Kait Cummins had a very full life: an important job in occupational therapy, a loving husband and two children, and five Ovens and Murray A Grade netball premierships with Yarrawonga as a player and coach.
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What she lacked was making enough time for herself, to ensure she could balance her busy life and stay happy.
Mrs Cummins was the guest speaker at the first Women in Chamber Network event for 2017, telling her life story as a way to inspire more than 80 women who attended on Thursday.
As a teenager growing up in Tungamah, she had a very painful realisation that she couldn’t wait for life to happen.
“When I was 17, my mum got diagnosed with cancer when she was 40 and 14 months later she was gone,” Mrs Cummins said.
“At 41 her life was over and her and my dad were always putting everything off until when they retired … they never got to live their lives, so for me, I was going to take opportunities as they arose.”
For many women who have a full life of family and work, they can often miss the joy of jumping to grab an opportunity like travel.
“I started to get a bit stuck because I realised my husband was a teacher, I had this great job and this might be it forever – it just didn’t sit right with me,” Mrs Cummins said.
“I wasn’t getting any sleep and I had really been putting my husband and the baby and the business in front of myself.”
Instead of staying silent while being slumped on the coach at home, she reached out to a personal development coach.
Reading books for self-improvement, exercising more, buying new clothes with a personal shopper and planning time for herself, her family and friends changed Mrs Cummins’ life for the better.
She has encouraged others to do the same as part of her Brave in Bloom business.
“If I could just have 1 per cent of the day, just 14.4 minutes of the day, to make time for myself … in that week, everything changed,” she said.
Women in Chamber leader Bronwyn Tyrell said Thursday’s event was perfectly timed for mothers whose children had just returned to school.
“It’s great to hear from people we haven’t heard before,” she said. “We’re getting such a different range of people each time.”
Next month’s Women in Chamber event will be open for bookings on Friday.
