“If I had my time over, the things I’d do differently, “ are words etched on my memory as they were said to me by my father when I was with him and the doctor told him there was no more they could do for him and it was palliative care going forward and time was short.
That was a life changing moment one if i’m honest I learned nothing from as I was working at 100 miles an hour meeting deadline after deadline, demand after demand.
I buried my father, spoke at his funeral and went back to work.
Looking back it was clear my father struggled as an alcoholic who had in his early career been a brilliant businessman, and had many offers to go work for large companies as an executive but he preferred to work for himself due to a bad experience with a boss in PYE in his early work life. Subsequently he had made bad choices and no choices which meant he had many of his personal dreams unfulfilled.
When I suffered mental exhaustion working 84 hours a week I read palative care nurse Bonnie Ware’s experience of dealing with people at end of life.
She says people grow a lot when faced with their own mortality. That made perfect sense given the words of my father.
As I found myself getting over mental exhaustion and making the conscious decisions to
1. To get my life in order
2. Get my priorities straight,
3. Deciding I would seek no more promotions, 4. Accept I was happy at my overall managerial level,
5. I would make a bigger effort to mentor and bring people with me to improve their promotional opportunities to fit a life they wish to choose for their future.
Bonnie Ware wrote the top 5 regrets people had at the end were.
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
I wish I had let myself be happier
You can have the career you dream of once you take the time out to really understand what you want from life.
Brian at bjkennomotivation can mentor and coach you to reach your goals contact Brian through bjkennomotivation. com
