The best things in life …

Do you ever wonder to yourself …what’s it all about?

Life, love, work… everything …what really is it that we are all trying to achieve? Of late I have become aware of a trend whereby young (I say ‘young’ meaning ‘younger than me’) men with families just pack in their jobs and become house fathers.

This is often accompanied by a stated desire to ‘opt out of the rat race’ and perhaps the gaining of an allotment, growth of a beard and a slight smell of body odour….

Now most of the time when this is presented to me I make a sound of air being released from pressure – a sort of ‘pwaaah’ noise …a noise of contempt.

But – dear reader – who is it that is actually correct…? I ask you to consider – who is happier? The man who works every hour god sends and strives to better himself for financial gain, or, the man who says …no I do not want material things I want more from life …but …not shiny things …rather the experience of spending quality time with my children and seeing every moment of their development.

If I look back over my life (and honestly I very rarely do) the one thing I would have to say that I would have to change is to spend more time with my children. My two daughters are closest to their mum and quite rightly so – as it was her that spent every day with them during the formative years of their development.

Where was I…??? Well I was at work, morning, noon and night, 6 sometimes 7 days a week. But you cannot go back and re-live these moments, choices are made and time passes – quickly.

Who made me spend all these hours at work – well let’s be honest – it was me….

I am driven – I can’t just sit back and let things happen, I have to be in the driving seat…and I have to be driving beyond the speed limit with everything. I find nowadays unless I am under pressure I just don’t get the ‘thrill’ that I used to get from winning the project and making the money. I’ve grown immune to ‘normal’ conditions and only come to life when there is a threat …

My name is Mike Clough and I’m a workaholic….

Yet…there is a glimmer of hope…I have of late found a new enjoyment and it’s pretty much free of charge.

Allowing others to take on a challenge and seeing them succeed on their own merit has become one of my favorite pass times. Watching the pleasure that others gain from doing well has become my new drug of choice – and I’m hungry for more.

Certain members of the team at JKSL have become the butterflies that I have imagined and cast off the shackles of being caterpillars – and it’s just brilliant to watch. I won’t say that I’ve forced this new growth but have simply engineered situations that have allowed them to flourish…

So I’m going to ‘back off’ a little more – the beard has been grown, the allotment (maybe not), I do smell slightly of BO but this is down to being a bit more physically active (I’ve bought a ‘Fitbit’)….

I’m going to try and find out what life is all about before it’s too late….

Mike C