01
PowerReclaiming authority
The Witch
Shadow: the Crazy Woman
Cycle: explosion
Author · Host · Speaker
Stop asking.
Stop asking.
Start choosing.
I'm Julia, a geologist who spent twenty years reading what's buried in rock, then turned that same curiosity on myself. My book, A Life Chosen, is for anyone who is done waiting for permission to be more.
A Life Chosen
Out October 29, 2026
P.Geo.Professional Geologist
M.Sc.Master of Science
MBAHaskayne School of Business
Trained to read what lies beneath
Julia has spent her career studying what sits beneath the surface: mapping, pressure, and what time does to buried things. Then she turned that same training on herself.
Meet Julia
Inside the book
A book with an architecture
A Life Chosen is a book about agency: a woman moving from a life run by conditioning, expectation, fear and other people's permission toward one she chooses on purpose.
4
Catalysts
Power, Courage, Bold and Grace, unlocking the Potential within.
4
Archetypes
Each with a light side and a shadow side.
1
Question
What are you waiting for permission to choose?
Meet the author
Investigating what lies beneath the life we've built
Julia McElgunn, P.Geo., M.Sc., MBA, is an author with a passion for people and for helping them see the best in life while stepping into their own sense of self with confidence.
She writes from lived experience, professional achievement, emotional honesty and spirituality, with a geologist's instinct to look beneath the surface.
What if we examined ourselves with the same curiosity we bring to the world around us?
Julia McElgunn
Author of A Life Chosen
University of CalgaryGeology
Haskayne School of BusinessMBA
Joan of Arc PublishingPublisher
Choose Life BoldlyPodcast
The framework
Four catalysts. One bedrock.
Four catalysts, laid down layer by layer. Each has a light side and a shadow side, and together they unlock your Potential.
02
CourageMoving through discomfort
The Warrior
Shadow: the Fighter
Cycle: armour
03
BoldVisible action
The Femme Fatale
Shadow: the Withdrawer
Cycle: implosion
04
GraceCompassion that sustains
The Nurturer
Shadow: the Sacrificer
Cycle: overgiving
The shift
From external worth to internal worth
She opens the book measuring her worth from the outside. She closes it measuring from the inside. You can see it in the questions she asks.
Where she startsWhere she ends up
Did I succeed?What do I know?
Did they approve?What do I want?
Did I make the right choice?What am I choosing?
Am I allowed to want this?What happens when I trust myself?
Speaking
Bring A Life Chosen into the room
Julia speaks with the precision of a scientist and the honesty of someone who has lived every page. Keynotes, readings, workshops and panels for women's networks, leadership teams, book clubs and conferences.
What Are You Waiting for Permission to Choose?
The signature talk. Permission from parents, bosses and culture: to rest, to be ambitious, to change your mind. And what happens when it finally comes from you.
- Women's networks
- Leadership teams
- Conferences
- Entrepreneurs
Emotional Fossils
Something happened. It was buried. Time passed. A geologist's look at the beliefs laid down long ago, and why buried never means gone.
- Wellness events
- Women's groups
- Book clubs & libraries
- Podcasts & interviews
Watch on YouTube
The podcast
Choose Life Boldly
Real conversations with people who stopped waiting and started choosing.
If you want more, and you already know you do, this is your podcast.
Julia talks with guests who chose boldly. Not loudly. Just decided.
Free resource
Which pattern is keeping you small?
Take the free Cycle Quiz and find out which pattern is running your life, so you can begin to choose differently.
- Five minutes
- Four cycles
- One clear first step
What early readers are saying
