Graphic designer Alistair Lawson may soon be jetting off to a remote Fijian island – but the dad-of-two says there won't be much time to sun himself in paradise.
Mr Lawson, a former Carlton le Willows Academy pupil, has applied to become one of six lucky entrepreneurs to be whisked to the other side of the world as part of the ThisIsYourLifeChange.com project.
The chance of a lifetime is the brainchild of life coach Mark Bowness, who has offered the half dozen winners an all-expenses-paid trip to the paradise island of Vorovoro for an intensive boot camp with coaching to help them turn their dreams into reality.
Mr Lawson, 34, originally from Gedling, is working on setting up his company, SmackingFish.com, a community platform for sharing inspirational and motivational ideas and visions.
He said: "I was on holiday in Colombia for my brother-in-law's wedding, and we were in the sea talking about what our dreams and ambitions were if money and time were no object.
"Just as we were talking about it little fish started swimming around us and we kept trying to catch them and so the name 'Smacking Fish' was born.
"When we got back to England Smacking Fish became a project between family a friends, where we would encourage each other to fulfil our dreams but now I want to turn it into a business and this seems the ideal opportunity."
More than 1,000 people have so far applied for the dream retreat to the 200-acre island. which will last from March 23 to April 6. Winners will be encouraged to immerse themselves in traditional Fijian culture and dedicate themselves to making their dream businesses a reality.
Mr Lawson said: "As much as this is an amazing opportunity for me – when I first heard about it my heart started thumping – it will be really hard to leave my wife and kids behind but the wonders of modern technology mean at least I can chat to them from the island."
Mr Lawson, who now lives in Leeds, has launched a Facebook campaign asking people share their goals for 2015.
He said: "A lot of so-called life coaching ends up killing people's dreams because it just puts more pressure on them. I want to keep people's dreams alive."
Alistair's mum Tet Maertens, who still lives in Gedling, said: "Alistair has always been ambitious and always reached for the top – I am incredibly proud of him."
Mr Bowness said: "You could be a teenage mum in New York, a corporate lawyer in London or an unemployed graduate in Melbourne. You could literally be anyone, from anywhere in the world.
"Whoever you are and wherever you are from you will all have one thing in common – a deep down belief that the life that you are living now is a life that is standing in the shadows of the one that you know that you were created to live and an undeterred passion to make that change."
