Do What Makes
You Happy,
While You Still Can

Enough Is Enough

As I have been networking over the last couple of months to raise my profile and start to build a network of local business people, I’ve met so many people who are unhappy in a corporate role. Like really unhappy.

I wrote an article back in January about why I left a perfectly good job to go self-employed, and since then, I’ve been coming across more people who felt similar to me and have either made the move or are thinking about making the move.

Although the last 9-10 weeks have been extremely busy making the change, having to source work on the consultancy side, and launching and starting to grow the karate dojo. I’ve had time to reflect and think about why so many others I’m coming into contact with feel a similar way.

I’m no employment expert, but I know that something seems to be different, something seems to be shifting thinking. I keep coming back to purpose and self-determination. I also keep coming back to the phrase “enough is enough”

The Reality Of Work

Different people have different priorities, and that’s the way it should be. We shouldn’t all be the same; that’s the beauty of human beings. But are more people being pushed or cajoled into a working pattern that is eating away at their time, and ultimately their happiness?

That time could be spent with family, with friends, building memories, building something for the future. That time could be spent really switching off and enjoying the simplicities of nature, five minutes of peace and quiet.

The reality is that for most people, the mind never switches off from work. The temptation (or requirement) to log on in the evening or at the weekend.

The call that has come in at 7 in the evening and the job requires you to answer it, even though you were really looking forward to bedtime reading to your youngster.

The quick favour asked by either a colleague or client at 10 pm that you feel emotionally compelled to do, even though it will cause another argument at home about how much you work?

As you get older, you realise that time is a valuable resource that you can’t get back. You can’t bank it, you can’t rewind it; once it has passed, it has passed.

I can remember times as a single parent where my child would genuinely be upset that I couldn’t be there to collect him from school, and he would have to go to wrap-around care. I did what I did to pay the bills and provide a level of life that I wanted to provide.

Time Is Fleeting

However, it always hurts to know that I could have been spending time with him while he was young. Growing in confidence, being curious about the world around him, and having the random conversations that often occur as they get older.

I couldn’t fully explain it to him at the time, although I had a damn good go. The reality was that he didn’t care about the reasons, the excuses. All he wanted was time with me.

It didn’t work so badly in the end, but it burned me out. It was a contributing factor to my breakdown.

If you’ve not read it, you should read The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware (or watch it on YouTube). It is a sobering and awakening read. Time is fleeting, and life comes at you fast.

It is a salient reminder of what is really important.

As time goes by and life gets more expensive, more complicated, does the compensation package – the whole package – really make you happy? Is it worth the emotional pain it is causing you?