ARE WE NOT AS STRONG AS OUR PARENTS?

Why is it I constantly hear myself moaning about how hard it is to achieve and maintain a quality lifestyle in the UK without killing yourself doing so? All I want is to be able to maintain a beautiful home (a la Grand Designs), enjoy at least one long haul holiday per year with my family (excluding the weekends away with the girls which I’m happy to do every six months or so). Enjoy regular spending sprees for things I desire and may not necessary need. I think you get my drift right?

I don’t believe I EVER heard either of my parents complain about any aspect of their jobs, whilst they raised my brother, sister and I, so why is it different with me and my friends now? We’re all hardworking, like I mean, really hardworking – as per my parents, but again I say, they never use to moan. Well never in front of us kids. If my 1 year old daughter could speak now, she would run her mouth about how I moan about ‘how hard it all is working and maintaining a decent lifestyle in the UK’… I’d probably have to slap her face to shut her up. So I ask, what’s the difference from the days when our parents were on the daily grind and now? Or maybe there isn’t any difference and we’re just not as strong as our parents were back in the day?
I ask this question as I recently found myself blubbering on the train home from working at a client’s office, solely for the reason of me finding the day so tiring as well as depressing (Watching people commute to work , rushing like robots seriously depresses me. Try watching people tomorrow from when you arrive at your home train station and I’m sure you’ll know what I mean). Granted, I was ill with a chest infection, however it didn’t warrant a grown woman sobbing (I’m not lying, I had tears rolling down my face), on a packed train, whilst making the journey to my parents house to pick up the little miss. I suppose it also didn’t help that a journey which should have taken 1 hour and 15 minutes, ended up taking 2 hours 30 minutes, due to parts of the Northern Line being suspended. But still I ask ‘was this a reason to cry the way I did?’

When I arrived at my parents, I was greeted by my older brother, Mum and my daughter. My brother took one look at my face and said ‘what’s wrong sis’, to which I replied ‘I’m tired. I’m just so tired’ then preceded to cry again whilst propped up at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway. ‘Oh, I forgot I failed to mention earlier in this post this was only my SECOND day working in-house as a freelance consultant for this PR agency; (you know the agency I mentioned in my last post), so what the hell was going on with me! I can laugh about it now, but I tell you, had you’d seen me on the train or saw me at my parents house, I was inconsolable, the whole of my chin was wet with tears.

So back to the question, I don’t think it makes me weak having this mini ‘drama queen’ moment. I just think our parents were more tolerable back in the day with the BS life threw at them. I also think these two days in particular, took me back to a place where I don’t EVER care to be again. I think the most important lesson I learnt was that it made me realise how lucky I am to live the life I currently live. Being self employed comes with its own negatives; however after stepping back into my old world for only 48 hours, I know the positives out weight the negatives by far. For those two days I had been hit in the face with a reminder (which actually wasn’t at all harsh), of how my life ‘use’ to be. If that’s not enough motivation to get me refocused when things start looking a bit blurry (and believe me it gets like that sometimes), then I don’t know what is.

I know many people have responsibilities and are not in a position to quit their jobs in order to pursue their dreams, but how about you try to make ‘mini’ changes into shaping your life to what you ‘want it’ to be as well as to help make the ‘job’ more bearable if you haven’t already? Something one of my close friends said to me the other day ‘if you continue to live your life a particular way, then your path will continue to be the same’. Even though I feel fortunate in terms of my working life, I know there are probably other aspects of my life where I could benefit from reciting this sentence at least once a day, in order to get to exactly where I want to be. Watch this space, I’ll let you know when I get there.