Must I?

What jobs have you had?

My career was spent on a memory lane I don’t want to revisit.

It was forced on me, and it was completely wrong for me. Eventually I went to university and got two degrees, only to discover what many students learn – you will struggle to get a job after university unless your degree is vocational.

My main passion was writing and I could definitely have had a good career doing that, except that life circumstances and acute anxiety derailed me.

However, considering I’ve reached a place where I am able to help others live a happier life, and I reached that place because of all those issues and failures, I’m very happy that I didn’t have a major career.

If you read my blogs you will know that people are incredibly important to me, and being able to help them is a magic I never expected to experience.

My conclusions

I needed to not have a great career because it’s part of my life lesson. My husband is a top executive, he was working 60 hour’s a week sometimes, without one penny of overtime. 37 1/2 hours a week or as needed.

When I calculated his hourly rate once based on the actual hours he worked, the day he did a 24 hour stint, I was earning £11,000, he was earning £36,000, and I was on £5 an hour more.

I’m not asking for sympathy, we’ve been blessed due to his hard work, but I’ve seen things from both sides: low paid and unappreciated, high paid and pressured beyond belief.

These are my thoughts

A job is not a life. It’s one part of your life. Most of us are just used to drive the economy, with no thought as to whether we can have a decent life after ‘giving’ a company or organisation 37 1/2 hours of our life every single week, bar 4 or 5 weeks holiday if we can afford one. For 51 years at the moment in the UK.

We are stuck in school aged 5 and are allowed no real time to call our own for 62 years!

Governments regularly mess up and the first words we hear are “consumer led recovery”. Well the UK has fallen flat on its face with that one as we can’t afford to sort out their messes anymore.

All costs have risen faster than my husband’s earnings over the last 34 years, his wages went up by 3, costs have risen by more than 5 times.

Have you ever noticed that when a crisis pushes costs up they never come down again? Except as ‘special offers’. Just a thought that illustrates the game we’re all stuck in.

We are at the whim of the top few in power. They’re in the hands of the Board most often. My husband was made redundant in February without warning, I’m retired. They flatlined our income in one fell swoop. We’re luckier than most though and grateful for it.

Again I am not complaining. What I’m saying is that no matter what level you work at the pressures are the same. The risks are the same.

Work becomes survival.

Yet life isn’t about birth, school, work, die, with a few holidays in between. It’s your entire existence on Earth.

Apart from trying to save money, pay down your mortgage fast, don’t keep getting bigger houses unless you have to, and so on, in other words keep a sensible eye on the finances. There is one thing you can do so that you life doesn’t follow the birth – work – die, pattern.

Make the absolute most of your down time. Find as much that you can enjoy as possible. Housework or time with friends, family, the kids? No contest. Fancy car or a holiday? No contest.

Put living first. See those concerts. Picnic in the park with family and friends. Roll on the grass with the kids. Play footie, or catch. Tell each other jokes. Laugh until your sides hurt.

It may feel that work owns you, but you dictate the journey of your life, don’t follow the crowd, follow your heart.

You may be a creative person, that hobby could lead to some extra earnings, could lead to giving up work.

It’s your life, don’t be afraid to dream! That’s the way to take back control.

Work? If it didn’t pay the bills, and often now it doesn’t, who would care?

Those following their hearts and doing what they love, that’s who. I would hate to give up my beautiful work/not work now. In fact I’d like to do more.

You know where I am if you want a simple but magical way to feel better. I don’t charge the earth either. Anyone can work with me. Told you, people first.

Best love

Deb xx

P.S. I’m 67 and I got to the point of being happy with what I’m doing 4 1/2 years ago. It’s never too late. Don’t give up (on yourself).