So you think you're ready for a change. Maybe even a big change, but you're not sure how to go about doing it. If that's your situation, you might think of following the example of Liz Potashnyk.

Five years ago, the former resident of Grimsby, Ontario, who's featured in a high-profile article in the April 2011 edition of Canadian Living Magazine, gave up a high-paying job of 18 years with the Ford Motor Company in southern Ontario and moved clear across the country to a town she'd never heard of before to get her hands dirty starting a business of her own.

And today she couldn't be happier.

The town, of course, is Cranbrook, where after trying a few jobs over the years, including working in a big box store, Potashnyk started her own business, Country Girl Landscapes and Designs (919-4868) and is now so busy she's hiring people herself and looking forward to the day when she no longer has to get her own hands dirty.

Potashnyk admits when her then-boyfriend Marc, a CPR carman from Maple Ridge, told her he had a chance at a job in Cranbrook, she had to turn to an atlas. "I said where the heck is Cranbrook, but I looked it up and I thought we could do that. We could afford to get a little house and a little land there."

The pair, who had been carrying on a long-distance romance for several years, settled on a double-wide and three acres on Wilks Kahn Road off King Street and it wasn't long before Potashnyk began settling into her new way of life away from the grease monkeys of Ford and the humid heat of southern Ontario. She joined the Cranbrook Garden Club and within six months she was president, but the funny thing was she had never really gardened before.

"When I was growing up in Ontario, there were four kids in the family to take care of and we had a small vegetable garden, and like any other kid, I hated to work in the garden." Grandpa Mel was the gardener in the family, but Potashnyk does admit loving daisies when she was young and being of Ukrainian extraction gardening tends to run in the blood.

Potashnyk later became active with the Kinnette Club in town through the wife of her husband's best friend, who was a Kinsmen, and once again it wasn't long before she was playing an active role, editing the club's newsletter.. "I loved being a Kinnette. I jumped in with both feet really fast. I hardly knew anybody in town and this was a great way to meet people."

And it wasn't long through the Kinnettes that Potashnyk got another chance to make a major contribution to the community. Long-time Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Karin Penner says in 2008 she was looking for an individual or organization to spruce up a lovely outdoor patio area at the Dr. F.W. Green Home that had seen better days. Penner thought it would be a great project for the Sam Steele Sweethearts with a little assistance from someone who knew something about landscaping and gardening to work on an area that included a lawn, flowers, shrubs and a gazebo.

So Penner contacted Heather Smith of the Kinnettes who recommended Potashnyk, who in turn rolled up her sleeves and with the help of several Sweetheart candidates completely redid the previously neglected area, providing a relaxing oasis for Green Home residents, including Penner's late husband Reuben who passed his final days at the southside facility.

"She (Potashnyk) certainly has a special place in my heart. It was just a wonderful way to help Green Home residents to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the flowers, especially Reuben because he loved the outdoors."

Penner says Cranbrook benefits from having people like Potashynk move here and bring new ideas and new energy to the community. "She never stops smiling and she's happy to do new things, but most of all she's willing to embrace change, not only change for herself, but change for the community. She just jumps in and helps."

Potashynk admits she's essentially an optimist at heart, but also a bit of a rebel. She says a friend once told her, "if you see a door with your name on it, don't go through it. Try the other door. That's how you find new experiences. You may not know where you're going to end up, but you've got to make a start."

Throughout her life, Potashnyk says she's had many teachers and she learned a little from all of them, including the Canadian Auto Workers which sent her to the union's Port Elgin Education Centre in Ontario to learn advocacy skills. Even though she dropped out of high school before graduating, she went back many years later and got her diploma as well as learning horticulture skills at junior college.

She later put her education and business skills to good use through her company that has developed a high profile list of clients, including the Tamarack Mall, Kootenay Landscape, Colbrook Properties and others. "The whole point of going back to school was to find something I wanted to do. I love gardening and I wanted to be an interior designer when I was a kid so now I'm doing a bit of both."

And leaving Ontario for Cranbrook was the right move too, she says. "Cranbrook is definitely a gardening city. I think the people here are interested in having a wonderful looking city and the City contributes a lot to it too."

But a willingness to change is key to getting on in life, she says. "I went from living in Ontario and working for Ford to moving clear across the country and starting a business of my own. You've got to be willing to change to do that."