Bugger it all.....

Work...... always there, never ending, sometimes a saviour, sometimes a right drag!

After starting my working life I never really looked back at sport. Which is a shame for all sorts of reasons but most importantly because I enjoyed it so much. I think in the end I did about 3 rides after joining the Air Force and little else from there despite the annual fitness test which for a crappy little 3.2km run rapidly became the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest. After leaving the Air Force and entering civilian life it became even more of an afterthought.

Life became about work, money, expenses and eventually children........ Don't get me wrong, I love working and adore my boys but sometimes you can lose sight of your own needs amongst the supposed "must's" of adult life. I managed a few little excursions and one corporate triathlon (where I almost drowned, gathered myself together on the bike and subsequently felt like I was going to have a heart attack during the run). Oh and as my lovely supportive wife has just reminded me there was an infamous trip to the mountain bike park at Woodhill that resulted in a fractured elbow and almost permanent retirement for the mountain bike after being used precisely ONCE.

I don't for a minute regret any life decisions I have made, they are part of me and who I have become. However as with everyone I can never help those little twinges of what might have been..... after all hindsight is a bugger of a thing and it kinda sneaks up on you.

So without listing all the trials and tribulations of my working career it is probably easiest to say that after quite a few years, promotions, new companies, longer work hours, moving houses, getting married, having kids and letting life rule me I finally managed to say bugger it all.....

It wasn't something I did lightly but having started a new job again it finally dawned on me (yes I'm a slow learner) that there was more to life than this, life isn't meant to rule you and it was high time I did something that I enjoyed again to relieve a bit of the pressure.

In the end it became quite a bit of a mindset change. I still work long hours, especially at business planning time and when projects are on but I don't feel 100% beholden to work anymore, if I decide to finish early as I've done my hours for the day then I do and no longer feel guilty about it. In turn this let's me focus on the important things, like having fun, spending time with the family, having spur of the moment adventures and getting some me time to unwind while (I hope as to be honest it's extremely unlikely) being a good role model to my boys.

And after this epiphany you say? What happened next???????