Here I was. Sitting in a camp chair nestled amongst the sand dunes with my 3 ½ year old on the last day of our holidays. It had been a very relaxing two weeks off away from the office. A big part of this was our annual family camping trip to North Stradbroke island. Pure bliss!
I love the one on one time with my kids & wife that this camping trip provides. We get back to nature, unwind and are able to fully connect.
Contemplating the exciting prospect of the year ahead, I turned to my daughter and sighed, “Ahhh, this is great. But in a few days I need to go back to work. That means I won’t be able to spend all day with you. Are you OK with this?”.
She excitedly replied, “Not really Daddy. But that is OK. I am looking forward to starting Blue Room at Kindy. After this it is only one more year and I go to school. I am growing up!”
Intrigued, I asked “Why are you so excited about school?”
“Because I get to meet new people and learn and do new things that I have never seen before!” she responded.
Seeing my daughter so excited about the unknown forced me to reflect. Why does this sense of excitement change when we become adults?
The vast majority of the population dread the prospect of returning to the work year. They see it as 8 hours a day, 5 days a week of the same old monotonous thing.
If this sort of narrative is playing out in your head, I challenge you to answer the question “Are you doing what you should be doing?”
Is your work just a means to an end?
Behaviorally, if you are doing something that you don’t like, it tends to create a vortex in your mind. This usually forces us to look for escapes. Doing things which try to compensate for this gap. Fancy cars, clothes, toys or maybe even food and drink. All these things ultimately involve spending money. Masking the true facts. That maybe you aren’t fulfilled and your life’s purpose isn’t being met.
The lesson here is, make it your mission to do something that you REALLY want to do.
Do something that gets you bouncing out of bed and excited each day. Something that totally and utterly consumes you. You go to sleep and wake up thinking about it. Financially, you will usually be better off (and a heck of a lot happier).
Regain that childhood sense of wonder and excitement about the unknown. The prospect of learning new things, pushing yourself and leaning into fear. Get out of the monotony of day to day existence.
You owe it to yourself. Life is too short not to.
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