Sometimes changing lanes can be a risk because we can never be sure where the journey will take us.
Martin Luther King, Jr once famously said life’s most urgent question is what we are doing for others. He believed that a fundamental aspect of human existence is serving something, or someone, greater than oneself and that prioritizing community and acts of service are essential for personal fulfillment, and for the betterment of society. Glancing more frequently these days in the rear view mirror of my life, has given me pause to reflect more deliberately on my personal raison d’être. To bring meaning to what has been a life of diversity and, at times, multidimensional, requires some introspection. And there was never any question that the overarching theme has consistently been one of passion with intention.
A childhood love of horses and sport, to an adulthood sculpted into phases of art and literature, summarizes the focus points that have proved to be my guiding light. As the saying goes; find something that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. In that regard I have chosen well. Each of those subjects has delivered on fulfillment and reward for both dedication and vision.
However, on reflection, those first phases have been relatively more singular and self-centered, more driven towards ambitions and personal achievements. The aperture narrow with a fixed focal length. Then, at some indeterminate point in my journey, I pivoted. The urgency to get from A to B enveloped in a perpetual motion that once seemed vital, finally relaxed its grip. So deliberately and transitional yet ruthless in its intention.
I have always regarded life as in stages; phases that transition sometimes with bells and whistles on the big occasions, other times mellifluously like merging into a party unnoticed. Just as friends and colleagues travel through our lives, each serving a purpose with no promise of forever. The chapters of our autobiography might fit in to seasons, each representing a definable phase.
The most significant transition for me happened in my thirties when I had to make the first major emotional and life-changing decision of my life. I had to stop riding. The impact on me physically and psychologically cannot be understated. It’s still to this day hard to process. Fortunately at that time I was not relying on it for my livelihood but up until that point it defined who I was. Each day of my life was shaped by what I did with horses. I didn’t know who or what I would become without them. But my body—specifically my back—could take no more of the hard knocks. My medical team had been sounding the alarm bells for some time and then finally the decision to stop riding was made for me. I collapsed on a winter’s morning onto a crisp hard frost. My body seized and all of a sudden I became a statue. I was immobilized for a long time. The pain, the tears, the wretched response that my body had was overwhelming. I wasn’t ready. I was too young. But I knew this was the moment that would change my raison d’être forever.
It’s been a few weeks since I wrote thus far. The memories and emotional trauma of that time came flooding back. It was too much in the moment. Just as it had been then. At the time I felt like I had to anesthetize myself in order to process what was happening and how it would impact me. There have been a few occasions in my life where the challenge has been like an arrow to my heart. Not life threatening but life changing. With the passage of time I always hoped that distance and resilience would further toughen the shell that protected me. I became hardened, not allowing anyone, least of all myself from revisiting those times. But I’ve reached a moment now that comes with turning the pages of our life, armed with hindsight and fortitude.
I was lucky. When destiny took over the reins to my future I was also at a crossroads in my personal life that demanded decisions which became imperative and inevitable. After a life lived up to this point in the straight lane of heterosexuality, my heart and soul took charge and I was now steering my ship to change its course forever. I left my best friend, my husband and the stability of living a married life to explore my true self. At the same time my sporting career was, to use a cricketing metaphor, knocked for six.
And with this came a moment to review my raison d’être.
While some doors closed other opportunities presented themselves. I had already begun a second career of writing and consulting. My first book had just been published and I was working on a second. Meanwhile my journalism was expanding to reporting on sports extensively. I had become a photographer too. And alongside this I was doing one other thing that motivated me; and that was to improve training and education in the horse industry, to establish better conditions for a dedicated army of professionals. And so my passion was driven to offer my experience and expertise by traveling the UK and into the EU to commit to programs that changed the course of this profession, and by chance that expertise was called on for a number of other industries. I had met a purpose and need that I could service for the betterment of others. It was enormously satisfying to improve the lives of others in a way that was never accessible to my youth.
Meanwhile my media career was taking me far and wide to cover events around the world, writing, photographing, filming and then voice work, which led to more broadcasting both radio, TV and video. And then came podcasting, which was for me a culmination of a lifetime of knowledge and expertise. It was perfect. I loved radio work more than being on camera and storytelling was my lane. Beyond reporting on sporting events I loved the back stories. And everyone has a story. This was my chance to build a network for women’s sports—all sports—as well the issues around sports that affected all women. And so the WiSP Sports Network was formed. Many thousands of episodes and several years later I decided that while sports was what I was programmed for, my interview skills, natural curiosity and dedication to elevating women’s voices, could take me outside the sport’s arena to my other passion: the arts. And so the AART podcast was born, which shares the life and career of women artists from all areas of the arts.
I have been blessed with the chance to interview hundreds of brilliant and talented women in my career so it should not come as a surprise that this podcast has become so fulfilling. It is the perfect vehicle to elevate women, to bring them out from the shadow of their easel or camera, to spotlight their careers and share their stories, to bring their names to a wider audience and further appreciation of their talent. So that when we are asked to name artists we think of women just as much as men. This podcast is steering the course for women artists from all corners of the world and making sure their names are carved in history and their stories are told, most importantly, in their voice.
The opportunity I have from this privileged position is another reason why my raison d’être has changed. The first half of my life was about me. The second half is about other. I am doing what I was meant to do in ‘serving something, or someone, greater than oneself’ and it is immensely fulfilling.
©️Chris Stafford 2026
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