Sometimes you know a chapter is ending before you know what to do about it.
I’m Sophia. I’m interested in that bit.
About SophiaWorld
My journey
Everything I know about making a change, I learned by doing it. Including the bits that went sideways.
I came back to the UK from the Netherlands during the credit crisis, broke and out of work. There were barely any jobs around, so I had to work out what came next.
I’d fallen into accounting after deciding not to pursue law, and built a career in it. I was good at it, but I always knew it wasn’t the life I wanted.
While I was out of work, I helped a friend run a business and retrained as a teacher. By the time I was close to qualifying, accounting had picked up again, so I went back to it.
When my teaching qualification came through, I applied for a part-time role as a Visiting Law Lecturer and got it. My students did well, I loved teaching, and for the first time I could really see the difference my work was making to someone else.
I went on to build my own private tuition business, with other tutors working with me.
Later came years of systems training, teaching corporate teams and designing the training that went with new technology. I worked in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, and remotely with teams in North America and Singapore.
Work wasn’t the only thing I was experimenting with. I started writing more. I spent months travelling around the USA, three months living and working remotely in Tenerife, and time on La Gomera.
I climbed my first mountain. I went paragliding.
Some things went exactly as I hoped. Others didn’t.
Writing
For years, I held back from writing after a writing mentor made me doubt whether I was any good.
It’s remarkable how long one person’s opinion can stay in your head.
Eventually, I stopped treating that judgement as fact and started writing anyway.
Since then, my work has appeared in HuffPost, Carefree Magazine and Thrive Global. Today I write two Substack publications, Next Chapter Experiments and The Naked Series.
I coined the phrase Age of Honesty in 2016 and first wrote about it for HuffPost. It describes something I keep coming back to: being honest about who you are, what matters to you, and what no longer fits.
Writing is still where I make sense of things. Sometimes that becomes an essay. Sometimes a question I can’t quite leave alone.
That’s how No One To Go With?, came about. It’s a guide and workbook for anyone who wants to try new experiences and do more of what they want, even when they haven’t got someone to go with.
Speaking up
I once wrote to a manager and told him:
“I am a wasted talent here.”
It wasn’t something I’d normally have put in writing. But I sent it, and it led to a promotion.
It taught me something about what can happen when you stop quietly accepting a situation that no longer fits.
Later, through mentoring and coaching, I heard versions of that same feeling from other people.
They wanted to speak up. Make a change. Do something differently. Feel able to stand tall in their own lives, not just at work.
That became the work. Sitting with someone else’s version of it and helping them decide what to do.
Credit: Liz McAulay/Prima Magazine
Where S.I.P. came from
For years I was a people pleaser. Somewhere in it, I lost sight of what actually made me happy.
I was walking through a supermarket when I spotted a V.I.P. banner and had one of those little lightbulb moments. Why are we so comfortable talking about the importance of other people, but so reluctant to acknowledge our own?
That became Single Important Person®.
You matter, no matter your circumstances.
Being out of work doesn’t mean your whole life has to go on hold. Being short of money doesn’t make you any less deserving of love. Being single, with no partner or dependants, doesn’t mean you should be waiting for life to begin.
You still get to live it.
Years later, I was in Tenerife, burnt out and working long hours on a well-paid contract. I was getting up early, finishing late and barely enjoying the island I was living on.
One day, a successful entrepreneur said to me, “You’re working harder than I am. How can that be?”
While I was there, I also climbed my first mountain. It was hard, but getting to the top gave me the courage to make a decision I’d been struggling with.
I left the contract.
I chose me.
And stayed in Tenerife for three months.
S.I.P. isn’t about putting yourself above everybody else. It’s about remembering not to leave yourself out.
It became the idea behind Be Happy, and it still sits underneath much of what I do today.
“Love yourself, no matter which chapter you’re in.”
Sophia Husbands
In the media
I’ve been interviewed across television, radio, magazines and national press about solo travel, career change, remote working and starting again.
My appearances have included ITV News, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Stylist, Metro, Euronews and UK Health Radio.
Building Your Next Chapter
I’m building Your Next Chapter in the open, and I write about what happens as I go, including the bits I’d leave out if I were trying to make it all look effortless.
Sometimes reading about somebody else’s experience is enough to get you moving.
Sometimes you want another person to look at your situation with you and help you see what comes next.
Not ready to book? You can read Next Chapter Experiments on Substack.
