My Awakening Part 2.

So as I was saying in my previous post at the age of 32 I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life.  But as quite often seems the case, life can take over your dreams and with the birth of our amazing daughter my main priority was obviously to provide for and look after my family. However there are so many more ways that you need to provide for your family other than just financially.

As I mentioned Tesco was not a career I chose, it was just the easy option, it paid well and I was quite good at it, however over the years it had been having a really negative impact on me and consequently those around me! It was affecting my health both mentally and physically and was turning me into someone I didn’t want to be!  I was always angry, struggled to have any empathy for anyone and had pretty much zero energy or motivation, not to mention the permanent heartburn and indigestion.  I’d been to the doctors a few times and even had blood tests etc. done to see if there was anything physically wrong with me and to be honest I think if I’d gone to the doctors one more time then words like depression and medication would probably have been mentioned, but that couldn’t possibly be me?  I mean things like stress and depression are something you read and hear about happening to other people, right?!………….WRONG!

Financial security although important is not all there is to life, I wanted to be a positive role model to my children, I didn’t want to be the angry man who hated his job and ruined his health over it, I wanted my children to see me loving my work, life and having the time and energy for them that money can’t buy!

There’s a lot of positive quotes out there about living life and living for you experiences not possessions etc. and the more I thought about it the more it made sense, if I was to be lying on my deathbed would I be thinking about Tesco? Hell no! I would be thinking about all the amazing and fun times spent with my family and all my other experiences in life like sunrise on Kilimanjaro with Phil, Martin, Charlotte, Tom, Kat and co.

So when I was off on paternity after the birth of our awesome little son, it was very evident to me that there was no way I could go back to Tesco! So I didn’t!  With the complete support of my amazing wife (that phrase will no doubt be a recurring theme in my blogs) I took a 2 year (i.e. permanent) career break from Tesco and got myself onto an outdoor instructor course based in stunning Donegal.

So within the space of 4 weeks I’d had a new baby boy, left behind an 18+yr career, moved house and country with my family, and effectively went back to school to learn a whole bunch of new but really cool stuff!

Scary? Yes!

Difficult decision?  Yes!

Totally worth it? Hell Yeah!