affirming, to have a number of gears and approaches to work from.
Life certainly has changed dramatically for me since making the decision to transition to new ways of living. I have learned, given, and received so much during this journey – experiencing new levels of resourcefulness, flexibility and adaptability in my life.
At the end of 2017 after 3 years of living life without a car, I finally decided it was time to buy another one.
Shorts and a T shirt are my preferred dress code whenever possible these days… and always have been.
Most of my wardrobe now fits into a backpack, and the home base is now wherever I happen to find myself. It is probably fair to say I live a very carbon footprint friendly lifestyle!
During the last 9 years, I have slept in more beds and places (I stopped counting past 50…), lived with dozens of people, eaten all manner of foods, and shared all kinds of stories and ways of living. The old fundamental routines of conventional living were literally thrown out the window as change became the constant. Its been refreshing and at times challenging. The result, as I had hoped, is a greater level of appreciation, gratitude and acceptance for what life provides and reveals.
I’ve slept in caravans, in tents, on ferries, on beaches, buses and trains, in cars, couches, sheds, on floors, a park bench in a Churchyard in Penzance, and even in a yurt on the Isles of Scilly! I have also been fortunate enough to stay in some very beautiful and luxurious places and surroundings – the contrast of my life during this time has been significant! I’ve also met some very interesting people along the journey.
Importantly, this experience has helped me generate more ideas, experience new ways of living, and it has opened up new possibilities for me in creating a lifestyle.
House sitting and pet sitting, for now at least, fits into this new way of living – hence the moves into it, and in developing this way of life and living. House sitting and pet sitting has enabled me to continue to live this way.
A little more about me:
I am also the creator and cocreator of a number of self development and coaching programs.
I have also written and narrated my Instinctive Living self help series of ebooks and audio books that are available on Amazon and Audible.
As mentioned earlier, I am a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) and an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF). My earlier studies involved attaining an Associate Diploma of Social Science in Community Services (Welfare Studies). More importantly, I have spent thousands of hours further developing myself and my learnings that align to my self improvement mindset. (for the record I value self directed learning and study multiples above structured education).
I also spent a year in Fremantle Western Australia studying Fishing Operations and Aquaculture – another time in my life where I followed my passions and curiosity. You can also add dozens of the usual (and unusual) self development and professional development courses many of us seem to accumulate throughout our lives.
A philosophy of mine is to keep adding value and to constantly improve service delivery wherever I find myself. The ultimate aim and intention being to facilitate a process where individuals empower themselves to take action that serves their businesses and the community. This fits not only with the way I work generally in a conventional working sense, it also strongly represents my life coaching philosophy.
I keep fit and healthy with regular gym workouts. I regularly fast/intermittent fast, and meditation is an important part of my life. Cycling and walking are also a big part of my lifestyle. Health and fitness is important to me. I live and advocate developing and creating a lifestyle, and a work life balance, that is aligned to personal values – living a life that works for and with you in other words.
My life long passion is fishing. I love to spend time in and around coastal and natural environments. I can often be found fishing a coastline or wandering and exploring a beach… in between looking for birds and animals… and fish of course!
I love gardening, writing, blogging, creating and learning…in fact I love a lot about life.
I live the life and the values I advocate and write about. Initially selling up and giving away a lot of my possessions, grabbing a backpack, and living life on the road, certainly has been a very valuable experience.
For now, this way of living is the life I choose. Next week… who knows?
I am always open to opportunity. Many of us fail to understand or recognise that with effort and intention, we can consciously and deliberately change our lives – if we choose to. I chose to. I choose to.
*If you would like to learn more about what I do, and how I can help you, and your business, please reach out.
*Craig Hedge is a Professional house sitter and pet sitter based in Hobart (nipaluna), Tasmania, Australia.
https://www.craigshousesitting.com
He is also a Professional Life Coach and author of the Instinctive Living self help ebook and audiobook series available on Amazon and Audible.