Work life balance, adjusting it for the better!

The past year has been tough going with doing over 25 redundancies, splitting with the wife, court proceedings and associated costs,family business not as well and the economic future looking grim.

I started a course in Sept (Chartered Institute of Building) and was struggling with it and the course work along with all my other commitments.

I realised on 29th December at Kirroughtree (my annual 7 Stanes trip) that there is more to life than working 13 hours a day, worrying about assignments qualifying in me in an industry that is in termoil etc.I have not been on the bikes much this year and started to get out a bit over Christmas and I have realised how much I riding.

To cut a long story short I phoned my course tutor today and told him I am binning the course. He was very understanding tbh.

I feel a big sigh of relief and have a big ride planned for the weekend. All of the other problems are still there but I feel I must have some positivity and better fitness to work through the current difficult times and mtbing will give me this.

Bikes are great……… 🙂

you’re preaching to the choir, hippy-boy, preaching to the choir…

🙂

Good for you – it takes b0ll0cks to do what you did and not just carry on because it was expected.

Hats (helmets) off to you and good luck in the future!

Well I couldnt cope very well in 2003, but don’t want to go into details as a lot of things were getting me down. I sold my house and went travelling for a year. When I got back and started work again, I was in Yorkshire, not London, earning probably half what I was before, but a lot less work pressure.

So good luck with 2009 and I really hope things work out for you.

My Mrs is slowly coming round to the idea of moving to the Oz’.
She’ll have to hurry mind, cos they shut the door at 45 & I’m 41 this year.

best of luck to you JoeBones, for making an honest decision.

Thanks for your kind comments

Too many people work too hard!! I can never understand it as there is too much to enjoy in life.

Fair play for getting off the wagon – Good luck!

What a bunch of slackers.

Good for you JoeB.
I also did the divorce thing in ’08 hopefully conclude and sell house (?) for 09. Dumped my well paid but ever so unfulfilling deskjob to start a gardening business in France.
good luck with it and heres to 2009 a new start!
Rich

Cycling and indoor rowing helped me a lot during the bad patches – did something like a million metres on the rower one year.

My missus has got a saying up at her desk (think it’s from an old CEO of Pepsi or Coke) – basically life is like juggling a whole lot of balls – the work one is a rubber one – if you drop it then it’ll bounce back – the others – health, family, spirit etc are glass – drop one and it’ll be broken or chipped forever.

Good luck fella.

For anyone wondering why they are working, there’s a useful book called “The 4-hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss.

Not all of it is gold, some of it is BS, but the central theme is well worth getting your head around. There’s plenty ways to achieve what he is talking about.

BTW for life/work balance it’s hard to beat the masters – get yourself to Oz if you can. 😀

JoeB – Well done and thanks for sharing.

The guys who want to move to Oz – Why? How will living in a different country change the way you behave? Okay they have sunshine but there are downsides to life out there too. Doesn’t matter where you live, getting the balance right is inside your head, not where you sleep.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”

“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Jonb – that is best thing I have read for a long while! So many people are the american!!!

I don’t want to have fun when I retire – I want to have fun (and support my family) now!!

Long live the mexicans!!!

Life is short, better to risk it now than a head full of regret later. we as a family work bout 30hrs a week have no debt, travel to india every year. live near lush trails. were not rolling in cash but weve not got a house full of junk. the kids have what they need and a few treats along the way, they are happy souls. the trails are mine on the weekdays i dont work.i help run a charity in the other spare time. money isnt all where its at, as we can all see. consume less, play more. im with you brother.

Tell it how it is Tang! Nice one!

jonb – you said what I tried too but better.

tang – live the life, dreams are for sleep time. sounds lovely

All – I love my life and I work long hours, travel at short notice and deal with loads of stress. Each to their own.

If you like what jonb said, that is the central theme and quoted in the “4-Hour Work Week”

If you like what jonb said, that is the central theme and quoted in the “4-Hour Work Week”

And as for Oz, I can’t think of the downside unless you go there, live in a city and replicate UK urban lifestyle. Maybe I should have said go to Queensland 😀

indeed WCA has reminded me to add, judge not others path either, but respect what they bring to the party, as it were.

jonb – that is ace, have copied it and will forward to my work obsessed business partner!

How funny, i have literally just wandered in from standing on the deck surveying the world and making the decision that having dealt with a shocker of a year, a terminally ill dad and lots of other stress – that work will always be there and that other priorities are much higher up the list. So its 4 days a week for me in 2009, i’ll hire someone else, missus is down to 4 days a week and we can both do what we enjoy. Some things will have to be scaled back but in the greater scheme of things, and having had some reality injected into my life recently, its not a rehearsal so best make these decisions now while I have a choice.

Once you’re dead/retired/redundant your workmates/bosses forget you in a week.

Just remember that, and suddenly all those long hours of dedication don’t seem worthwhile. You can’t have a life if you don’t enjoy/live it.

A lot of this work/life balance stuff just boils down to “how much money can you do without?”

Although I work many more hours now I’m self-employed – the fact that I don’t commute and don’t have a boss makes me feel much happier.

Probably something to do with having a baby daughter too. But if I have to work 70 hours a week and still manage to get six hours on the MTB I’ll feel some balance.